LEAR, Edward (British, 1812-1888). The Tomb of Cecilia Metella on the Via Appia, Rome. ca. 1842.

LEAR, Edward (British, 1812-1888)The Tomb of Cecilia Metella on the Via Appia, RomeOil on canvasSigned "1842/Ed Lear"9" x 17 1/2" canvas, 18 1/2" x 26 1/4" framed Provenance: Painted for Captain and Miss Phipps Hornby of Shooters Hill, Kent; Miss Edith Jones, and thence by descent.   During the nineteenth century, artists and tourists alike flocked to Italy to observe the country's countless ruins and bask in its mythical golden sunlight. Edward Lear (1812-1888), author of books of nonsense, purveyor of limericks, and prolific creator of exquisite landscape art, captures both Italian wonders within these two marvelous paintings of the Roman environs. The first, The Tomb of Cecilia Metella on the Via Appia, Rome (1842), depicts the final resting place of the Roman Consul Creticus' daughter and member of the first Roman Triumvirate Crassus's son's wife. The tomb, whose occupant Cecilia Metella died in 50 B.C., is located on the Via Appia, the most important ancient Roman road connecting