Oil paint on canvas, 70 x 94.5 cm
School of Art Museum and Galleries, Aberystwyth University
Bequest: Sir John Williams, 1926
When Salvator Rosa painted his rugged landscapes, tourism as a leisure activity had not been invented. People traversed terrain out of necessity rather than for pleasure. Travel was fraught with danger.
And yet, in works such as this, the hazards of the journey are being reconsidered for an alternative aesthetic: the sublime. Landscape was no longer seen primarily as land shaped and domesticated. Rosa’s paintings had a profound influence on the Romantics.
Harry Heuser 