Ideal Landscape with a Young Man Killing a Snake

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The oblong imaginary landscapes shows two threatening motifs: dark clouds anticipate a storm, on the right bank of river a young man is killing a dangerous snake. The murky ruined aqueduct on the left and the dark mass of trees and elevation on the right convey an anguished mood. Sunshine still beams through the aqueduct arch and illuminates the falling water; the snake – killer and his companion are in the light and they are about to win; a promise of better weather is seen in the distance. A sublime thrill is a part of the charm of the light and a brillant colours of the southern landscape. As in the writings of Kant and English philosophers that were widely read and valued in the time of Neoclassicism, the mightiness of Nature with the aesthetics of the beauty of pleasing horror is present here. This is also enhanced by the ambiguity of the murkiness and rain, whether a natural a natural phenomenon or a sombre mood. Such ambiguous character is typical of Poussin’s works.

Artist Franc Kavčič/Caucig

Year of creation before 1810

Technique oil, canvas

Dimensions 122 x 177,5 cm

Inventory number NG S 3339, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Preservation: The strecher was to weak and unsuitable and it caused loss of paint; it has been replaced. Tinted chalk ground.
Restored: 2006, Kemal Selmanović, Ljubljana
Provenance: Before 1810: painted for Palais Auersperg in Vienna; 1953: the painting in Idomeneo Saal was bought, together with palace, by consul Alfred Weiss. After his death the palace was sold in 1987; several owners followed; 2006: the National Gallery of Slovenia bought the painting from a private collector of Vienna.
Exhibition: Franc Kavčič/Caucig; Paintings for Palais Auersperg in Vienna; National Gallery of Ljubljana, 24 October 2007 – 10 February 2008
Lit. Annalen 1810, p. 359 ( several scenes from Gessner’s Idylls and after Athenaeus in the palace of prince Auersperg in Vienna ); Boeckh 1825, p. 328 ( twelve paintings, part landscapes part histories); Kukuljević 1858, p. 153 ( various paintings showing the ” environs ” and historical scenes ); Palais Auersperg, c. 1957, p. 23 ( Red Marble Hall, overdoors showing heroic landscapes, latter half 18th c. ); Rozman 1978, p. 61