Gedeelte van de kade van Messina, gezien vanaf uiterste punt van kasteel San Salvatore 1778

Louis Ducros made this watercolor of the Messina docks from the vantage point of the Castello San Salvatore. It's a bird's eye view of the port and the city beyond. Ducros was from Switzerland and traveled to Italy in the late 1770s, a time when the grand tour and the picturesque aesthetic were at their height. He renders the Sicilian landscape and architecture in subtle, pale tones. The monumental architecture of the fortress and the long facade of the city are depicted as a set of precise volumes. The watercolor medium itself was becoming popular as a way of capturing a landscape during travel. So, what do we learn from Ducros’ depiction? What was the role of this military architecture in the culture and economy of the time? How did the port function as a hub of trade and communication? These are questions that scholars are still investigating today, using all kinds of documents from the period.