ROTTMANN, Carl
(b. 1797, Handschuhsheim, d. 1850, München)

The Battlefield at Marathon

c. 1849
Oil on canvas, 91 x 91 cm
Nationalgalerie, Berlin

This Romantic canvas of the battlefield at Marathon is one of a series of oil sketches Rottmann prepared as a Munich court painter for a projected fresco cycle of thirty-eight "Greek Landscapes" intended to supplement those of Italy. Marathon was a site with a powerful political agenda. It was the battleground that represented the triumph of the West over the East, of the Greeks over the Persians.




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