Spiridone Roma

Spiridione Roma (1737–1781) was an Italian painter, best known for his work in England.

Biography

He was born in Corfu; then a territory of the Republic of Venice. Little is written about his biography and training. He is best known for an allegorical ceiling piece, The East Offering its Riches to Britannia (1778), commissioned by the East India Company for the Revenue Committee Room in the East India House in London. The painting now generally represents the era's panegyric to Britain's imperial and colonialist domination; it is presently held in the British Library in London. Other works in British National Trust collections include An Illusionistic Gothic Patron's Pew, in the Extension of the Chapel (c.1769/1771).