Distant View of Rome with the Baths of Caracalla

This panoramic view of the baths of Caracalla, painted before the ruins were fully excavated, is probably one of a series of oil sketches executed soon after Bürkel's arrival in Rome in 1829 from Munich, where he had been studying. The foreground is rapidly sketched in with diluted oils, while the ruins in the middle ground are painted in greater detail, making them appear more sharply in focus.