In the new conception of the landscape that emerged between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, nature made its “triumphant” entry into art, becoming the protagonist of the paintings and revealing itself in its majesty. Natural elements such as skies, woods, valleys, rivers and seas ceased to be confined to the backdrops of the paintings. The sea itself became one of the favorite subjects of painters in this era: an emblem of freedom, solitude and feelings, but also an element in constant change of shapes and colors. There are numerous marinas in the permanent collection of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, a true genre loved by painters and collectors.

The main landscape painters of the GAM, almost all from Palermo, have been fascinated by the Mediterranean sea, portrayed from the coast of Palermo or from the Neapolitan and Capri coasts, with a gaze that embraces the physiognomy of these places permeated with myth and lapped by waters, from the most remote Antiquity, defined as a crossroads of people and goods.