St. Benet’s Abbey 

John Sell Cotman created "St. Benet's Abbey" using oil on canvas, presenting a landscape dominated by a dilapidated structure under a turbulent sky. The painting's somber palette and heavy impasto create a palpable sense of decay and foreboding. Cotman masterfully uses contrast to highlight the scene's structural elements. The rough, textured brushwork accentuates the ruin’s crumbling facade, while the smooth, sweeping strokes in the sky suggest a vast, uncaring cosmos. The architectural structure serves as a signifier, pointing to the transience of human endeavor against nature's timelessness. The asymmetrical composition and the low horizon line further unsettle the viewer, challenging traditional notions of landscape as a site of harmony. Cotman pushes us to reflect on the entropic forces at play, leaving us to contemplate the inevitable dissolution of forms.