Spanish school of the mid-20th century, following Italian models of the 18th century.
"Architectural Caprices".
Pair of oils on canvas.
Missing in a frame.
Measurements: 55 x 46 cm. c.u.; 63,5 x 54,5 cm (frames).
In this pair of "caprices", this landscape genre with Greco-Roman ruins is taken up again, a theme that reached its peak during Romanticism. In 18th-century Italian painting it developed in its own right, thanks to the large number of architectural remains preserved in the country. In these two canvases, following Italian models, imposing arcades or Greek stoas supported by slender fluted columns are covered with moss and blades of grass that tinge these remains with melancholy beauty. Captured under twilight that accentuates their lyricism, the figures of peasants wandering around the site are minimised against the sublimity of the landscape.
The taste for the artistic remains of the past, the widespread 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. It is a pictorial genre, moreover, that has its roots in the 17th century, in the veduta, not always topographical but sometimes extremely imaginative, of artists such as Canaletto and others.