Goethe in the Roman Campagna
| Goethe in the Roman Campagna | |
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| Artist | Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein |
| Year | 1787 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 164 cm × 206 cm (65 in × 81 in) |
| Location | Städel, Frankfurt |
Goethe in the Roman Campagna is a painting from 1787 by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, a German Neoclassical painter, depicting Johann Wolfgang von Goethe whilst the writer was travelling in Italy. Goethe's book on his travels to Italy from 1786–88, called Italian Journey, was published in 1816–17; the book is based on his diaries. Since 1887, the painting has been in the possession of the Städel museum in Goethe's hometown Frankfurt.
The painting is a full-length portrait. Goethe is gazing out through the landscape, with his eyes resting at infinity. The painter, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, whom Goethe met in Italy, portrays the writer as an idealized, almost otherworldly, person. Goethe wears a large wide-brimmed grey hat, fashionable among German artists in Rome at the time, and a creamy white traveler's duster. He is portrayed in a classical manner, sitting in the open air, surrounded by Roman ruins, with the Campagna di Roma in the background.
The artwork typically reflects the culture of the time in which it is created. The ruins in the background indicate the Neoclassicist love of antiquity. In contrast to the asymmetry of dominant Baroque and Rococo styles, Neoclassicism praised simplicity and symmetry and the classic principles of the arts of Rome and Ancient Greece.
The love of classicism bound together the two artists, who both shared this interest, which is mirrored in the painting. Et in Arcadia ego (in German: Auch ich in Arkadien! ) is the motto of the Italian Journey. The artists consciously chose a spiritual collaboration to produce the painting and used the Arcadian motif of the Roman Campagna.
The composition is balanced and the colours are restricted. At the time Goethe was preoccupied with his verse drama Iphigenia in Tauris, and he recited extracts to Tischbein. He was very impressed by it and depicted the scene of Iphigenia meeting her brother in the painting, on the relief behind Goethe to his left. Also, both artist shared an interest for painting. Goethe's occupation with painting resulted seven years earlier Goethe's Theory of Colours ( Zur Farbenlehre ) is a book about the poet's views on the nature of colours and how these are perceived by humans. He published it in 1810, and it contained detailed descriptions of phenomena such as coloured shadows, refraction, and chromatic aberration. The painting is a result of these many interest they had in common.
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