Pictures of the ruins of ancient cities. Ruinist artists dreamers? Sometimes, nevertheless, it is useful to forget all the knowledge gained at school and college in order to take a fresh look at simple, well-known things. And then, without fail, something new will open

Either your dogs are barking, or your ruins are talking.”

V.S.Vysotsky

Jean-Christophe Miville - Ruins on the Seashore.

First off, a little preface. So that the course of my thoughts was clear, and they themselves did not seem so incredible.

Every morally and physically healthy person sooner or later comes to the realization that all life is a continuous run in a circle. Well, or a zebra, as you like. Nevertheless, the essence is the same: One day you wake up in the morning, and you realize that you have spent a lot of vitality on transfusion from empty to empty. You start doing everything anew, taking into account previous experience, and in the end, another morning comes when you have to rethink everything once again.

And it turns out that many people are unable to admit that what they considered unshakable is in fact a delusion or a lie. Have we been taught resilience? We are convinced that there must be some truths that must remain the basis of everything, without the existence of which chaos will begin. Therefore, a person who refuses his beliefs does not cause anyone's respect. They respect the "steadfast tin soldiers." And this is the main problem. It is very difficult to grasp the fine line between truth and error.

And while time flows ... And everything around is rapidly changing. You can not stupidly follow outdated instructions. But at the same time, it is impossible to deviate from the norms of morality, otherwise a “fall into a tailspin” is inevitable, which leads to disaster. The Bible describes the death of Sodom and Gomorrah, and this is about those who decided that moral standards are outdated and not mandatory. I hope to live until the time when the new, current sodomite lands will get what they deserve, in order to make sure that at least these truths are truly unshakable. Otherwise, we will have to admit that HELL exists, and we are in it.

So, let's try to retreat from dogmas, but at the same time, not to cross the line, not to slide into mysticism. Here are some striking paintings by various artists who are less known than the work of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, but which are united not only by era, but also by content.

01.

Unknown artist of the second half of the 18th century.

02.

Pierre Patel the Elder.

03.

Francesco Guardi.

04.

Antonio Canaletto.

05.

Dresden. Antonio Canaletto.

06.

Alessandro Magnasco.

07.

Jacob Van Ruisdael.

08.

Nicholas Peters Burchem.

This master (Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem), painted a lot of landscapes, in which the main characters, of course, are the ruins. I called him Nikolai Petrovich Medvedev, and this is not quite a joke, as many people understand.

The question is reasonable: - “What do they have, in Europe in the 18-19 centuries. there are no undestroyed buildings left? There is a reasonable explanation for this by historians and art historians. The explanation is actually simple and logical, and questioning it is sheer madness. At first glance, indeed, why "fence the garden", it's just a cultural trend, a fashion, or as it has become fashionable to say among patriots now: - "the trend of the times."

Yes. Fashion and style are subject to the tastes and moods, thoughts and feelings of millions. We all see this "monkey" around everywhere. As soon as some famous idiot appears on skis in the frame, hundreds of thousands of idiots begin to sweep ski equipment from the shelves of stores, and they confess to each other in secret that since childhood they only dreamed of getting on skis, like ... Well, you know further. What? Have you succumbed to the epidemic? Is it weak to fly with Siberian Cranes?

Okay, back to our sheep. And also to bulls, sheep and goats, against the backdrop of "ancient" ruins. This is also a trend. The same as shepherds and laundresses, in the landscapes of those years. But did this “current” affect Russia? Do not doubt. Although the memory of Russian ruins was carefully erased in the 19th and even in the 20th century, something still survived. I will show only two works that I have not shown before:

14.

Kyiv Detinets. Unknown artist.

15.

Tower-Ruin in the Catherine Park of Tsarskoye Selo.

Now she looks like she should. Good expensive Tajik renovation, gloss and glamour. But more recently, it looked in line with the European "trend" of the 18th century. Noteworthy is a pebble with a European date, but depicted in Russian numbers.

16.

"Bent" means the number 1762.

To be honest, the authenticity of this plate seems to me very doubtful. In many ways. See for yourself.

