Description
The painting depicts an imagined scene of a ruined ancient city bathed in the nostalgic glow of twilight. The artist's detailed, almost archeological, interest in these Greek or Roman buildings is characteristic of neoclassicism, although the composition—which plunges suddenly from the foreground into a deep valley—and dramatic lighting are typical of Romantic painting.
Provenance
William Ropner, 1864-1947 (West Hartlepool, England), by 1898, when it was withdrawn from a Christie's sale.; Privat collection (sold, Christie's, London, 24 November 1978, lot 160) as An Extensive Classical Landscape with a Ruined City, ca. 1812-15, for £6,000 to Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox.; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, (London, England), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981.
Accession Number
1981.13
Medium
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 118.5 x 142 x 8 cm (46 5/8 x 55 7/8 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 95.6 x 118.6 cm (37 5/8 x 46 11/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas British
Background & Context
Background Story
Ruins of an Ancient City from c. 1810-20 depicts the ruins of an imaginary ancient city with the vast scale and dramatic lighting that distinguish Martin's most accomplished compositions. Unlike the biblical subjects for which Martin is better known, this painting imagines an ancient civilization that has fallen into ruins, combining Martin's talent for architectural fantasy with the Romantic taste for the sublime that his apocalyptic subjects also served. The c. 1810-20 date places this in Martin's most productive period, when he was producing both the biblical subjects and the architectural fantasies that made him one of the most popular painters in England.
Cultural Impact
Ruins of an Ancient City is important in Martin's oeuvre because it demonstrates that his apocalyptic subjects and his architectural fantasies served the same Romantic taste for the sublime. The imaginary ruins show Martin creating an ancient civilization from pure imagination rather than biblical narrative, demonstrating that his talent for the vast and the dramatic was not limited to the biblical subjects for which he is better known.
Why It Matters
Ruins of an Ancient City is Martin's architectural fantasy at its most sublime: imaginary ruins rendered with the vast scale and dramatic lighting of his biblical subjects, but serving a purely imaginative rather than narrative purpose. The c. 1810-20 painting demonstrates that Martin's talent for the sublime extended from biblical cataclysm to architectural imagination.
