Italian school; first half of the 18th century."View of ruins".Oil on canvas.It presents restorations.Measurements: 125 x 180 cm: 140 x 195 cm (frame).The work in question shows an idealised landscape in which a series of ruins of clear Roman influence stand out. This "Veduta" or "Capricho" offers us a panoramic landscape constructed from the of various monuments in the classical style. The piece contains the view of a fantastic landscape, where reverie plays a leading role, not only because of the scenographic conception with which the buildings have been arranged, but also because of the use of blue tones. With regard to the landscape genre, it is worth mentioning how, apart from the model of the Venetian "veduta", in 17th-century Italy the type we see here prevailed, a landscape that starts from the classicist model created by the Carracci to evolve along monumental and architectural lines. The taste for the artistic remains of the past, the widespread travels of writers and artists in search of monuments and works of art that would serve as a source of inspiration, and the discovery of important ancient remains such as those of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum undoubtedly contributed to the success of the genre. It is a pictorial genre, moreover, which has its roots in the 17th century, in the veduta, not always topographical but sometimes extremely imaginative, of artists such as Canaletto and others.This work can be aesthetically related to the Galli da Bibbiena family, painters trained in architecture and scenography who achieved great fame for their fanciful designs. The work is also highly reminiscent of the paintings of Leonardo Coccorante, who was an Italian painter known for a type of painting known as capricci, which was based on the depiction of imaginary landscapes with ruins of classical architecture, although he was also known for his work as a vedutista, i.e. for his recreation of views of the city. Leonardo Coccorante was born in Naples, where as a young man he began to frequent the workshop of Nicola Casissa, the Flemish landscape painter Jan Frans van Bloemen (1662-1749), Angelo Maria Costa (1670-1721) and Gabriele Ricciardelli. He worked on numerous public and privatemissions, but as mentioned above, his best known work is that in which he depicted large, highly detailed landscapes with classical architectural ruins, but of an imaginary nature. He often included small figures in the foreground to emphasise the vastness of the ruins. Today his work can be seen by the public in major public collections such as the Museo Regionale Agostino Pepoli (Trapani, Italy), the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco (Milan, Italy), the Louvre, the Musée départemental de l'Oise (Beauvais, France), the Musée de Grenoble (France), the Lowe Art Museum (Coral Gables, Florida) and the Honolulu Museum of Art, among many others.Dimensions: 125 x 180 cm: 140 x 195 cm (frame).