Johann Wilhelm Baur

In 1636 a young miniaturist from Strasbourg painted the Villa Borghese in tempera on a sheet of parchment about 30 by 45 centimetres. The villa, built for Cardinal Scipione Borghese on the edge of Rome, was then only about two decades old, and Johann Wilhelm Baur showed its bright facade with visitors strolling and carriages drawn up in the square in front. It may have been ordered by Prince Marcantonio Borghese, the cardinal's heir, and it has been in the collection since at least 1693.

Baur had trained in Strasbourg under Friedrich Brentel, a miniature painter, and reached Italy in the early 1630s. In Rome and Naples he made his name with small, exact views of gardens, palaces and squares crowded with figures in the dress of many nations. In Rome he shared lodgings with the Czech painter Karel Škréta. In 1637 he moved to Vienna, where he etched 151 illustrations to Ovid's Metamorphoses, a series still being reprinted in 1703. He died suddenly in Vienna while working on a commission for Emperor Ferdinand III.