Sir Alexander’s Eucalyptus
€250,00
Description by the artist
Watercolor dedicated to a rare species of Eucalyptus and to the beauty of rare plants well acclimatized to the Sicilian sun. In particular, a specimen at Villa Aurea, in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. The watercolor technique allows you to capture reality in a fresh and extemporaneous way and is part of the story of a special trip in an archaeological area of my Sicily through images in an illustrated narrative path that starts from the direct relationship of the places visited.
Details and dimensions
The artwork in the Sicilian culture
The Valley of the Temples is one of the great masterpieces of humanity. Located where once stood the powerful Sicilian city of Akragas, is characterized by the exceptional state of preservation of a series of Doric temples. Among almond and olive trees this place takes us back 2500 years with the columns, in some cases still intact, soaring into the sky in search of Zeus and members. A unique heritage in a strongly Sicilian landscape. Villa Aurea is a beautiful early twentieth century villa near the Valley of the Temples and built by Sir Alexander Hardcastle, an English soldier with a passion for archeology. This patron spent his life restoring abandoned temples in state of neglect. Then he had a financial collapse and sold the villa. The garden of Villa Aurea, which can be visited today, is a Mediterranean enchantment, amidst hedges scented with myrtle, rosemary and lavender, among exotic species and rare specimens, such as our watercolor, the Eucalyptuserythrocorys, perhaps the only presence in Sicilian historic gardens.
(photo) Agrigento, Landscape with the city in the distance, paper, cc 1770, Chatelet