European school, early 19th century.

European school, early 19th century.
"Ruins under the moonlight".
Oil on canvas.
Relined.
Measurements: 81 x 60 cm; 90 x 69 cm (frame).

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, romanticism was beginning to decline. However, the strength of that movement never died out, so that especially at the beginning of the century many European painters continued to claim the emotional potential of the ruins and the "caprices", as the popular genre of Italian reinvention of Greco-Roman architecture was called. The painting in question is situated in a period of transition, in which romanticism reinvents itself by pushing its expressive possibilities to the extreme. The full moon gives off a cold light that models the tall Corinthian columns and accentuates the drama of the moss-covered arches through intense hallmarks of light. A group of people (the figures are dwarfed by the architectural monumentality) have lit a bonfire, so that the warm light of the fire offers a studied counterpoint to the silver light of the sky.

The taste for the artistic vestiges of the past, the generalization of travel by 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.