Grotto in the park of the Villa d'Este
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| Grotto in the park of the Villa d'Este |
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| Carl Blechen , around 1828/1829 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 31.5 x 39.6 cm |
| Fürst-Pückler-Museum, Park and Branitz Castle |
Grotto in the park of the Villa d'Este is the title of a painting by the German painter Carl Blechen and is one of several paintings by Carl Blechen from the park of the Roman Villa d'Este.
Image content
The small picture shows only part of the dilapidated fountain of the Villa d'Este. It is only an excerpt, but gives a feeling for the size of the gardens of this Renaissance villa, which featured grottos, water features and, as a highlight, a water organ. At the time Carl Blechen was in Italy, the park was nothing but an overgrown garden and was far from the ornamental form in which it was laid out in the 16th century. The grotto caves are very dark and the observer cannot see what is hidden there. However, light reflections flash on the cornices and edges of the grotto, creating an alternation between light and dark.
Classification in the complete work
Blechen's landscape paintings show a new realism , old positions of early romanticism are abandoned. Blechen ironizes the expectations of an audience that is used to idealistic and heroic exaggerations of landscapes, as shown in pictures by Jakob Philipp Hackert or Joseph Anton Koch . Characteristic of Carl Blechen's oeuvre are the light and color effects with which he shows the incidence of light and the color effect of the sun's rays in “ Grotto in the Park of the Villa d'Este ”. This creates a quiet, melancholy atmosphere, which at the same time shows the splendor of the former facility and the recapture of the site by nature. This makes this painting very different from paintings like “ In the Park of the Villa d'Este ”, in which he shows the most famous view of the park, shifting the cypress trees to an avenue that leads to the main front and the main staircase of the villa. He also takes the liberty of equipping the avenue with staffage figures in Renaissance clothing.
literature
- Sabine Schulze (Ed.): Gardens: Order - Inspiration - Happiness. Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main & Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 3-7757-1870-2 .
Single receipts
- ↑ Sabine Schulze (Ed.): Gardens: Order - Inspiration - Happiness. Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main & Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 3-7757-1870-2 , p. 90.