779 - "Blick durch den Torbogen", Gothic gate hall with sentry and castle on the rock, castle romanticism

"Blick durch den Torbogen", Gothic gate hall with sentry and castle on the rock, castle romanticism Oil on canvas, unsigned, view from a dark stone gate hall through a Gothic pointed arch to a towering castle with light-coloured walls, round towers with pointed conical roofs and a half-timbered gallery, in front of it a path lined by a parapet wall leading to the castle gate with staffage figures and a dog, in the background a mountain range under a light blue sky, on the right in the gate hall a doorway backed in red, in it a sentry with helmet, breastplate, yellow doublet and polearm, a second polearm with a red tassel leaning against the wall, above it a stone corbel, to the left a wall pillar with a round-arched niche containing a jug, floor of large stone slabs, condition commensurate with age, craquelure, retouching, image 50x60 cm (HxW), framed, gold-coloured frame with bead moulding and corner leaf ornaments, frame width 8 cm The painting belongs to castle romanticism, a movement of the 18th and 19th centuries that turned to an idealised image of the Middle Ages, its castles and knights. In the painting of this movement the castle was not depicted realistically but in idealised form; built examples of the same attitude are Neuschwanstein Castle and the Hohkönigsburg. The view from the dark gatehouse into the bright distance is a pictorial motif of architectural painting, which was revived in the 19th century by Domenico Quaglio and found further exponents in Carl Hasenpflug in Halberstadt and Carl Graeb in Berlin.