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A Painting that Lets You Do Your Own Storytelling
A view of Naples through a window
Storytelling in art comes in different forms. Some paintings lay out a profusion of narrative signs for you to read as if decoding a puzzle. Other artworks present their story in less prescriptive ways — offering an open invitation for the audience to supply their own imaginative reading.
What I really like about this painting, A View of Naples through a Window, made by the German artist Franz Ludwig Catel, is that it invites you to make your own speculative venturing. The work nudges us in different ways, but much of the meaning — and pleasure — comes simply from the act of looking and imagining.
Through an open door we see a balcony overlooking a city, and in the far distance is a mountain range. From one of the mountains, a plume of smoke tells us we are looking at a volcano. And since this is Naples in Italy, the volcano is of course Mount Vesuvius.
Speaking personally, my eye is first drawn to the sheen on the stone floor — polished terracotta? — that perfectly asserts the riddle of this painting. The glowing band of red, an overture of high colour, works…