But not surprising. The scale of the “cleansing” of the true history of Russia is such that it doesn’t even fit in my head how it was possible to do all this. After all, everything that we have been able to learn about the pre-Romanian empire has been gleaned from sources that were outside the "cleansing" zone, namely in Western universities and libraries.

This fact leaves no doubt as to who exactly "cleaned up" history. Certainly a winner. And this winner is clearly not from our ancestors, otherwise we would write the history of the Anglo-Saxons, and not they to us. Although ... This is not our method. We are not against the great past of ancient European civilization, which, of course, was a hundred thousand million guilders better than our savage.

Of course, I do not assume that the hordes of Germans walked through the forests and fields, and leveled all the ancient structures on the territory of Tartaria with bulldozers. No. It was enough to spit on all this "junk", and not care about saving, that's all. And written sources were destroyed in a similar way. And not only so, but also deliberately, purposefully.

Both under Peter and under Catherine, books, under the pretext of preservation, were taken away from the peasants, and whole convoys were brought to Moscow and St. Petersburg, after which their trace is lost in the darkness. It is clear that the "Old Believer heresy" was simply burned.

In the 1920s, the Bolsheviks acted exactly the same way with the archives of the Romanovs themselves. No wonder they say: - "Do not spit in someone else's well ..."

Well, God be their judge. Let's look at the paintings of another bright representative of the "ruinistic" direction in European painting - Giovanni Paolo Pannini, or as I call him, Ivan Pavlovich Panov.

As you can see for yourself, the main character of the creations are ancient ruins. Nothing new, only in the ruins there are no cattle with cattle, but “normal Europeans”. Middle class and nobility. But it doesn't change the essence. Some ruins still exist today in the form of restored structures, or outright remodels. But most of what surrounded people quite recently was irretrievably stolen, stolen for urgent economic needs.

These plots are also united by the fact that the artist photographically captured reality, without thinking about the subsequent interpretation by descendants of their creations. And the descendants turned out to be ungrateful, they considered their great-great-great-grandfathers half-wits, dark, uneducated dreamers, inclined to exaggerate, embellish, and generally suck from the finger.

Here is what all modern encyclopedias and reference books write about “ruinistic” painting: - “___ SUBSTITUTE THE NAME OF ANY OF THE ABOVE ARTISTS IN THIS PLACE ____ - And famous for his picturesque fantasies, whose main motive is parks and real, and more often imaginary "majestic ruins" (in the words Diderot ), many sketches for which he made during his stay in Italy.

And are we supposed to believe it? Because the authority spoke? And if I don’t want to take a word, and seeing all this splendor, I can’t believe that the artist reproduced those buildings that have survived to this day with photographic accuracy, and those that are no longer there, he just took them out of his head! Why all of a sudden!?

The truth is that the artists did not invent anything, they documented the world around them, and we see that in the 18th century, by historical standards - YESTERDAY - the civilization of European pastoral peasants, ruled by a handful of those who had more expensive rags on their bodies, existed on the ruins of gigantic megalithic structures, which they themselves clearly did not build.

Original taken from geogen_mir in MYSTERIES OF CIVILIZATION. Ancient ruins in paintings and engravings by Sebastian and Marco Riccia

Original taken from by_enigma in The ruins of an ancient civilization in the paintings and engravings of Sebastiano Ricci and Marco Ricci

Hubert Robert, Panini Giovanni Paolo and, of course, Piranesi Giovanni are recognized masters of painting. However, there were painters little known to us who also painted the ruined legacy of previous civilizations. It was with such artists that I wanted to introduce you. Meet Sebastiano Ricci and Marco Ricci.

