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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Laura Davis

Paintings of ruined buildings hung in deserted Liverpool gallery awaiting visitors

A new exhibition of Italian landscape painting has been hung in Liverpool's Victoria Gallery & Museum despite it currently being closed to visitors.

The Art of Ruin looks at the trend of creating pictures of ruined buildings that emerged in the 1600s when visiting archaeological sites and collecting ancient artefacts became a popular pastime.

In the 18th century, wealthy visitors would take a 'Grand Tour' of famous European landmarks in places including Venice and Rome, often returning with paintings as souvenirs.

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In Britain it became fashionable to hang them over doorways, as though you could step through into the landscape.

While it's strange to imagine the exhibition being prepared in a deserted gallery, it will be ready to welcome visitors as soon as lockdown ends and venues are permitted to reopen.

A 360-degree tour of the show can also be viewed online here.

Works featured include Landscape with Seaport and Ruins by a follower of Salvator Rosa (1615-73), a rebellious painter and writer from Naples whose work was hugely influential on later artists; Classical Ruins with Figures by a follower of Giovanni Paola Panini (1691-1765), a leading painter and architect working in Rome who often placed real ruins within imagined landscapes; and Tivoli near Rome by British painter William Havell (1782-1857).

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