Travelling Through: Banditti on the Bank of a River (c. 1650 – 1660), Salvator Rosa (1615 – 1673)

Banditti on the Bank of a River (c. 1650 – 1660), Salvator Rosa (1615 – 1673), installation view
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.

Banditti on the Bank of a River (c. 1650 – 1660), Salvator Rosa (1615 – 1673), detail

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.