Das Haus des Tasso in Sorrent,

1861

Material / Technology / Carrier

Öl auf Leinwand

Dimensions of the object

27,9 x 38,7 cm

Displayed

Not on display

Department

19th-century Painting

Genre

Painting

Inventory number

11604

Acquisition

1861 durch Adolf Friedrich Graf von Schack erworben

Stock

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Sammlung Schack München

Citation

Carl Morgenstern, Das Haus des Tasso in Sorrent, 1861, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Sammlung Schack München, URL: https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/en/artwork/7yxYY05xYm (Last updated on 19.06.2023)

The painting shows the cliffs near Sorrento with a view of the house in which the poet Torquato Tasso was born. His sister, Cornelia, lived nearby in a house in which Tasso, suffering from mental illness, found refuge in 1577 after fleeing from Ferrara. The Romantics transfigured this episode from literary history into a parable of artistic endeavour in general and it is against this background that Morgenstern’s picture invites the viewer to ponder the poet’s tragic fate.