Outer Staircase of a Gothic Ruin

1830
(German, 1787–1837)
Support: Cream wove paper
Watermarks: Whatman/Turkey Mill
Sheet: 24.1 x 16.8 cm (9 1/2 x 6 5/8 in.); Image: 23.2 x 15.2 cm (9 1/8 x 6 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Trost 195
Location: not on view
Public Domain
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Did You Know?

Gothic architecture, the type seen in this drawing, was associated with Germany based on a false assumption that a Germanic tribe, the Goths, had originated the style.

Description

Rejecting the preference for the landscape and architecture of Italy, as seen in the work of many of his contemporaries, Domenico Quaglio portrayed the buildings of his native Germany. Here, Quaglio depicted a man, woman, and child who are dwarfed by the immense scale of a Gothic cathedral’s ruined arch, within which the figures appear. Overrun by vines and set within a dense forest, the architecture signifies the magnitude of God in the Christian faith and the smallness of mankind.
Outer Staircase of a Gothic Ruin

Outer Staircase of a Gothic Ruin

1830

Domenico Quaglio

(German, 1787–1837)
Germany, 19th century

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