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The young Jan Gossart, active in Antwerp, accompanied Philip of Burgundy, Admiral of Zeeland and future Bishop of Utrecht, on a diplomatic mission to Pope Julius II in Rome. The party arrived in Rome in January 1509 where Gossart spent at least seven months. At his patron's direction, Gossart studied ancient Rome and contemporary art, including Michelangelo's newly painted Adam and Eve for the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Gossart's depiction of the Colosseum records the Roman amphitheatre's grandeur and ruinous state. In the upper right the artist noted that he made the 'portrait' of the building with his own hand in Rome. He signed it Mabuseus, the Latin form of his birth town, rather than Gossart, a conceit that he continued for the rest of his career. Although the building's perspective is awkward, its application of the classical architectural orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite columns) on the west wall on the left is correct.
This drawing is Gossart's only known study after antique architecture to have come down to us. It is remarkably detailed, he recorded the vegetation growing from the ruin, as well as the hillocks that seem to engulf the amphitheatre like waves.
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