ROME.- The Amphitheater Campano or Amphitheater Capuano is a Roman amphitheater in the city of Capua, nowadays located in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, second in size only at the Colosseum, which probably served as a model, probably being the first amphitheater in the Roman world. It was home to the first and most revering school of gladiators.

In one of the two watercolors offered by Ottocento Art Gallery, Giacinto Gigante, undisputed father of Posillipo’s school after the death of Pitloo in 1837, portrays the ruins of the amphitheater, exalting its chromatic values, monumentality, basing its composition on a wise use of the light and dark contrasts, realized by the juxtaposition of white lead shots. The Neapolitan painter brings the viewer to the cultural atmosphere of the Grand Tour, featuring in the picture depicted the figure of a foremost pastor and a group of visitors in the background, elements that refer to the interest that the amphitheater had to collect as a favorite destination of the European travelers visiting the Italian artistic and archaeological heritage.

The son of another painter, Gaetano, Giacinto Gigante shows in the second painting offered by the Roman art Gallery his pictorial talent bringing to great levels the study from the true of Pompeii landscapes and its views, where the feeling of lyrical intimacy always prevails. Visual angles are never wide, but narrow in small spaces seen with almost photographic cut; while the intimate feeling is given by a sort of transfiguration of reality in a calm and almost melancholic vision.

Like many other of his contemporaries, Gigante was also interested in the rediscovery of things ancient, and dedicated himself to an archaeological type of landscape. He chose an oblique perspective which best suited the wide-angle view of this well-known Pompeiian street and of the background of the ancient town. The artist abandons a purely illustrative approach in favour of a more poetic vision in which archaeological detail gives way to some extraordinary play of light and colour.

These two watercolors are part of the period during which Gigante touches the pinnacle of his career. In fact, in 1850 he entered the orbit of Ferdinand II’s court receiving the commission of drawings with views of Gaeta for Queen Maria Teresa. The following year he is named honorary professor at the Academy of Fine Arts. Also in 1851 he was instructed to give painting lessons to the princesses, after which, between 1852 and 1855, he went to the houses of Caserta, Ischia and Gaeta, receiving the title of Knight of the Order of Francis I: evocative documentation of these stays are the “Royal Villa in Ischia” ( Museo di S. Martino ), the “Royal Park of Quisisana”, the “Casino of Caserta”, “La Marinella” and “Napoli from via Posillipo” ( Museo Of Capodimonte ), in which the architectures blend with the landscape in a quick writing that gives a lyrical intonation to the views.