Salvator Rosa!Italian 1615–1673!A harbour scene (Il porto) c.1638–39!oil on canvas!170.0 x 260.0 cm!Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid (P00324)!Spanish Royal Collection!!Points Description

1st reaction A colourful scenery of harbour. The no sail ships show they are not out of duty, or are ready to (due to the movement of harbour workers beside)

Direction Follow the seashore, the painting constructs the left-right direction, and divide the landscape into the near-side perspective and the far-side.

Consists of hue The actual painting seems more vivid, but a pile of large grey cloud on the sky builds a strong contrast. It sets off the whole tone without getting monotonous.

Value Since this painting was done under cloudy sunset, the darker and greyer value can be observed. However, the value makes orange, fading sunshine and the slight reflection on the ground become the focal point.

Shape As a typical Baroque landscape work, the shape of every object (such as ships, castles, tree on right hand side and people in the front) is comparatively realistic (rather than the traditional religious theme painting).

Space This painting are divided into two part: near-side which describes the working situation of harbour workers, and the far-side which illustrates only the scenery (castle, village, mountain etc.). Illustrating the harbour workers emphasises the vitality of the whole scenery and the principal idea of the artists in the Renaissance age: the main role is people rather than God.

Points

Balance Asymmetrical balance is created in construction to show the two different part of the landscape. An interesting point is the contrast of cloud and the landscape below shows the contrary position. The cloud with higher contrast is set above left-hand side, further and low-contrast landscape, while which with lower contrast is set above opposite side. It can be supposed to make balance to the hue of whole scene.

Purpose Analysis Salvator Rosa created not only one harbour scene painting but several works in different places. The purpose can be supposed simply that to illustrate the scene honestly, so as other Baroque painters. The work seems similar to which made by one of the painter’s friend — Claude Lorrain (Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, 1648, oil on canvas, 149.1 × 196.7 cm, National Gallery, London, NG14), on style. However, Rosa’s painting style is more dynamic to make a sort of illusion of ‘the cloud/sea wave is moving’, comparing to the graceful and quiet atmosphere of Lorrain’s work.

DescriptionPoints