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A hotel as an art gallery
The Rome painting collection in the Hotel Victoria
Rome is known as the Eternal City – and quite rightly so, as no other city has such a high density
of architectural testimonies to the past two and a half millennia. Many artists from across
Europe have painted this unique urban landscape. Around 500 of these paintings are hanging on
all storeys of the Hotel Victoria.
Who wants to stay "just anywhere" when visiting Rome? No-one! We want to breathe in
the atmosphere of the Eternal City and live in close proximity to what has lent Rome its
unique title. This is possible in two ways – in the Hotel Victoria. Firstly the hotel is
located directly next to the wonderful example of ancient Roman urban architecture, the
Aurelian Wall from the third century. Secondly, the atmosphere of the Eternal City
pervades the entire interior of the hotel. The walls in the salons, in the restaurant, in all
corridors and rooms are decorated with views of the urban Roman landscape.
Visitors to the "Victoria" not only benefit from its central location near Rome's squares
and parks, churches and palaces. They can also get to know other important cultural and
historical aspects of the city "at home" at their own leisure - Rome as a centre of
European painting from the 17th to the 19th century. During the Renaissance and
Baroque periods, religious themes dominated art in the city of churches. However, at the
end of the 17th century the city became a popular destination for artists from other
countries who were not looking for religious scenes. In fact the interest in Ancient Rome
and its many intact monuments in the city itself meant that the number of people
interested in purchasing paintings of such motifs was on the steady increase. At the
same time it was possible to satisfy the burgeoning longing for the strange and foreign of
the time by depicting scenes from south, which had such exotic appeal.
Landscape painting was another type of art that was also discovered in Rome at the
time, especially by the French. They were also the first artists that dedicated their time
and work to the light of the southern regions. The French and also German, Flemish and
Italian artists who preferred depicting the ruins and different types of people, then
created views that did not actually exist, and their paintings almost only showed
idealised scenes of shepherds with their flocks surrounded by Roman ruins. This
collection, that was assembled by the art connoisseur and collector Rolf H. Wirth,
grandson of the hotel founder and now its director, starts with a significant group of
these early paintings and then follows the subsequent development of Roman painting.
In the 18th century Rome was an important stage on the "Grand Tour" of young
aristocrats to Italy from all over Europe. Although the Grand Tour was initially a form of
entertainment, it soon became an educational trip that often lasted many years, mainly
centred on Rome and Naples and their ancient edifices.
The sophisticated and very rich travellers of the time, who normally only came to Italy
once in their lifetimes, wanted to show everyone at home what they had seen and take
souvenirs with them. They were looking for realistic depictions of the places they had
visited or that had impressed them most, and were prepared to pay large sums of money
for these. For this reason the artists in Rome increasingly become so-called "vedudista" landscape painters. They mainly painted precise views of monuments and landscapes
that were no longer idealistic, but realistic. Until the end of the 18th century the subjects
of the paintings were often randomly put together to create an overall view that did not
actually exist, but that depicted various objects in one painting to remind the travellers
of where they had been. Such a painting is called a "capriccio" – and there are several
wonderful examples of these at the "Victoria".
This lucrative business attracted increasing numbers of artists to Rome from across
Europe, and at the end of the 18th century there were apparently around 170 foreign
artists living in Rome. The many artists, the popular subjects and the wild, dramatic
surrounding landscape that played an important role in Romanticism, a movement that
was evolving at the time, meant that Rome was the preferred destination of all young
painters at around the middle of the 19th century. Another main attraction was
naturally also the prospect of financial independence.
Most artists had to focus fully on the vedute. Others who could afford to paint for their
own pleasure and not just to survive started for the first time to paint "as nature
intended" – a revolutionary idea that was to have far-reaching effects on the future of
art. While some only painted "intimate landscapes", as time progressed the vedutistas
included elements of nature into their views, incorporating more trees and other plants.
The warm southern light also gained in importance. A large number of these romantic
vedute of Rome and Tivoli can be viewed at the "Victoria". They were mainly painted by
German, Danish and Swiss artists. As these large paintings were already very expensive
at the time, and in the 19th century increasing number of visitors came to Rome who did
not have the tremendous financial resources of the aristocrats of the 18th century, more
vedute were created as outline drawings and lithographs. They were then coloured, but
could still be produced in series. The Wirth collection contains several hundreds of these
from this period that are now very much in demand.
In the 1860s the "Liberation Wars" that ultimately led to the unification of Italy also
reached the south. As a result travellers stayed away and there was hardly any work left
for the artists in Rome. In addition the advent of photography meant that the demand for
vedute dropped dramatically. Rome therefore became unattractive to young artists who
preferred to settle in Munich and Paris for further training and to develop their skills.
After the large-scale but empathic renovation of the hotel in the new millennium, the
Roman urban scenes and landscape paintings of the surrounding area have now found a
home in the right place. While staying at the Victoria, visitors to Rome can refresh their
impressions of the day with the paintings of the city and its environs that cover the walls
of the hotel, and at the same time immerse themselves in a period of history in which
only the chosen few were able to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Eternal City. In
today's world in which images appear and are deleted at the touch of a button, the views
of Rome in the Hotel Victoria gain a new quality – they make time stand still.