Rotslandschap met waterval 1722 - 1774

This is an etching titled "Rocky Landscape with Waterfall," made by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich. It is part of the 18th-century vogue for idealized landscape, but we can still read the signs of its own particular moment. The scene is a wild, untouched terrain, but this wilderness is very much an idea fostered by the institutions of art. Consider the artist: employed at the Dresden court, Dietrich was also director of the painting gallery, and teacher at the academy. This print is not a direct transcription of nature, but a carefully composed scene. We see framing devices used to guide the viewer's eye, such as the placement of trees or the strategic use of light and shadow. The print emulates the compositional principles of painting. In studying this etching, we can draw upon period handbooks and treatises to better understand the aesthetics of landscape in 18th-century Europe. The art of this period often reveals as much about the institutions that promoted it as about the scenes that it depicts.