Scene de viaţă cotidiană din secolul al XVIII-lea în vederi urbane ale pictorului Luigi Mayer
Scenes of Everyday Life in the 18th Century Urban Views of The painter Luigi Mayer

Summary/Abstract: Even though Orientalism has become a defined style only in the 19th Century, its roots can be traced from the general preference for the exotic in the 18th Century. The artistic way of treating Oriental subjects took the form of image recordings made by artists travelling through picturesque East countries, with scenes obviously selected to match the taste of a European public. Luigi Mayer (1755–1803), an Italian artist born in Germany who lived for many years in Rome, was one of the artists from the 18th Century which ventured to the East. He is a pre Orientalist painter, known as the author of very precise views of the Middle East. For almost two decades (1776–1794) he was the official painter of Sir Robert Ainslie, the British ambassador at Constantinople. the long return journey from Constantinople to London, undertaken on land because of the war with France, Luigi Mayer had the opportunity to capture on paper some pictures of our lands. The artist pays great attention not only to architectural elements of buildings, but local occupations, clothes and characteristic details of the places he went through. In his pictures one can find information about political, economic, social and religious life. They depict scenes of daily life of ordinary people, as well as of the ruling classes representatives.

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