(Berlin 1786–1879 Paris)
The Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome, after the fire of 1823,
signed, lower centre: J. Faure,
oil on canvas, 74 x 62 cm, framed

During the night from 15 to 16 July 1823, the early Christian Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome was devastated by fire. The gravity of the event is recorded by Stendhal in his Promenades dans Rome under the date of 4 July 1828. Noting his thoughts and feelings on seeing the ruins, he writes: ‘Je visitai Saint-Paul le endemain de l’incendie. J’y trouvai une beauté sévère et une empreinte de malheur […] Tout retraçait l’horreur et le désordre de ce malheureux événement; l’eglise était encombrée de poutres noires fumantes et à demi brûlées; de grands fragments de colonnes fendues de haut en bas menaçaient de tomber au moindre ébranlement. Les Romains qui remplissaient l’église étaient costernés’ (see Stendhal, Promenades dans Rome, Paris 1829, ed. by Gallimard, Paris 1997, p. 346).

The ruined wreckage of the destroyed interior of the basilica accorded with the atmosphere of romanticism that pervaded the early nineteenth century, and this was enhanced by the presence of Gothic elements in the church architecture such as the ciborio of Arnolfo di Cambio. The only parts of the ancient basilica that were recovered and reassembled in the new basilica are shown in this painting: the exceptionally large apse mosaics (measuring 24 x 12 meters) executed by the Venetian masters who had worked at San Marco, Venice, between 1220 and 1227; the mosaics of the presbytery arch dating to the age of Pope Leo I (440-461) and finally Arnolfo’s marble ciborio of 1285 which managed to escape the fire almost entirely unscathed.

The impact of this event can also be measured by the images that recorded it. Between 1823 and 1824 it was a chosen subject for several artists, most notably Luigi Rossini who made an etching of the ruined basilica in 1823; Léopold Robert made a painting that is today in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Neuchâtel; Alexander Brjullov produced a watercolour today in the Russian State Museum, Saint Petersburg; and Wilhelm Noack realised a work in the Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen.

Faure arrived in Rome around 1820, he was one of the many northern artists who made the journey to Italy to observe the beauty of the light and landscape in order to develop their art, painting directly from nature. He was born in Berlin to French parents. Little information survives on the artist’s whereabouts during his formative years, however, once he settled in Paris, he became a student of the famed historical landscape painter Jean-Victor Bertin, whose extensive oeuvre is dominated by views of the Italian landscape. His depiction of landscapes and his treatment of light had a strong influence on all his students, including Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Charles-François Daubigny.