Seaport with the Embarkation of St. Ursula

A calm harbor opens toward the rising sun, its light spilling in a golden path across the water between grand classical palaces, ships at anchor, and figures on the quay where Saint Ursula and her companions prepare to embark. Claude Lorrain makes the true subject not the saint but the light itself - the luminous, hazy air of an idealized Mediterranean dawn. Now in London's National Gallery, it is one of his serene poetic seaports; its companion, the embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, is also in this collection.