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As well as working as a topographical artist, Richards was much-admired theatre scene painter. This work, in the manner of the Roman painter Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765), may have been a design for a theatre backdrop. On the right is the arch of Titus, erected in 81AD to commemorate the capture of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus. The seven-branched candlestick taken from the Temple can be seen on the relief of the arch. In the middle is the Coliseum and to the left the Temple of Castor and Pollux, originally dedicated in 484BC to the legendary brothers of Helen of Troy.