Landschap 1719 - 1784

Editor: This is “Landschap,” a landscape drawing by Giuseppe Zais, created sometime between 1719 and 1784. The sienna ink gives it a warm, almost nostalgic feel. I’m really drawn to the lone figure on the donkey, seemingly leading a small group across the land. What’s your interpretation of this scene? Curator: Zais’s landscapes are often read as idealized pastoral scenes, harking back to the artistic conventions of the Italian Renaissance while subtly engaging with the growing 18th-century fascination with the picturesque. Do you notice how the landscape isn’t a raw, untamed wilderness, but instead, feels cultivated? Editor: Definitely. It’s not dramatic or sublime. The gentle slopes and even the suggestion of buildings in the distance, gives me the feeling of the landscape being worked in and lived upon. Curator: Exactly! And this is where the social and political history becomes interesting. These idealized landscapes were incredibly popular with the aristocracy. What do you think they signified? Editor: Maybe a vision of harmony and order that they wanted to project, linking themselves to a golden age? Curator: Precisely! By owning these artworks, they are quite literally buying into, and projecting a narrative of stability and legitimacy. This becomes quite complex, given that this was also the era of the Enlightenment, where notions of natural rights and social contracts were challenging established hierarchies. So even a seemingly innocent landscape can be loaded with meaning. Editor: Wow, I hadn’t thought of it that way. I just saw a pretty picture. Curator: Well, now hopefully you will never look at landscapes the same way! The historical context reveals so much about what these images were *doing* in society. Editor: Absolutely! I am looking at it from a different viewpoint now.