Tarantella, ca. 1830

About the Work

She is dancing the tarantella - but there is no trace here of the merry, fast rhythm of the folk dance from southern Italy. Although the events surrounding the dancing look like a tavern scene that has been transferred to the open air, the figures look strangely restrained. The focus is not on the protagonist but on a melancholy "female spectator" who remains as unmoved by the performance as the monk gazing pensively out to sea. Blechen captures in masterly fashion the colours of Italy, where he sojourned for almost a year in 1828-29. And yet his view of the south here is a broken one.