Our painting is a rare example of a signed and dated work by Antonio Marinoni. The date on the canvas, '1829', refers to the peak of the Belluno-born artist’s success during his years in Rome.

The Lake Garden at Villa Borghese has always been one of the most beloved views for Romantic landscape painters of the late 18th century and the early decades of the 19th century.
On the small island at the center of the lake stands the Temple of Aesculapius, built by the Roman architect Antonio Asprucci between 1785 and 1787 as part of the modernization of the Villa commissioned by prince Marcantonio Borghese.

The temple is inspired by classical models: from the pronaos, marked by four fluted Doric columns, one enters the cella, open at the rear and on both sides and dominated by a colossal statue of Aesculapius, the god of medicine, restored around 1785 by Vincenzo Pacetti (1746-1820), who also created much of the temple's decorative elements.

In Marinoni's composition, the temple's pronaos is flanked by a willow tree and reflected in the water under the warm light of sunset. The small island is connected to the mainland by a wooden bridge. On the left, partially hidden by the vegetation, a small waterfall - still in existence today, though now dry - feeds the waters of the lake.

The painting is rendered in the warm and gentle tones of a Roman sunset and executed with glazes, a technique employed by Marinoni, which he described in his notebooks as a way to "clarify a bluish atmosphere" and to "soften the colors and achieve greater subtlety."

In the inventory compiled upon Marinoni's death, several of the 240 paintings he designated to the National Consortium for the Restructuring of the Public Debt depict subjects from Villa Borghese, a place the artist cherished and often visited (see Antonio Marinoni 1796-1871, Bassano del Grappa, 1996-1997, Electa catalog)