Jacques Félix Duban (1797-1870), Pompeian wall painting from the Casa di Championnet, 1826, Watercolor

Beschreibung: Jacques Félix Duban (1797 Paris - 1870 Bordeaux), Pompeian wall painting from the Casa di Championnet, 1826, Watercolor

Technique: Watercolor on paper, water mark: J. Whatman
Size: 24,6 x 17,3 cm, Additional sizes: Paper: 30,9 x 23,6 cm | 9 2/3 x 6 3/4 in
Inscription: lower right illegible inscribed and dated: "Palles[?] 1826", top middle inscribed: "Pompeia"

Condition: Good condition. Slightly stained and dirty in places on the edge of the sheet. The corners partly creased and bumped (restored). Along the upper edge of the sheet and at lower right some restored tears. The image makes a very good overall impression.

Description: On the Italian journeys of European artists and scholars as well as the cavalier tours of the nobility, Pompeii was an obligatory destination since the middle of the 18th century. Nowhere else was the life of antiquity as well as architecture and art treasures from the time of the Roman Empire as vividly studied as in Pompeii. The ancient city was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and was only rediscovered in 1748. At first it was haunted by rather predatory collectors of antiquities, but only after the courageous intervention of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) with the demands of young science of archaeology and art history the city was recorded and systematically excavated. A truly methodical excavation in the modern sense was not introduced until the 19th century. Until Giuseppe Fiorelli (1823-1896) took over the direction of the excavation, art treasures and even wall paintings were in part roughly removed in order to exhibit them in museums and royal collections. 1

Only through the inclusion of the wall paintings by travelling artists and architects is the overall context still recognisable today and the form of the elaborate wall decorations preserved. Also the French architect and early representative of Historicism Jacques Félix Duban, after he had received the scholarship Prix de Rome of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture for a stay in the Villa Medici in Rome at the age of 26, made trips to Campania to study the architecture and painting of Pompeii. The drawing of a wall in the Casa di Championnet is in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Our copy is similar to this unfinished watercolour in every detail, except that the decoration of the wall is finished and drawn. The depiction of small figures, such as the winged genii, in bright areas framed by arabesques is typical of the so-called 4th Pompeian style or Fantasy style. This style is considered to be the youngest of the four decoration systems of Roman wall painting and probably did not spread in Pompeii until around 60 AD. When the city was buried, the painting probably was still relatively young and probably Duban presented itself in a good state of preservation. 2

1Kraus 1977, p. 12f.

2Kraus 1977, p. 203-209.

Keywords: Classicism, Architecture, Pompeii, Vesuvius, Mural Painting, Roman Empire, Italy, Decoration

Zustand: Good condition. Slightly stained and dirty in places on the edge of the sheet. The corners partly creased and bumped (restored). Along the upper edge of the sheet and at lower right some restored tears. The image makes a very good overall impression. Hinweise: Classicism, Architecture, Pompeii, Vesuvius, Mural Painting, Roman Empire, Italy, Decoration Abmessungen: 24,6 x 17,3 cm, Additional sizes: Paper: 30,9 x 23,6 cm | 9 2/3 x 6 3/4 in Name des Künstlers: Jacques Félix Duban (1797-1870) Medium: Watercolor on paper