Italian landscapes seem to be very popular among the early Romantic painters. Such trend knows no boundaries of geography, and extends from France to Russia. This painting of the Roman landscape is primary example of such tradition. The main subject, the castle, is portrayed on the right, but the approach to it is made through the river, the Tiber . The depiction of people adds to the realism of the painting and fits nicely with the rest of the composition. The scene is very softly colored: green and yellow tones dominate, while shading and highlights contribute to the realistic rendering of this scene. St. Peter is in the background and it seems as if a soft mist were covering it. That increases the romantic atmosphere of this painting. The sky is an even more "romantic" element. The light blue and the white of the clouds are a nice contrast. The focus on the sky seems to be a characteristic of many Romantic painters. Nature as whole will be re-introduced as a main focus of composition and not just merely as a decoration.

The most interesting aspect of the painting is this contrast between the realism of a scene with real people attending their everyday chores and the Romantic look of the sky, the green grass, and the monuments in the background. While in other painters of the time the Romantic tendency is much more evident, here it is subtler. It seems that the painter is very much connected with a more realistic idea of the landscape he is portraying. Artists like the French, Camille Corot (1796-1875), painted similar landscapes. Like Shchedrin, Corot was born at the end of the 18th century and fully expressed himself as a painter in the 19th century. In The Forum Seen from the Farnese Gardens, painted in 1826 (see above), he portrays a very similar landscape with a far more Romantic slant. Corot focuses on the landscape itself while Shchedrin introduces the human element in the composition. Corot's composition has far more languid colors and is less defined in contours, Shchedrin's work has highlights and shadows, sharp contours, and is far more "realistic." This painting offers an extraordinary opportunity to witness the change in tendencies, from a more "realistic" neoclassical mode to the Romantic. [S.C.]