Christoph Heinrich Kniep

Christoph Heinrich Kniep, who initially worked as a portrait artist, travelled to Rome in 1781 on a scholarship and joined the circle around Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein. Within the German-Roman circle, Kniep increasingly developed into a veduta and landscape draughtsman and moved to Naples in 1785. His friends Tischbein and Hackert, whom he had known from Rome, also gradually settled in Naples. There he also met Goethe. Tischbein, who was no longer able to undertake the trip to Sicily planned jointly with Goethe, suggested Kniep as his replacement for this journey. The so-called ‘Villa of Maecenas’ in Tivoli is an ancient Roman ruin dating from the 1st century BC, which was often mistakenly attributed to Horace’s patron. In fact, it is the sanctuary of Hercules Victor, a vast complex considered one of the most significant structures of Roman architecture. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the complex was often inscribed as the Villa of Maecenas and was a popular subject for artists. In the correspondence between Goethe and Kniep, a motif of the ‘Villa of Maecenas’ is mentioned in connection with the commissions arranged by Goethe.