View of Rome with Colosseum

Van Nieulandt left Amsterdam for Rome when he was around seventeen years old, traveling to the Eternal City to live and train with his uncle Willem van Nieulandt I. He subsequently apprenticed to Paul Bril (1554-1626) and worked in Rome for a total of two or three years. The younger Van Nieulandt was preoccupied by precision when rendering architectural structures, a characteristic in evidence in the present sheet, which shows ancient ruins, fantastical reconstructions and medieval buildings linked in close physical proximity on the page. It is possible that the present sheet was produced as a sketch for engraving. Van Nieulandt made approximately 115 prints of Roman townscapes and ruins that were based on his drawings or those given to him by other artists, including his uncle and Bril.