Gezicht op een ruïne en een herder 1823

Max Josef Wagenbauer made this print of a ruin and a shepherd sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. It encapsulates a set of ideas that were circulating at the time concerning nature, history, and nationhood. The image presents us with a picturesque scene of a ruined castle, standing as a relic of the past. A shepherd and his goats inhabit the foreground. The image romanticizes rural life, presenting it as harmoniously intertwined with history. Made in a German-speaking territory, perhaps Bavaria where Wagenbauer spent most of his life, this image may have been informed by a rise in German nationalism. To understand this image fully, we need to look at how ruins were regarded at the time. Antiquarian and archeological societies were springing up across Europe, as were museums devoted to national history. What role did art play in shaping ideas about the past? What was the relationship between art and politics?