Ruins of the Parthenon

Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880) was a leading member of the second generation of the Hudson River School, known for his luminist landscapes in which atmosphere and light are more important than topographic detail. Ruins of the Parthenon from 1880, the year of Gifford's death, depicts the most famous ruin in Western architecture through the lens of American luminism: the sun-drenched marble columns of the Parthenon are rendered in the hazy, atmospheric light that distinguishes Gifford's best work, and the ruins of the temple are subordinated to the light that illuminates them. The painting is simultaneously a topographic record of the Parthenon and a study in Mediterranean light.

Gifford's Parthenon painting belongs to the tradition of American artists traveling to Europe and bringing back views of the great monuments of Western civilization. But Gifford's treatment transforms the Parthenon from an archeological subject into a luminist one: the ruins are of interest not for their historical associations but for the light that falls on them. The 1880 date makes this one of Gifford's last works, and the painting's hazy atmosphere suggests an artist who is seeing the Parthenon through the memory of American luminism rather than through the eyes of an archeologist.

Ruins of the Parthenon is Gifford's luminism applied to the most famous ruin in Western architecture: the Parthenon rendered not as an archeological document but as a study in Mediterranean light. The hazy, atmospheric treatment makes the marble columns dissolve into the light that illuminates them—architecture subordinated to atmosphere, as luminism demands.