When we picture the Rome, what first comes to mind? Images of the Colosseum and the Pantheon, caesars and centurions and politicians, civilization and innovation. But only in the late 1800s was the state of Rome grafted into the new Italian kingdom. For centuries, Rome and the land surrounding it left its ancient glory behind and progressed through time. The low-lying land just outside of Rome, known as the Roman Campagna, was owned and kept in its natural state by many of the noble families of Rome. This land became an artistic obsession for many painters, especially in western Europe and in the United States. The idea of a land with so much history with beautiful landscapes attracted artists who developed a new style that was not previously accepted as serious painting.
Claude Lorrain was one of the first painters to focus on the Roman Campagna. As a result of the Renaissance, most painting of the day, especially in Rome, was focused on the classical depiction of mythic or religious scenes, not uninhabited landscapes or still life. In that way, Lorrain was a bit of a revolutionary. He helped begin and develop the landscape as a serious style of painting that became increasingly popular in the 19th century in the Romantic period. While each of these pieces come from different artists with different backgrounds, they all are making a similar argument: the struggle for dominance between man and nature will be won by nature, and only when man complements nature will there be beauty and harmony. What better place to depict that than the countryside surrounding one of history’s most prominent megacities?
Pastoral Landscape: The Roman Campagna, Claude Lorrain, 1639, oil on canvas, 65.181.12
This landscape is one of Claude Lorrain’s earliest depictions of the Roman Campagna. Lorrain was born in France and moved to Rome to train as a painter, where the Campagna became his passion. In this landscape, the Pastoral ideal of the landscape is married with the baroque Roman villas of the 17th century. Despite the prominence of the villa and the proximity of civilization, here are very few people in the painting: the boat paddlers and the herdsman making music. The contrast between intense light in the background and the shadow in the foreground is characteristic of Claude’s landscapes, as is the building to the left, similar to many still visible in the Roman Campagna. The green, light area is the area untouched by man, while the villa is blocking the light into the wooded area.
A view of the Roman Campagna from Tivoli, Claude Lorrain, 1644-1645, oil on canvas, Royal Collection (Buckingham Palace), London, UK
Lorrain painted this landscape a few years after the last Pastoral landscape. In this one, there are three houses and towers, but only one of them prominently stands out from the landscape. Once again, Lorrain depicts a scene of nature where man has built alongside nature, not in spite of nature. Man’s fingerprint blends in with the natural look, so that the natural world gets to tell the story. When man complements nature, rather than when he dominates nature, is when beauty and harmony are preserved.
Aqueducts in the Roman Campagna, Camille Corot, 1826-1828, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, US
Camille Corot, like Lorrain, was born in France but sent to Rome to study painting. In this landscape, he depicts a road through fields alongside the ruins of an ancient aqueduct. The aqueduct was one of the most important innovations of the Roman Empire, but over time, nature has weathered down man’s finest achievements. The road winds to follow where nature allows it, and so it has remained. Left to itself, nature will always be there, but it will slowly corrode man’s contributions.
View of the Ponte Nomentano (Roman Campagna), Pierre-Nicolas Brisset, 1837, oil on paper, laid onto canvas, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Pierre-Nicolas Brisset was another French painter drawn to the Roman Campagna by its historical ruins. The Ponte Nomentano was partially destroyed and rebuilt at least twice in its history during Roman conflicts. In this view, the castle-style structure has been worn down, especially toward the top, and the base is overgrown with vegetation. Again, man’s work, which for a time dominated nature, is being overcome by nature. Uninhabited rolling hills surround the bridge, only broken by a small house just across the river.
Roman Campagna, Thomas Cole, 1843, oil on canvas, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, US
Thomas Cole was an American landscape painter who painted the ruins of aqueducts in the Roman countryside on his Grand Tour of Europe. Cole’s landscapes, such as The Course of Empire, are famous for their promotion of the Pastoral ideal, and this is yet again found in Roman Campagna. The aqueduct ruins are contrasted with the splendor of the mountains and the sky. What once was a place of the one of the highest Roman engineering feats is now a place for grazing. The technology that made city life possible has become overgrown and broken down, but the animals and the herdsman have made it a pasture. The echoes of ancient Rome are felt as we see the mountain in the background that has watched them being built and has also seen them fall.
The Roman Campagna, John Gadsby Chapman, 1864, oil on canvas, 67.54
John Gadsby Chapman was an accomplished American painter who moved to Rome later in his life. This painting is the only work of art in this exhibition that does not contain color. Still, Chapman captures the vast expanse of the hills and valleys and the impact of nature on the people who enter into it. In the foreground is an overgrown and crumbling stone structure upon which a herdsman rests and oversees his flock. The ominous clouds and the wind show the aggressive and unstoppable force of nature. There is civilization that has appeared to survive in the background, but it does not change the landscape. The structures in the background maintain the natural lines already seen. Nature has proved the dominant victor yet again.
Harvest on the Roman Campagna, John Gadsby Chapman, 1868, oil on canvas, Cleveland Museum of Art
Chapman provides an interesting contrast to the empty landscapes that we have seen so far. In this landscape, a number of laborers are harvesting crops. This painting shows the side of the Roman Campagna that Lorrain ignored in his marriage of civilization and nature. While men are cultivating the land, their place in it is notably temporary. Their living quarters are straw huts and tents. These are not structures meant to last beyond the short harvest season, and when that season is done, the land will again be empty until the crops return. The hills that overlook the fields in the background have seen the seasons change and the crops come and go in the harvest for years and years. Chapman has escaped the blissful ignorance of Pastoral ideals, but still shows that nature will last and that man’s fingerprint is temporary.
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