Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site Shops at: Zazzle & PrintFection
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The Grand Tour, Roman Paintings, Post-Card Art |
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Temple of Hercules Victor (T. Herculis Victoris). View from Tiber. Cloaca Maxima in the foreground. Painting by Ettore Roesler Franz from the late 19th century.
Porticus Octaviae. The mediaeval house on the right still exists. Painting by Ettore Roesler Franz from the late 19th century.
Isola Tiberina. Painting by Ettore Roesler Franz from the late 19th century. |
The Grand TourThe art prints on this page were the sort of prints a traveler doing The Grand Tour would take home from the self-improving trip through continental Europe. The Grand Tour usually included some or all of these locations:
The reasons to make The Grand Tour were:
Forum Romanum. Tabularium and the Temple of Saturn on the left. Painting by Paolo Monaldi from the late 18th century. Early on the tour-ers, or tourists as they're called now, were mainly young British men, who added the prostitutes of continental Europe to their travel plans so they could learn to make love, and 'sow their wild oats', so they would be ready to settle down once returned home. Some sowed their oats for longer than their families had planned, and returned with venereal diseases, if they returned at all.
Porticus Octaviae. Painting by Ettore Roesler Franz from the late 19th century. Later young women were sent on The Grand Tour from Britain, the U.S., Canada and Australia, to acquire good taste, style and interests that would make them more marriageable to well-educated young men. Even whole families took the tour, while others saved it for their honeymoon voyage. In the days past with a leisure class that lived off family investments, the tour could last up to a year, but if the tourist was very wealthy, and his family very patient, or he came all the way from Australia or New Zealand, it could last years longer. Today's tourists generally have less preparation in the classics and languages than their predecessors, but the wonder of Italy remains. Perhaps more than anything, a Grand Tour of Italy teaches the modern tourist humility in the face of such splendid history, art, architecture, cooking, natural beauty and style. (The Getty Museum has an on-line exhibit to help us experience the 18th century Grand Tour in Italy.)
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Isola Tiberina. Painting by Ettore Roesler Franz from the late 19th century.
Pons Aemilius. Painting by Ettore Roesler Franz from the late 19th century. Many of these paintings by Ettore Roesler Franz can be seen in Rome at the Museo di Roma in Trastevere. If you are walking around Rome, why not check it out.
Luigi Rossini's classic views of Rome.
These classic paintings of Rome are by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691-1765), an architect turned painter, famous for his views (vedute). You can view many of his works at the Web Gallery of Art. They too are available from AllPosters.com.
These are vintage images of Rome originally post-card art that was the typical tourist purchase in the days before cheap and simple photographic cameras. They are available as very reasonably priced prints that look hand colored, from AllPosters.com.
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Visit my Venice Paintings Page or my Angels in Italian Art Page
