Courtyard of an Inn with Classical Ruins

Description The 17th-century preference for naturalism led to the popularity of scenes of everyday life filled with mundane actions, such as people talking and drinking. Codazzi specialized in painting outdoor settings with villages or ancient ruins but not in painting figures. In this courtyard scene, Micco Spadaro, with whom Codazzi collaborated, painted the figures, as that was his specialty. The cracked plaster of the walls of the inn suggests the passage of time, as does the presence of the majestic, ancient Roman portico on the right. For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 340, p. 464.

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 388, as Charles Vercelli]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] Monogram on the stone in the foreground, near the bush: V C

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902