My remarks: People very often post collections like this without understanding their hidden meaning. As far as I understand, the artists who painted these paintings lived at the end of the 17th century. And Italy is depicted in the paintings of their time. And what do we see? And we see "ancient" Rome. Only this "ancient world" is no more than 100 years old. If not less. Pay attention to the statues, they are painted almost intact in the pictures. with rare exceptions. Only the heads have been torn off. Well, it’s clear, the neck is usually thin, and where it’s thin, it breaks. By the way, it is not entirely clear why the statues were preserved. Is the material from which they are made stronger than the one from which the houses were built? But one way or another, but "ancient" Rome, we can safely date the 16th century. By the way, in the next picture and the last one, the pyramids are very clearly visible. But today's archaeologists will dig up such ruins and, how to drink, they will attribute them to the time before the birth of Christ.
In general, all this converges with my research on this matter. The history known to us began in Europe somewhere in the 15th century. And all the antiquities from there, from the Middle Ages. Although what kind of Middle Ages is it?
I wrote a comment here:We have an abandoned building from 1986. it was not completed. Bushes and trees like those sprouted on it. what's in the pictures. And thicker birch trees grow nearby than here. This is despite the fact that Belarus is not Italy. Our trees grow slowly. The ruins according to the structure of damage to buildings are not destroyed by time and not by local marauders. There is no "cultural layer" on the ground under the buildings. I believe that the artists painted the destruction that occurred during their lifetime..

Famous ruin artists such as Piranesi, Hubert Robert, Panini are officially considered dreamers. Explaining their ruins in the paintings with a mixture of real architectural objects and those invented by them. But to better understand this, you can compare paintings and engravings with real ruins that you can feel with your hands. I managed to visit Rome and find some objects that struck me in the engravings of Piranesi and paintings by other artists. Why did you want to take it apart? Because he was very attentive to details and depicted everything he saw with photographic accuracy.

Everything is neglected, people in rags graze cattle. On the ground and on top of the arch lies a layer of earth. Very similar to traces of flooding.
Now:


Everything is like an engraving. Up close, you can see how well the blocks are processed, how the joints fit, how the patterns move from block to block.
It is simply impossible to gouge with a chisel with the help of a crowd of slaves. And those people in the engraving are clearly not related to such buildings.

Quite by accident I came across this arch and immediately recognized it.


Now she huddles among residential buildings:


How many centuries will she still stand? Equally skillfully made of carved stone blocks.
Obviously, some powerful force spoiled it: an earthquake or a flood, or both.

One of the pyramids that were in Rome. There were several of them, judging by the pictures. Apparently, the culture of Rome and Egypt was in close contact and influenced each other, since in addition to the pyramids, obelisks with Egyptian symbols still survived in Rome. The obelisks have been standing in their places for a long time, because is also in the paintings of the "ruinists" in the same places as now.


Now:

I have long dreamed of seeing this pyramid, so I could not resist, posted a few photos, suddenly someone is interested in the details.
As you can see, the current level of the earth is much higher than that on which the pyramid and the wall adjacent to it stand.
Almost all the ruins in Rome are immersed in a layer of earth. They were already immersed to such a depth at the time of their depiction by artists.

I wonder how the barbarians could destroy such a grand structure with their hands? The textbooks didn't tell us about it.


That is, someone designed with the help of drawing tools, calculated all the elements, loads, organized production and delivery
building materials, then, according to all the rules, with all the patterns, a huge building was made of bricks. And then the barbarians came with their hands and sticks
did they dig everything and beat off pieces of several tons with their feet?
When you stand next to these thick, perfectly even, patterned walls, you absolutely do not believe the official story.

These people at Capitol Hill here look like outsiders, outsiders. Weak, sick, dressed in rags.

Pay attention to the growth of people in pointed hats: horses are up to their chests. Maybe it was for them that such high doorways were made?

My and not only my conclusion: those who built these buildings, arches and monuments possessed technologies that they could not use according to the official
versions of history. Their civilization was very advanced, they built with stone easily and naturally. No slaves can be trained to build like this.
At some point after the catastrophe, civilization disappeared and the buildings collapsed. Well, the artists just found more ruins, unlike us.
Subsequently, they were taken away for building materials, and to museums. I can’t call these artists dreamers, because I myself was convinced on the spot that what they depicted was real.

They haven't completely stood the test of time, have they? Otherwise they would not be called ruins. But, despite the obvious traces of decay, the loss of a full appearance, once conceived by unknown geniuses, there is still a lot of beauty in them. Yes. Despite the fact that, looking at them, you feel the burden of centuries .... They are witnesses to the flourishing of civilization, how many generations feasted or prayed in these ruins, which were once beautiful palaces and temples!
Are we watching?

