Painted during the Regency era it features surviving buildings from Ancient Rome seen in the afternoon light.

In the event the painting Turner produced was too large for the space that Soane had set aside in his cramped, already overfilled house.

Art historian Anthony Bailey wrote "If Soane had been sensible, he would have cleared out some of the clutter in his house in order to hang a glowing masterpiece".

[2] When it was publicly displayed at the Royal Academy's 1826 Summer Exhibition at Somerset House reviewers criticised the overuse of yellow paint in the composition.

This was part of a trend in Turner's paintings of the era which was dubbed his "yellow fever" by one critic.