View of the Port of Ripa Grande, Caspar van Wittel

View of the Port of Ripa Grande, Caspar van Wittel (1690)

Here the Tiber is represented in the end portion of its course within the city: in the foreground are the populated via Marmorata that runs along the Aventine Hill and the ruins of Rome, including the Temple of Hercules and that of Portunus, next to the harbour on the Tiber. The fulcrum of the composition is the port of Ripa Grande, recognizable by the ramps and the Customs building, beside the garden and the Pamphilj mansion, both destroyed for the construction of the college of San Michele and the embankment of the Tiber. In the foreground, the artist depicts the activities related to river operations, berthing and unloading of goods. A topographically correct record, as evidenced by comparison with the maps of the city from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the landscape can be singled out as one of the works of greatest investment by the artist.