Claude Lorrain - The Gulf of Baia with Apollo and the Cumana Sibyl (1650-1660)


Pictorial whims, which combine a truly existing landscape with true ancient ruins but not exactly where they are painted.
All this creates an image of grandeur of a past that no longer exists but that we can continue to forget. A past that is made even more unstable by the human / divine figures present. Apollo (who often lent his image to the Christian Jesus) reminds us that his beauty will never be a vanitas because it does not decay.
Death, immortality and the passage of time ...

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