Johann Christoph Erhard German (1795-1822)

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Image courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Ponte Salario, 1821 Pencil on off-white paper 22.4 x 34.1 cm Bequeathed by Dr. Grete Ring, 1954 WA 1954.70.82

Johann Christoph Erhard (1795-1822) was a German painter and printmaker who received early training in drawing from Christoph Zwinger.  He studied engraving under Ambrosius Gabler.  Very early in life he learned landscape drawing and various printing techniques.  He was fascinated by animal studies and nature in various forms.  He traveled in Germany and Austria making a lot of sketches during his journeys.[i]  Then in 1819 he went to Italy where most probably he stayed continually for the next three years.  In Italy he was very much part of a circle of landscape painters.  In Italy he created many sketches of landscapes.  He showed great promise as an artist, but unfortunately he suffered from mental illness and committed suicide at the age of 27. 

The drawing The Ponte Salario, is executed on off-white paper in pencil.  It is signed and dated at the bottom right—Ponte Salara bei Rom. J.C. Erhard, 1821.  The site, in which the main element is the bridge over the Anio, seems to have been a favorite subject among landscape artists of the 19^th century; there are known at least three other drawings and an etching of the site by Erhard.

This site is part of an ancient road and bridge, but the architectural elements that are depicted are probably not the originals; by the beginning of the 19^th century the road and the bridge had been destroyed and rebuilt more than once.[ii]  This is a very detailed drawing which looks certainly more like a finished product than a sketch.  In this drawing the bridge is actually quite far from the viewer.  The foreground is taken up on the left by open space with some crevices and stones and on the right by a country road that progressively narrows as it approaches the ramp of the bridge.  Some of this “narrowing” has to be due to  perspective, as the bridge occupies a distance relatively further away from the viewer.  Further beyond the bridge there is another structure visible, apparently an ancient wall with a medieval tower on top.  Again, because of the perspective the tower seems to be considerably smaller than the bridge. 

The bridge as seen by the viewer seems to consist of two parts—the bridge proper over the (presumably) river and the tower on top of the bridge with an archway over the road that goes across the bridge.  The archway of the bridge and the archway of the tower on top of it, face opposite directions.  Erhard drew the bridge with great precision, paying attention to every fine detail.  We can see clearly the individual stones which form the bridge and the wall of the bridge, shadows under the archway, weeds growing from the cracks between the stones, the shaded stone walls on either side of the ramp, steep steps leading to the tower, the rampart of the tower with partially damaged crown, the archway in the tower forming the passageway across the bridge.  At the base of the bridge we see shrubbery and grass which seem to be embracing the wall of the bridge.

Erhard drew this image in pencil and probably because of that he was able to achieve much precision in his drawing which might not have been possible had he chosen chalk, for instance.  Since Erhard was also an etcher/engraver it is possible that in his drawings he wanted to achieve an effect similar to that of a print.  Despite all the detail and precision of this drawing, some speculate that this could have been the preparatory work for a watercolor.[iii]

 The overall feeling when viewing this image is of both a landscape and an architectural drawing.  Though basically realistic in its approach, it somehow conveys a certain romantic feeling.