Landscape with a waterfall

Franciszek Ksawery Lampi came from an Italian artistic family and was the son of a famous portrait painter creating in the second half of the 18th century, mainly at European courts – Jan Chrzciciel Lampi. The beginnings of Franciszek's artistic career were connected to Vienna, but in 1815, due to a conflict with his father he moved permanently to Poland. He settled in Warsaw, where he successfully developed his painting activity, aided by the everlasting fame of his father, who between 1788 and 1791 held the position of court painter to King Stanisław August Poniatowski. Among the aristocracy and nobility, his son also gained recognition as a portraitist. Apart from portraits, genre and religious scenes, he was particularly fond of painting landscapes. They form a specific characteristic type, of which Pejzaż z wodospadem [Landscape with a Waterfall] is an excellent example.

This poetic, sentimental and romantic painting depicts an imaginary mountain view with staffage. A valley is visible among huge rocky slopes, with the ruins of a magnificent old building on top and a foaming waterfall flowing down the vertical cliffs. Several people, shown as tiny figures, are engaged in various activities, which can be understood as a metaphor for the three elements of human life: work, rest and prayer. The juxtaposition of the miniature figures with nature, mysterious and untamed, emphasises the power and majesty of the surrounding nature, painted following the postulate of sublimity, which was crucial for 18th-century aesthetics. The cloudy solemnity of the landscape shown in a distant perspective, maintained in a consistent range of greys, browns and greens, is relieved by subtle, golden-pink sunlight coming from the left, filtered by a delicate mist of air. This essential element adds to the meaning of the composition and tells us that nature dominates man, but in a friendly manner, without any sense of menace. The sun, which is slowly illuminating the gloomy valley, will soon warm up its people. In the act of deciphering the meaning hidden behind the spectacle of the forces of nature, of which man is an element, the artist evokes associations reaching into the philosophical and mystical sphere, a reflection on the Creator and His work of creation.

Bożena Kasperowicz