Arcadian Landscapes,

17th century

<p>Venetian landscape painting of a new type began to emerge in the mid- to late sixteenth century and strongly influenced other artists of the period, including Claude Lorrain, whose work may also be found in the Wilder collection. The dominant figure in the birth of this style was the Venetian-born painter Domenico Campagnola (ca. 1500–1564), whose work is now best known from his surviving prints.</p><p>The Arcadian landscape has its origins in ancient Greece and is named for the province whose mountainous topography and sparse population shaped the idea of Arcadia as a poetic space associated with natural beauty and harmony. At the time these paintings were made, representations of the Arcadian landscape were at best a blend of observed reality and invention. It was Claude’s innovation to observe nature closely and then transform it in the studio, all while remaining as faithful as possible to what he considered the true appearance of things.</p>