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7 - The Ruins Visualised

Paintings and Vedute, Drawings and Engravings, Photographs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2025

Roland Mayer
Roland Mayer
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

The seventh chapter explores the developing aesthetic value now attached to Rome’s ruins, tracing for instance the way in which they move up scale from illustrations in books or in the background staffage of Renaissance painting to become the foregrounded subject matter in the paintings of the Baroque era and especially the eighteenth century. Engraved views, vedute and photographs provided tourists with inexpensive and portable souvenirs. The ruins have by now acquired full aesthetic validation as the principal subject matter of paintings by Claude or in the engravings of Piranesi. Thanks to the aesthetic appreciation of the ruins, images of them become common features of interior decoration.

Keywords

Renaissance and Baroque paintingEnglish country housesinterior decorationruin-aestheticClaude LorrainPiranesi
Type
Chapter
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The Ruins of Rome
A Cultural History
 , pp. 119 - 157
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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  • The Ruins Visualised
  • Roland Mayer, King's College London
  • Book: The Ruins of Rome
  • Online publication: 02 January 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009430074.008
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Ruins Visualised
  • Roland Mayer, King's College London
  • Book: The Ruins of Rome
  • Online publication: 02 January 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009430074.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Ruins Visualised
  • Roland Mayer, King's College London
  • Book: The Ruins of Rome
  • Online publication: 02 January 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009430074.008
Available formats
×