Landscape with a little city in the background 

Giovanni Costa, or Nino Costa, painted this landscape with a little city in the background using oil on canvas. Immediately, one is struck by the golden hues and horizontal composition, which evoke a serene, almost classical stillness. The artist divides the canvas into distinct horizontal bands – the foreground earthwork, the middle ground of fields and architecture, and the distant mountains. This structured layering creates a sense of depth and invites the eye to wander across the scene. Costa uses color and light to define these zones, with warm earth tones in the foreground transitioning to softer, cooler shades in the distance. The brushstrokes are loose and impressionistic, capturing the subtle textures of the landscape. It reflects a broader artistic concern with the changing nature of perception and representation. Note the subtle interplay between light and shadow that models the terrain. This formal quality of the artwork is a statement about nature, beauty, and the shifting grounds of representation. It is an invitation to consider how we perceive and construct our understanding of the world.