Roman Ideal Landscape with Cephalus, Procris, and Diana 1635

Claude Lorrain created this painting of an idealized Roman landscape, featuring Cephalus, Procris, and Diana, sometime in the mid-17th century. Lorrain was a French painter working in Italy, and this work exemplifies the classical tastes of the Roman art world at that time. Note how the figures of Cephalus, Procris and Diana are small in comparison to the landscape, because for Lorrain, it was the landscape that was the main subject. The figures are there to animate the scene and they are taken from classical mythology. Lorrain was painting for wealthy patrons who wanted their art to evoke an ideal classical past. We know this because Lorrain's paintings were collected by royalty and the aristocracy and displayed in the great houses of Europe. The work spoke to the culture of his time; a culture fascinated by antiquity, and to the idea of landscape as a reflection of an ordered and harmonious universe. To better understand this artwork, we can research the culture of patronage in the 17th century, and the relationship between art and power.