Saint Peter's from Pincian Hill

Rome has loomed large in the imagination of artists for centuries, and continued to do so in the middle of the nineteenth century. Nine years after he first visited Italy, Sanford Gifford recalled his European travels in this small, meditative landscape painted from memory. North of the Quirinal Hill, and one of the fabled seven hills that marked the boundaries of ancient Rome, the Pincian Hill was celebrated for its public gardens. From just such a spot, Gifford's lone friar regards St. Peter's Cathedral, one of the enduring symbols of the Eternal City. Gifford dedicated himself to landscape painting at age twenty-five after seeing the works of Thomas Cole, the leader of the Hudson River School. Rather than using landscape as a vehicle for grand moral and historical narratives, Gifford's depictions are evocative and marked by a strong interest in the effects of light. Until his death in 1880, Gifford continued to explore nature, venturing as far as the Rocky mountains with fellow artists Worthington Whitteridge and John Frederick Kensett in 1880, and exploring the Pacific Coast of Alaska in 1874.