Italian Landscape

The painter Albert Żamett (1821–1876), who is closely associated with Vilnius, lived from 1847 to 1857 in Italy, with the support of his patron Benedict Tyszkiewicz. While studying at the St Luke Academy in Rome, he perfected the landscape painting skills he had acquired at St Petersburg Academy of Art. He later lived mostly in Vilnius, except for the years 1859 to 1863, which he spent in France. This Italian landscape was painted during that time, and shows the Apennine tourist attraction called Gran Sasso in the Abruzzo region, which at the time was part of the Kingdom of Naples. It is obvious that even after leaving Italy, a country much beloved by artists and art lovers, Żamett continued painting pictures of it, recreating them from memory and using his sketches. Classic views in the tradition of the ‘ideal landscape’ enjoyed considerable popularity and were quickly bought up by collectors. The masterly composition by Żamett, with mountain peaks looming in the distance, a stretch of water in front of them, and picturesque clusters of trees in the foreground, captures flawlessly and quintessentially the nature of the Apennine peninsula. The small figure of a woman walking down a path, and the walls of an ancient monastery on the hill, are only there to emphasise the grandeur of nature. A warm and shimmering evening light, filtered through foliage and turning the slopes of the hills in the distance pink, gives the landscape a romantic mood. Text author Rūta Janonienė.