Spanish school; last third of the eighteenth century

Spanish school; last third of the 18th century.
"Landscape".
Oil on canvas glued to board.
Size: 17 x 14,5 cm.
One of the most radical aspects of the Romantic painting was the attempt to substitute the big canvases of historical or religious subject for the landscape. They wanted the pure landscape, almost without figures or totally devoid of them, to attain the heroic significance of history painting. They were based on the idea that human feeling and nature should be complementary, one reflected in the other. In other words, landscape should arouse emotion and convey ideas. Thus, landscape painters such as the author of this painting tried to express their feelings through the landscape, rather than imitating it. Romantic landscape had two main aspects: the dramatic, with its turbulent and fantastic views, and the naturalistic, which emphasised images of a peaceful and serene nature, as in this case. It is this second conception that we see embodied in the present work; the painter seeks to communicate a religious reverence for the landscape, nature in its fullness, free from the industrial elements of modern life. Indeed, the artist's use of light here conveys a dreamlike atmosphere, inviting the viewer to meditate and contemplate himself in the landscape. However, the Romantic landscape is made up of very different types of manifestations that are not comparable; it does not affect all national schools equally, and remains more faithful to tradition in schools such as the French and Dutch. Thus, in this canvas we do not find the grandiose scenographies of the British and Germans, the rugged mountains or the monumental Gothic ruins. On the contrary, it is a landscape centred on the foreground, a space enclosed in the background by the city. The more typical elements of the Romantic landscape, such as the hostile climate or the Gothic ruins, are absent. Likewise, the typical Romantic perspective is used, with a very marked abyss, complemented by a slight confusion of points of view. Despite these local differences, despite this romanticism contained in the form, we nevertheless find a clearly poetic content, which goes beyond the simple representation of nature to depict nature as a reflection of the author's feelings.