Il Foro di Pompei II

De Nittis’s language is sensitively tuned to the different natures of the various objects depicted. In this second variation on the theme of the Forum of Pompeii the forms are marked by the meeting, or rather the impact, of light and stone.
The columns rising from the ruins of the Forum are bathed in a warm light, whose purity tinged with the gentle tones of the rose-coloured sunset stands out in an indistinct archaeological landscape, almost veiled by the richer pink hues that envelop it.
From the impact of light on stone, De Nittis draws a vision that radically distances him from the theme of archaeology explored through ruins, in the style of 18th and 19th century art, based on pure description or expressed as a melancholic meditation on the decay of ancient empires.
In this Foro De Nittis is not guided by either a descriptive or a meditational purpose. Instead, he follows the changes brought about by the light, shifting throughout the day and touching different materials, on the emergence of objects rather than their actual appearance.