This painting is one of a unique group of five large upright views of Rome, depicting the major sights of the ancient city (RCIN 401002, RCIN 400700, RCIN 400713, RCIN 400524, RCIN 400714). Unusually for Canaletto, all the works are signed and dated prominently in the foreground. It is thought that the paintings formed a special commission for Canaletto's great friend and patron Joseph Smith, British Consul in Venice, who sold his outstanding group of paintings, prints and drawings to George III. Their tall narrow format suggests that the paintings were originally designed for a specific location, probably decorating a room within Smith's palace on the Grand Canal, however the cycle does not fall into an obvious arrangement. Acquired by George III in 1762, the paintings were hung in English frames in the Entrance Hall of Buckingham House, alongside the Venetian views.

This painting depicts the Arch of Septimius Severus, which stands in the Roman Forum at the foot of the Capitoline Hill and at the west end of the Via Sacra, a short distance from the Temple of Saturn. On the extreme right is Pietro da Cortona's seventeenth-century façade of Santi Martina e Luca. As in the other paintings in this series, Canaletto's lighting dramatises the scene with a strong shadow cast by Santi Martina e Luca across the arch. The bas reliefs of the arch, in reality partially illegible, have been 'restored' by Canaletto. Among the figures is a brightly dressed group on the right: three gentlemen admire the arch, accompanied by their guide and a figure in exotic livery. 

The painting is based on a drawing in the British Museum album of c.1720, but transformed into a vertical view by excluding the Palazzo Senatorio on the left and reducing Santi Martina e Luca to a sliver on the right. Canaletto copied the inscription from a print by Antoine Desgodets. He used the drawing for another painting of the same format (Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio) with no more than a cursory indication of the inscription and reliefs. 

Signed on a stone extreme right foreground: ANT. CANAL FECIT / ANNO MDCCXLII

Adapted from Canaletto & the Art of Venice, London, 2017.