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Jan Asselijn was one of a group of Dutch artists who travelled to Italy and was influenced by the warm light of the countryside around Rome. Trained in Amsterdam, Asselijn spent several years in Rome during the late 1630s and early 1640s. He made three drawings of this twelfth-century Roman church, viewed from the east, including the houses and gardens which actually bordered the alley to the right. Here he shows it on an exaggerated scale in an imaginary river landscape, bathed in warm Italianate light. In reality the church was surrounded by gardens and houses in the centre of Rome.