Pastoral Landscape: The Roman Campagna
The hazy atmospheres of Claude’s landscapes evoke the start or end of a summer’s day. His characteristic style contrasts intense light in the background with lyrical shadow in the foreground. Rather than a strictly classical subject, Claude has included a building at left that was typical of the countryside outside Rome. Artists often envisioned these rural outskirts as an unchanging Arcadia, a utopian world based on ancient poetry and populated by shepherd poets and musicians, as seen in the middle distance.
Artwork Details
- Title: Pastoral Landscape: The Roman Campagna
- Artist: Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée) (French, Chamagne 1604/5?–1682 Rome)
- Date: ca. 1639
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 40 x 53 1/2 in. (101.6 x 135.9 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Bequest of Adele L. Lehman, in memory of Arthur Lehman, 1965
- Object Number: 65.181.12
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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