Neapolitan school of the second half of the 18th century. "Caprices of classical ruins". Pair of oil paintings on glass. Frames from the 19th century. It presents some faults in the painting. Measurements: 8 x 14 cm; 15 x 21 cm (frame). In this pair of "caprices" the sea is boldly introduced and this landscape genre with Greco-Roman ruins is taken up again, a theme that was at its peak during Romanticism. In 18th-century Italian painting it developed in its own right, thanks to the large number of architectural remains preserved in the country. The taste for the artistic remains of the past, the widespread travels of writers and artists in search of monuments and works of art that could serve as a source of inspiration, and the discovery of important ancient remains such as those of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum undoubtedly contributed to the success of the genre. It is a pictorial genre, moreover, that has its roots in the 17th century, in the veduta, not always topographical but sometimes extremely imaginative, of artists such as Canaletto and others.