Pastoral Landscape: The Roman Campagna

Curatorial Overview

“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.”