Seascape

Author of seascapes, Cristino intends to highlight the romanticist feeling in the understanding of Nature, accentuating the drama of a shipwreck observed in the darkness of the night, where a turbulent sea stands out. It is a tragic and real event, probably drawing on the visions of paintings such as the Radeau de la Méduse by Géricault in 1818-19 and the sinking of the S. Pedro de Alcantara by J. Pillement in 1786, which he had almost certainly seen. An innovative technical quality of the representation of the movement of the wave, in realistic transparencies, despite the scenographic aspect of a romantic oculus lighting projecting from a cloud thickening to the sea and sand, connects this navy with its preoccupation of grasping the "truth", expressed in a distressing romanticist attitude. As in Pillement's picture, little figures wave and gesticulate on the cliffs of the beach, where the accident overlaps with the usual chromatic exuberance and causes a containment of browns and greyish blue taken from a closed palette. The emergence of the situation, a veritable and impressive drama, the scenographic imagery that highlights the anguish of the situation, the narrative that surrounds it, the effects of shadows as opposed to an illuminated circle, and the qualified treatment of the maritime scene, are part of this painting in a clear romanticist attitude that demarcates his generation, relating it to the dramatic feeling of German painting and Friedrich. (Maria Aires Silveira)