The painting, with a view of the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine from the Palatine Hill, was long attributed to Hackert. Today it is assigned to his circle. Views of Rome’s most important antique buildings were numerous and popular. Their clientele consisted not least of precisely the type of travellers who can be seen in the foreground here: young men, often from the nobility, on their Grand Tour, an educational journey that brought them unavoidably to Italy and especially to Rome.