Interieur van de graftombe van de familie De Nasoni op de weg naar Terni 1792

Johann Christian Reinhart made this print of the interior of the tomb of the Nasoni family near Terni. Reinhart was a German painter and engraver who spent much of his career in Rome, where he became part of a community of artists captivated by the Italian landscape. This print showcases the era's fascination with ruins and their sublime assimilation into the natural environment. We see the way the decaying architecture of the tomb blends with the overgrown foliage and rocky terrain, symbolizing the passage of time and the inevitable decline of human-made structures. Reinhart was working at a time when the academic art institutions were hardening and the free expression of individual artists became more difficult. We can read this image as a quiet rejection of those institutions and a celebration of the freedom of the landscape. To understand this image better, you could look at guidebooks and travelogues from the period, which reveal how the experience of the picturesque Italian landscape was understood and consumed by northern European visitors.