Spanish or Italian school of the 18th century.

Spanish or Italian school of the 18th century.
‘Caprice’.
Oil on canvas. Re-drawn.
It presents restorations.
Measurements: 104 x 168 cm.

At the height of the first romanticism, the landscapes with ruins like the one we show are popular in Italy. The classical ruin appears here sublimated by being covered with moss and showing its fragmentary fragility. The monumentality of Roman architecture is enhanced by the smallness of the figures. They form idle or working groups. They belong to an undefined period, which can be deduced from the ambiguous costumes. The incidence of the clear light on the ancient stone, which falls on the high reliefs, modulates the pilasters, arches and domes under a blue sky.

The taste for the artistic remains of the past, the widespread travels of writers and artists in search of monuments and works of art that would serve as a source of inspiration, and the discovery of important ancient remains such as those of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum undoubtedly contributed to the success of the genre. It is a pictorial genre, moreover, which has its roots in the 17th century, in the veduta, not always topographical, but sometimes extremely imaginative.