Pair of small oil paintings on panel belonging to the "Grand Tour" genre and depicting "View of Florence" and "View of Pisa". Early 19th century.

The term "Grand Tour" was born to define the long journey on the continent undertaken by the scions of the European aristocracy, mostly English, French and Germans, through France and Switzerland to finally arrive in Italy. The route could be done by land, through the Moncenisio pass with a stop in Turin, continuing to Milan, Florence, Rome, or by sea, disembarking in Genoa, and then touching the cities of Bologna, Florence, Siena, Lucca up to Rome . The Grand Tour acquires ever greater importance in parallel with Italian university activities, for centuries a privileged destination for the educational journey of many European students, and, although already widespread in the seventeenth century, it reached its peak in 1700. It is a complex, educational journey , learning and improvement, the duration of which varies from a few months to several years, considered an essential part in the education of the children of the European ruling classes. Accompanied by valets and servants, they often traveled with a tutor, sometimes illustrious. The fundamental destination of the trip is Italy, with its cities of art, its countless grandiose testimonies of the Roman and Greek world and of the splendid Renaissance civilization, to which are added the richness of the landscape and the particular morphology of some territories.

cm. 14x18.5 each