In addition to being Scotland’s most distinguished portrait painter, Allan Ramsay had serious antiquarian interests. These came to the fore in his second Italian visit of 1754-7, when he began his long quest for the lost villa of the ancient Roman poet and satirist Horace. At this time, he also produced a series of studies of ruined Roman buildings. Among them was this study of the Temple of the Sibyl, produced during a three-week excursion to Tivoli, north east of Rome. His sensitive rendition of light and shade convincingly evokes the form of the romantically ruined and overgrown building.