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| Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Ruins of the Claudian Aqueduct ca. 1545-50 drawing British Museum |
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| Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Block of ruined masonry with arched openings ca. 1545-50 drawing British Museum |
Hendrick van Cleve (ca. 1525-ca. 1595) was a Flemish artist from an extensive family of artists. He left Antwerp in the mid-1540s and traveled through Italy to enrich his visual experience of antiquity. In his day this was still a fairly difficult, dangerous and unusual undertaking for a northern artist. Two of Van Cleve's original sketchbook drawings appear above, but the major fruit of this journey did not appear until forty years later. In 1585 the Antwerp publisher and print seller Philips Galle (1537-1612) issued Ruinarum Varii Prospectus, a portfolio with engraved views cut in his workshop, mainly of Roman ruins and monuments. The title page (directly below) credits the original designs to Hendrick van Cleve (who was sixty years old by this time), and they must have been based on drawings he had made in the 1540s.
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Milvian Bridge, with antique figures and ruins 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Colosseum 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Colosseum 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Colosseum 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Colosseum 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Ruins of the Baths of Diocletian 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Ruins of the Baths of Caracalla 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Ruins on the Palatine Hill 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Forum Boarium 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Tivoli - Ruins of the Villa of Hadrian 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Pantheon 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
The ancient Roman Pantheon (directly above) is shown with a row of modern buildings abutting the grand portico on the right. In other late 16th-century and 17th-century views, these have already been removed. Below, Van Cleve's view of the Belvedere Courtyard (designed by Bramante earlier in the century) and some of its gardens at the Vatican. The Pope's collection of antique sculpture was displayed in the enclosure on the left, with the famous Belvedere Torso recognizable among them.
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| Philips Galle workshop after Hendrick van Cleve Rome - Belvedere Courtyard of the Vatican 1585 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |