Johann Friedrich Städel had decorated his prestigious reception room on the ground floor with various Venetian cityscapes – here, at least, three paintings of the lagoon city could be found. They flanked the room’s most important painting, Pompeo Batoni’s “Allegory of the Arts” of 1740. Five female figures personify (antique) Poetry’s dialogue with Sculpture and Painting, depicted in the foreground, as well as with Music and Geometry, representing harmony and proportion. The study of Antiquity was also the guiding principle of painters such as François Gérard and Natale Schiavoni, active during the first half of the nineteenth century. The inclusion of their work in this room represented the continuity of Italian and French painting.