Ruin of an Amphitheatre at Pouzzoles (Kingdom of Naples), plate 9 from Oeuvres de A. Calame

Description

Ruin of an Amphitheater at Pouzzoles (Kingdom of Naples) was made after a lost 1845 sketch by the painter and engraver Alexandre Calame. Created during the middle of Calame’s trip to Italy, this image depicts a plainly dressed hermit standing amidst a large ruin and quietly reading a book, perhaps the Bible. Calame, a Calvinist, employed the grandiose ruins of the amphitheater as an evocation of God’s power over man.

Ruin of an Amphitheatre at Pouzzoles (Kingdom of Naples), plate 9 from Oeuvres de A. Calame

Alexandre Calame

1851

Accession Number

132864

Medium

Lithograph on buff chine collé, laid down on off-white wove paper

Dimensions

Image: 28.7 × 19.3 cm (11 5/16 × 7 5/8 in.); Sheet: 40.6 × 29 cm (16 × 11 7/16 in.)

Classification

lithograph

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

The Charles Deering Collection