Italian Landscape with Ancient Tempietto c. 1649 - 1673

Adam Pijnacker created this Italian Landscape with Ancient Tempietto using oil on canvas. Here we see an idealised vision of Italy by a Dutch artist. This tells us much about how Northern Europeans viewed the South. Italy was the home of the Roman Empire and, of course, the Catholic Church. For many Northerners, the South was the land of culture and sophistication. We can see that in the careful composition of the painting, the classical ruins, and the light. But we must ask what is not included here. Where are the urban poor? The politics? Or the religious tensions? Pijnacker worked for wealthy patrons and they wanted reassuring images of a classical landscape. The art market was a commercial system, just as it is today. As an art historian, I use a wide range of sources, from economic data about the art market to travel journals, in order to understand the full story.