Machu Picchu (Cusco, Peru)

A photo Boris G
... The city of ancient America Machu Picchu in the country of modern Peru, on top of a mountain range at an altitude of 2450 meters above sea level, it dominates the valley of the Urubamba River.

Chichen Itza (Tinum, Mexico)

A photo Ted Van Pelt

Pre-Columbian Mayan city of Chichen Itza​​ visited by more than 1.2 million people annually. It is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico. One of the most legendary and mysterious...

Stonehenge (Wiltshire, England)

And this one? Do you recognize? Romantic building... A sanctuary built in an incomprehensible way. How did the ancients raise these stones?
Surrounded by hundreds of graves, Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England. Archaeologists claim that it was built between 3000 and 2000 BC.

Ta Prom (Siem Reap, Cambodia)

Made even more famous by the filming of the blockbuster "Lara Croft - Tomb Raider", overrun by trees and suffocating vines, Ta Prohm Temple has retained the mysterious atmosphere of the past and has become for many the highlight of a visit to the Angkor complex.

The Council of the French School of the Far East decided not to carry out a full-scale restoration in the temple, although, on the one hand, the trees were slowly destroying the monument, on the other hand, they were so fused with the ancient walls that they became one with them.

Created by Jayavarman VII for his mother, and consecrated in 1186, Ta Prohm Temple became the centerpiece of the city as well as an active Buddhist monastery.

"Stone caves at the Dragon Gate ( longmen)

Longmen (literally "Stone Caves at the Dragon Gate") is a complex of Buddhist cave temples in the Chinese province of Henan, 12 km south of Luoyang. Along with Mogao and Yungang, it is considered one of the three most significant cave temple complexes in China. Included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Luxor Temple (Luxor, Egypt)

Ancient people called Luxor in Egypt (then Thebes) "the city of palaces". Indeed, several magnificent temples have been preserved in Lukosra and its environs.

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall stretches across northern England from the Irish to the North Sea. The wall was assembled from stones, peat and turf 5-6 high ... The fortresses of Hadrian's Wall. The best preserved fortification ruins can be seen in the counties of Cumbria and Northumberland.

Baalbek (Bekaa, Lebanon)

Already in the 16th century, Europe became aware of the presence of grandiose ruins here, which became a must-see for European travelers of the 19th century. Flaubert, Twain and Bunin left curious descriptions of their impressions of Baalbek.

And this is the largest processed stone. The riddle, how did the ancients succeed?

Among all the wonders of antiquity, the Baalbek veranda (Baalbek terrace) occupies a special position.
From the guide:
An almost mystical story is connected with this city: when archaeologists “rediscovered” it, many came to the conclusion that it was the fruit of the construction of extraterrestrial civilizations that explored the solar system in ancient times. It was hard to believe that the huge blocks of the Baalbek terrace are the result of only human labor without the use of any high-tech mechanisms.

Coba (Quintana Roo, Mexico)

In the first millennium AD, Coba was the largest Mayan city with a population of 50,000 people. After the Spanish conquistadors came to the Yucatan, the Indians left the city, and the buildings gradually collapsed and overgrown with jungle. The ruins of Koba were discovered at the end of the 19th century, but excavations are still ongoing.

Capriccio (Italian capriccio, literally “caprice”) is a genre of landscape painting, popular in the 17th-18th centuries. The paintings of this genre depicted architectural fantasies, mostly the ruins of fictitious ancient buildings.

Robert Hubert, French painter (1733-1808). Known for pictorial fantasies, whose main motifs are parks and real majestic ruins, many sketches for which he made during his stay in Italy. Robert's paintings were highly valued by his contemporaries. His paintings are presented in the Louvre, the Carnival Museum, the St. Petersburg Hermitage and other palaces and estates in Russia, in many major museums in Europe, the USA, Canada, and Australia. The fact that the painter depicted on his canvases raises many questions, but historians did not bother, summarizing that this is only the "imagination" of the author and considered the topic closed.

"Capriccio with Pyramids"

"Architectural landscape with a canal"

The artist traveled extensively in Europe and left us very interesting paintings, from which we can get some idea of ​​the past.

