Johan Thomas Lundbye’s watercolour Piazza Barberini is dated 1 February 1846. Lundbye had arrived in Rome on 14 July 1845 and had originally lived with his friends, the sculptor J.A. Jerichau and the painter Thorald Læssøe. But as these artists did not share Lundbye’s National Romantic ideas and the atmosphere between them was therefore not as good as it might have been, he chose to move “… to a pleasant residence in Piazza Barberini, where from my windows I have a view of many delightful things in the square, such as peasants, oxen, asses etc.” (Rejsedagbøger (Diaries from My Travels) 1976, p. 148). The museum’s purchase of the drawing at an auction in 1963 was due to the fact that it portrays Thorvaldsen’s close surroundings in Rome. The little alleyway just behind Bernini’s splendid Triton Fountain, interrupting the series of façades backing the square, is the Vicola delle Colonette, where Thorvaldsen’s small studios were situated on the right hand side.
