Landschap met ruïnes, links een vervallen muur 1708

Frans Boudewijns made this landscape with ruins using pen in the late 17th or early 18th century. The image presents us with an idealised pastoral scene, a popular subject in artistic academies of the time, but it is the inclusion of the ruins that connects this image to its wider social and cultural context. The ruined buildings place the viewer in a distant historical past. The Italian countryside was popular with Northern European artists. Looking at similar works from the period, archival documents, and publications such as illustrated travel guides, we can begin to understand how Boudewijns' contemporaries understood Italy as the origin of Western civilisation. The visual codes of classical architecture would have resonated with educated viewers, evoking associations with the great empires of the past. The image comments on the cyclical nature of civilisation, and perhaps questions the permanence of the present. These historical associations provide a lens to explore the institutional forces that shaped the art market of Boudewijns’ time.