id: 149998
accession number: 1980.218
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.218
updated: 2021-03-27 12:15:53.844000
Outer Staircase of a Gothic Ruin, 1830. Domenico Quaglio (German, 1787-1837). Gray and brown wash and framing lines in pen and black ink; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Anonymous gift in honor of Leona E. Prasse 1980.218
title: Outer Staircase of a Gothic Ruin
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1830
creation date earliest: 1830
creation date latest: 1830
current location: 003 Special Exhibition Hall - 17
creditline: Anonymous gift in honor of Leona E. Prasse
copyright:
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culture: Germany, 19th century
technique: gray and brown wash and framing lines in pen and black ink
department: Drawings
collection: DR - German
type: Drawing
find spot:
catalogue raisonne: Trost 195
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CREATORS
* Domenico Quaglio (German, 1787-1837) - artist
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measurements: 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.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
description: cream wove paper
watermarks:
* Whatman/Turkey Mill
inscriptions:
inscription: signed, on verso, at lower right, in graphite: D. Quaglio f. in Decbr. 1830; inscribed, at lower left, in graphite: Domenico Quaglio d. F. [paraph: ey?] / 1786-1837; inscribed, at lower center, in graphite: Ansicht einer Ruine in / Meillerie Villaneuve des / gez. Dez. 1830; inscribed, at lower right, in graphite: Linken Ufer des Genfer see
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review: 1980
opening date: 1981-06-23T04:00:00
Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 23-July 19, 1981).
title: Eastward from the Rhine: Romanticism to Abstraction, 1800-1925
opening date: 1984-06-12T04:00:00
Eastward from the Rhine: Romanticism to Abstraction, 1800-1925. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 12-September 9, 1984).
title: The German Tradition
opening date: 1993-04-27T04:00:00
The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993).
title: Nature Sublime: Landscapes from the 19th Century
opening date: 2004-08-15T00:00:00
Nature Sublime: Landscapes from the 19th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 15-November 14, 2004).
title: Stories From Storage
opening date: 2021-02-07T05:00:00
Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
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fun fact:
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.
digital 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.
wall description:
Quaglio was recognized as the finest German topographical painter of his generation, and he showed a special affinity for dramatic buildings of the Gothic period. In this watercolor, a young family pauses in the archway of what appears to be a ruined Gothic church. Ivy encroaches upon the stairs, and a dense forest may be seen in the distance. Views of ruined churches juxtaposed by untamed nature frequently appeared in the landscapes of German Romantic artists who believed that nature signified the presence of God. Here, Quaglio contrasts the immensity of the Gothic ruin with the delicacy of the tiny infant. A major component of German Romanticism was the renewal of Gothic architecture as a symbol of Germany’s glorious past. The association of Gothic architecture with Germany was in fact based on the false assumption that a Germanic tribe, the Goths, had originated the style. Nevertheless, medieval ruins and Gothic buildings infiltrated landscapes of the period as symbols of that which was essentially German.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Trost, Brigitte. Domenico Quaglio, 1787-1837: Monographie und Werkverzeichnis. Munich: Prestel, 1973.
page number: Mentioned: p. 138, no. 195b; Reproduced: p. 55, pl. VII
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1980.218/1980.218_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1980.218/1980.218_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1980.218/1980.218_full.tif