This painting shows the artist in the role of
Grand tourist with the
Colosseum in the background. It is signed and dated lower center
MARTYN VAN HEMSKER AO AETATUS SUA LV 1553. It shows the artist twice; once in bust form looking at the viewer as if to say "Behold the wonders of Rome!" and again as an artist sketching the
Colosseum. Heemskerck painted it upon his arrival in Italy whereupon it came into the collection of
Anton Perrenot de Granvella (d. 1586). Unlike what the arrangement would have the observer believe, this was not painted 'en plein air' because all paintings were created in the studio until well into the 18th century. The image of the Colosseum has been identified with an undated sketch currently in Berlin that itself was a model for
Pieter Jansz. Saenredam for his 1631 painting. Saenredam is known to have had in his possession many sketches by Heemskerck that he used as models. A description of the sketches of ruins that Heemskerck made while in Rome was documented by
Karel van Mander in his
Schilder-boeck, who mentioned the patronage of a Cardinal (presumably Cardinal Granvelle). Many of these were later engraved and published by
Philips Galle in 1569 as the
Clades series, or
Inventiones Heemskerkianiae Ex Utroque Testamento. File:Maarten van Heemskerck - Rome, the Colosseum.jpg|
Rome, the Colosseum, by Maarten van Heemskerck File:Philips Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck - Inventiones Heemskerkianiae Ex Utroque Testamento RP-P-OB-5929.jpg|
Inventiones Heemskerkianiae Ex Utroque Testamento, by Galle, 1569 File:Saenredam Colosseum.JPG|
Colosseum by Saenredam, 1631 ==References==