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Frontal view of the Champs-Elysées or l’île des Bienheureux. The drawing is in landscape format. It is framed in ink. Traces of graphite are visible in the margins. Inscriptions appear on the reverse.
In mythology, this is a place of rest after death. This paradisiacal place is a lush, green garden. In the foreground is a pond. The garden develops in the background, behind a parapet. Fruit trees, flowers and birds can be seen. A fountain stands in the center of the drawing, in front of a tree around which a snake coils.
Most of the drawing was inspired by the north wall of the Villa of Livia in Prima Porta, the central tree with the snake is taken from the decorations of the House of the Orchard in Pompeii, and the fountain comes from the Villa of Poppea in Oplontis.
It was created for the exhibition at the Musée Gallo-Romain in Lyon in 2009-2010.