Roman Elegy

Roman Elegy
ArtistJacques Sablet
Year1791
TypeOil on canvas, portrait painting
Dimensions61.7 cm × 74 cm (24.3 in × 29 in)
LocationMusée des Beaux-Arts, Brest

Roman Elegy (French: Élégie romaine) is a 1791 oil painting by the Swiss artist Jacques Sablet.[1] [2]It depicts two men in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome mourning over a friend's tomb. In the background is the Pyramid of Cestius while shepherds are shown tending their flock of sheep.[3] A conversation piece, it is distinctly Neoclassical in style although its mournful atmosphere reflects the emerging Romantic movement. The picture may feature a self-portrait of the artist along with his brother Jean-François Sablet. The title is a reference to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's series of poems Roman Elegies.[4] The painting is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest in Brittany.[5]

References

Bibliography

  • Bowron, Edgar Peters & Rishel, Joseph J. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century. Merrell, 2000.
  • Luzzi, Joseph. Romantic Europe and the Ghost of Italy. Yale University Press, 2008.
  • Tarabra, Daniela. European Art of the Eighteenth Century. Getty Publications, 2008