1057 - Jean-Baptiste Lallemand

Jean-Baptiste Lallemand Landscape with Ruins Oil on canvas (relined). 35 x 63 cm. Provenance Private collection Italy, - Private collection, Austria. Exhibitions Roma antica: Römische Ruinen in der italienischen Kunst des 18. Jahrhunderts, Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund 1994 Literature Cat.: Roma antica, Römische Ruinen in der italienischen Kunst des 18. Jahrhunderts, Dortmund 1994, p. 219 In an idealised architectural setting, Lallemand choses in this painting elements from the Forum Romanus, merging them in a monumental and complex composition: the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina is depicted in the background and the building with the two small apses in the middle-ground could be identified with the complex at the entrance of Diocletian Terme. Born in Dijon in 1716, from a young age Jean-Baptiste Lallemand showed a notable inclination for drawing and perspective composition; he studied under Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, and in 1745 was appointed member of the Académie de Saint-Luc in Paris. Two years later he went to Rome, where he spent fourteen years: during this stay, the artist developed an original taste for fancy classical landscapes. His monumental compositions show an elegant balance of perspective and light and a harmonious, sophisticated atmosphere. Between the idealized vision of 18th-century art and the emerging realism of the following century, architectural fantasies like this were popular during 18th century, reflecting the era's fascination with classical antiquity and the picturesque.