Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2017 Site Specific: The power of place

Claude Lorrain and the Roman Campagna

Dr Lisa Beaven

15 & 16 February 2017

Lecture summary: For more than half a century Claude Lorrain drew and painted the Roman Campagna (the countryside around ). His example inspired generations of artists, particularly the French, to travel there and paint it. He thus legitimised the Roman Campagna as a subject for artists and yet there have been very few attempts to consider his paintings in relation to place. This lecture studies his landscape paintings in the context of the topography and environmental history of the Roman Campagna and the social conditions that existed there during the seventeenth century.

Slide list:

1. Claude Lorrain, Pastoral Landscape with the Ponte Molle (detail), 1645, oil on canvas 74 x 97 cm, Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery 2. Modern Map of . 3. Claude Lorrain, River Landscape with Tiburtine Temple at Tivoli, c. 1635, oil on canvas 38 x 53 cm, National Gallery of Victoria. 4. Claude Lorrain, Artist sketching with a second figure looking on, 1635-40, black chalk with dark brown wash on white paper, 214 x 321 mm, British Museum London. 5. Jan Asselijn, An Artist Working Outdoors, Black chalk, pen and black ink with brown wash on white paper, 187 x 327 mm, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin 6. Claude Lorrain, View of Tivoli, 1640-41, pen and brown ink with brown and red wash, 215 x 316 mm, The British Museum, London. 7.Gaspar Van Wittel, View of Tivoli, c. 1700, oil on canvas, 35.7 x 46.4 cm, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 8. Claude Lorrain, An Artist Drawing by a Waterfall, c. 1635, Black and red chalk, pen and brown ink, 264 x 357 mm, Teylers Museum, Haarlem. 9. Claude Lorrain, River Landscape with Tiburtine Temple at Tivoli, c. 1635, oil on canvas 38 x 53 cm, National Gallery of Victoria. 10. Claude Lorrain, Pastoral Landscape with the Temple of the Sibyl, 1644, Musée des Beaux Arts, Grenoble. 11. Giacomo Ameti, Map of (detail), 1693. 12. Claude Lorrain, Drawing of the Valley, 1635-40, pen and brown ink, brown wash, 12.7 x 19.1 cm, British Museum 13. Claude Lorrain, Ponte Molle, Pen, brown wash, dark grey wash, 186 x 311 mm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa 14. Giacomo Ameti, Map of Lazio (detail), 1693. 15. Claude Lorrain, View of Acqua Acetosa, chalk and wash, 20.2 x 31.2 cm, 1662, present whereabouts unknown. 16. Giacomo Ameti, Map of Lazio (detail), 1693. 17. Claude Lorrain, View of The Red Rocks near La Crescenza, Pen, shades of brown wash, 175 x 242 mm, 1663, Paris, Musée du Louvre. 18. Peter Paul Mackey, Via Flaminia and adjacent regions, cliff above Acquatraversa at Due Ponti, Gelatin silver photographic print, 8 x 110 mm, British School at Rome Library 19. Claude Lorrain, View of La Crescenza, 1648-50, oil on canvas, 38.7 x 58.1 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 20. Anon., Drawing of La Crescenza, location unknown. 21. Claude Lorrain, View of La Crescenza, 1640-45, black chalk with light brown wash, 200 x 302 mm, Teylers Museum, Haarlem.

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22. Claude Lorrain, View of La Crescenza, Pen, brown wash, 16.5 x 27.6 cm, British Museum, 1662 and Claude Lorrain, View from La Crescenza, Pen, brown wash, 16.4 x 17.5 cm, British Museum, 1662. 23. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, La Crescenza, 1826, oil on canvas, 18.7 x 33.3 cm, Private collection. 24. Claude Lorrain, Flock of Sheep in the Campagna, 1656, oil on canvas, 35 x 44.5 cm, Gemäldegalerie der Academie der bilden den Kunste, Vienna. 25. Claude Lorrain, Drawing of a Tree in the Vigna Madama, c. 1638, pen and brown ink, brown wash, over graphite, 33 x 22.4 cm, British Museum. 26. Giovanni Battista Cingolani della Pergola, Map of the Campagna (detail), 1704. 27. Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Goatherd and Goats, c. 1636-7, oil on canvas, 52 x 42 cm, National Gallery of London. 28. Giacomo Ameti, Map of Lazio (detail), 1693 29. Giovanni Battista Cingolani della Pergola, Map of the Campagna (detail), 1704. 30. Jan Miel, Monk distributing soup to the poor, oil on canvas, whereabouts unknown. 31. Giacomo Ameti, Map of Lazio (detail of Ostia), 1693. 32. Photograph of the Ponte Rotto, Rome 33. Herman Van Swanevelt, Via Flaminia. Etching, 11.5 x 17.9 cm, British Museum 34. Photograph of the ruins of Galeria 35. Photograph of Domenichino Chapel, Abbey of Grottaferrata. 36. Claude Lorrain, Imaginary View from Tivoli, LV 67, oil on copper, 1642, 21.6 x 32.2 cm, Courtauld Museum of art. 37. Claude Lorrain, Pastoral Landscape with the Ponte Molle (detail), 1645, oil on canvas 74 x 97 cm, Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery. 38. Anon. (French School), Lunch in the Campagna, 1861, whereabouts unknown. 39. Photograph: Detail of an alms plaque on the exterior facade of the church of S. Maria dell'Orazione e Morte, Rome. 40. Photograph of the church of S. Maria dell'Orazione e Morte, Rome. 41. Photograph: alms plaques on the exterior of the church of S. Maria dell'Orazione e Morte, Rome. 42. Claude Lorrain, ‘Casale’, 1640-45, black chalk with brown wash and pen and brown ink,’11.9 x 18 cm, British Museum. 43. Claude Lorrain, Panoramic View of the Roman Campagna from Tivoli, 1644-45, pen and brown ink with brown wash and white heightening on blue paper, 195 x 260 mm, The British Museum. 44. Claude Lorrain, View of La Crescenza, 1648-50, oil on canvas, 38.7 x 58.1 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 45. Claude Lorrain, View of La Crescenza, pen and ink on paper, c. 1648-9, British Museum. 46. Crypt of S. Maria dell'Orazione e Morte, showing the bones of the corpses collected from the city and the Campagna.

Reference:

The literature on Claude Lorrain is large. The list below is just a selection. Beaven, L., 'Claude Lorrain and La Crescenza: The Tiber Valley in the Seventeenth Century', in The Site of Rome, David Marshall (ed.), Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, pp. 109-139. Kitson, M., Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis, London: British Museum, 1978. Lagerhöf, M., Ideal landscape: Annibale Carracci, Nicolas Poussin, and Claude Lorrain, New Haven, 1990. Langdon, H., Claude Lorrain, Oxford, 1989. Rand, R., Claude Lorrain: the painter as draughtsman, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007. Röthlisberger, M., Claude Lorrain: the paintings, London: Zwemmer, 1961. Röthlisberger, M., Claude Lorrain: the drawings, 2 vols., Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968. Sonnabend, M. and J. Whiteley (with C. Rümelin), Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2011. Whiteley, J. J. L, Claude Lorrain: drawings from the collections of the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum, London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1998.

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/site-specific/