"Ruins of a Doric Temple"

"Terrace ruins in Marley Park"

This is the Sanssouci palace and park complex in Potsdam, built in 1745-1747 according to the design of King Frederick the Great himself. The construction, it turns out, is completely new at that time, but for some reason the artist is drawn to draw its imaginary ruins.

"Ancient ruins serving as a public bath"

"Villa Madama near Rome"

From Wikipedia: "The later name of the country villa of Cardinal Giulio de Medici, the future Pope Clement VII, unfinished in the 16th century. Built on the slope of Monte Mario on the western bank of the Tiber River north of the Vatican." But in my opinion, these are the ruins of a structure that is much older.

"Washerwomen among the ruins"

It is clearly seen in his paintings that the people depicted in them live among the ruins of former civilizations and absolutely cannot at least bring them into a decent appearance, not to mention some kind of restoration.

"Forgotten Statue"

"Stable in the ruins of the Villa Giulia"

The depicted people, with their appearance, do not at all correspond to grandiose structures and look among these ruins of their former grandeur like swarming mice.

"A hermit prays among the ruins of an ancient temple"

"Staircase with columns"

"Old Bridge"

"Portico of a country mansion"

"Tomb of Caecilia Metella in Rome"

"Interior of the Temple of Diana in Nimes"

"Pont du Gard"

"View of the Port of Ripetta in Rome"

"Coliseum"

"Landscape at the obelisk"

"Landscape with arch and dome of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome"

"Ruin"

"Italian Park"

Guardi Francesco Lazzaro(1712-1793) - Italian painter, representative of the Venetian school of painting. Also a big dreamer, otherwise how to explain such absolutely fantastic views of Venice?

"Capriccio with Pyramid"

"Arcade in front of the city with towers"

"Capriccio"

"Capriccio"

"Capriccio with bridge, ruins and lagoon"

"Venice"

Giovanni Paolo Panini(1691 - 1765) - one of the founders of the architectural ruin landscape. The artist inhabited his architectural views and interiors with small human figures, playing on the favorite theme of the 18th century - a comparison of the grandeur of the ancient past and the triviality of the present. As an artist, Panini is best known for his paintings of the sights of Rome, in which he paid great attention to its antiquity.

Rome lay in ruins, living among the grandiose remnants of its history. The ruins were the Colosseum, temples, baths, which were part of everyday life, they were settled. Attaching to the stone walls of the hut, clogging the palace windows with boards, attaching wooden ladders to marble, covering the ancient vaults with thatch. And among those ruins, artists and architects swarm with their albums and tape measures, again and again trying to extract from them the secrets of eternal beauty...

"Architectural Capriccio"

"Pantheon"

"Interior of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome"

"Capriccio of Classical Ruins"

"Interior view of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome"

Giovanni Antonio Canaletto(1697 - 1768) Italian artist, head of the Venetian school of vedutists, master of urban landscapes in the style of academicism, also painted canvases in the style of architectural romanticism. Giovanni Paolo Panini had a great influence on his work.

"Architectural Capriccio"

"Arch of Constantine in Rome"

"Piazza Navona in Rome"

"Capriccio with ruins and gates of Portello in Padua"

Alessandro Magnasco(1667-1749). Italian painter, representative of the romantic trend in baroque art. Born in Genoa. Alessandro Magnasco painted genre scenes from the life of gypsies, soldiers, monks, marked with “demonic” sarcasm, in many of which human figures are lost among the grandiose ancient ruins.

"Bacchanalia"

"Halt of the bandits"

"Architectural capriccio with a musician and peasants at the small altar of St. Anthony of Padua"

Nicholas Peters Berchem(1620-1683) - Dutch painter, graphic artist and engraver. This master traveled a lot in Italy and also painted a lot of landscapes, in which the main characters are undoubtedly picturesque ruins, as well as peasants with their cattle against their background.

"Landscape with the ruins of an aqueduct"

"Shepherds with a flock among the ruins"

"Italian landscape with ruins"

"Italian landscape"

"Peasants with livestock at the ancient Roman source"

"Return from the hunt"

"Landscape with a waterfall and the Temple of the Sibyl in Tivoli"