View of the Via Sacra, Rome

Eckersberg’s modest prospects from Rome were often painted with the motif directly before him. At the time this was still a relatively new practice and the Danish artist became a pioneer of plein air painting as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1818 onwards. With the aid of a mathematically meticulous perspective he sought to impose order on the world’s phenomena. This results successfully in a crystal-clear vision of ancient ruins, temples and churches of Rome: they all come forth in the painting, rendering the mood of the South concrete, palpable.