Lot 1212 Dα

During his stay in Rome from 1828 to 1835, Nerly frequently visited the foothills of Capo Circeo, located around 90 km from the city, and from there undertook numerous hikes to Terracina. He recorded these walks in drawings of the coast with its watchtowers, grottoes and vegetation.
Nerly described a stay in the fishing village of San Felice on the slopes of Monte Circeo (also known as Monte Circello in the 18th and 19th century) in a letter to Johann Christian Reinhart: “I just returned from a wonderful sea voyage and simply couldn't resist reporting to you some of the charms of Cap Felice… I feel wonderful here, like the lost Odysseus. By day I sit upon the ancient rubble with my paintbrush in one hand and a copy of the Odyssey in the other, looking out towards the endless ocean and surrounded by the scent of verdant myrtles in which a myriad of nightingales twitter and sing, and thus I come home of the evenings half dazed…” (F. Meyer op. cit. p. 52)
The present work is dated 1832 and depicts a more or less exact portrait of the view to the south as seen from Monte Circeo. On the opposite coast we see the town of Terracina in the distance. To the right of which looms the characteristic rocky promontory known as Pisco Montano, which is towered over by Monte Sant´Angelo on the left, with the squat, elongated form of the temple of Jupiter Anxur partially visible at its summit. The mountains to the left of this are the Monti Ausoni. In the mid-ground of the work, we see two of the watchtowers built in the 15th century to protect from the onslaughts of marauding North African pirates, and the Pontine Marshes stretch out over the left plane of the coastline.
Despite the realistic contemporary landscape veduta in the background of the work, Nerly has taken some liberties with the figures in the foreground. The “Wine Grower's Procession on Monte Circello”, as the work is traditionally entitled, is by no means intended to represent 19th century vinegrowers. This becomes especially clear when we compare the piece to an engraving by Ludwig Richter depicting several contemporary peasants. In contrast to these rustic characters, Nerly's figures are dressed in light, classical costumes and sandals, and on the right we see a woman with her breasts exposed - something that would have been unthinkable in 1832. The flimsy garments, double flutes, tambourines, amphorae, baskets of grapes and nude children in Nerly's work are in fact more reminiscent of a triumph of Bacchus or a Bacchanalian feast than a scene of wine growers returning from the fields. The poses of many of the individual figures are also based on traditional depiction of classical mythology, for example the lady in the foreground with arms upraised being embraced by a man is reminiscent of depictions of the nymph Daphne fleeing from the attentions of Apollo.
This painting is probably based on a sketch made in 1832 which depicts the landscape devoid of figural staffage (W. Morath-Vogel, no. 60). Previously, this motif was only known from a single, undated work painted around 1860 and kept in the Angermuseum in Erfurt (W. Morath-Vogel, no. 22). However, Franz Meyer records in a biography of the painter that upon his return from southern Italy, Nerly used his studies of Terracina to create “several large and densely populated works depicting the 'Return from the Wine Harvest', a subject which he was to return to once more later in his career with great success.” And further “He had already attempted similar compositions whilst still in Rome, but as he noted himself in a letter, he had not yet attained the necessary artistic maturity to successfully carry out his designs.”
The present work is presumably one of these larger and more densely populated works using a similar composition to those attempted in Rome. The canvas is slightly smaller than that in Erfurt, but includes the same figures and depicts the same stretch of coastline. We see the same shepherd, the same dead tree on the right, which forms the same odd contrast to the group of living trees behind it - the greatest difference lies in the artist's use of light. The scene in the 1832 canvas is bathed in bright midday sunlight, whilst the Erfurt version takes place at twilight. In the present work, one can almost feel the intensity of the southern heat, and it is not hard to image the artist on Monte Circeo following the footsteps of Homer “half dazed” from birdsong and myrtle in the blazing heat of a southern summer's day. The midday sun seems to lend the ancient pastoral landscape a hint of the antique, but this is contrasted with the image of a realistic veduta in the background, in which details such as the 19th century shepherd banish any classicising sentiments.
The image suggests that on Monte Circeo, myth and reality can coexist - if only for a moment - to be captured by the artist's skilful brush.
The present work presents such a marked contrast to the Erfurt work that it can be considered a valuable independent addition to Nerly's oeuvre.
We would like to thank Dr. Claudia Nordhoff for this catalogue entry, here presented in a slightly shortened form.