Description
Franz Ludwig Catel worked in Rome and later traveled south to Naples. This painting presents that city’s most distinctive attraction: Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano that appears against an otherwise calm sky. Catel portrayed the scene from within a hotel room, contrasting the potentially overwhelming force of nature with the illusion of protection offered by distance and enclosed space.
Provenance
Robert Manning collection, U.S., attributed to Antonie Pitloo (1791-1837). Simon Dickinson, Ltd., New York and London. Danny Katz, Ltd., London. Purchased by the cma in 1994.
Accession Number
1994.198
Medium
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 59.5 x 46 x 5.5 cm (23 7/16 x 18 1/8 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 46.8 x 33.5 cm (18 7/16 x 13 3/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas German
Background & Context
Background Story
Franz Ludwig Catel (1778-1856) was a German painter who worked in Italy, known for the precisely observed, atmospheric views of Italian subjects that make him one of the accomplished painters of the German-Italian tradition. A View of Naples through a Window from 1824 depicts a view of Naples through a window in the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that distinguishes Catel's best work from the more general veduta painting of his contemporaries. The framing of the view through a window creates an interesting compositional device that combines the interior with the exterior, and the 1824 date places this in Catel's most productive period.
Cultural Impact
A View of Naples through a Window is important in the history of veduta painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that Catel brought to Italian subjects as one of the accomplished painters of the German-Italian tradition. Catel's precisely observed, atmospheric views of Italian subjects—combining the interior framing through a window with the atmospheric exterior view—represent one of the accomplished traditions in veduta painting, and the 1824 painting shows this tradition at its most precisely observed.
Why It Matters
A View of Naples through a Window is Catel's precisely observed Italian veduta: Naples viewed through a window rendered in the atmospheric manner of one of the accomplished painters of the German-Italian tradition. The 1824 painting shows the interesting compositional device of framing the exterior view through a window that makes Catel's veduta distinctive.
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