Heinrich Bürkel's landscape and genre paintings of the Alps enjoyed great early success with the Bavarian bourgeoisie, and later also in England, the USA and Russia. From 1830, he spent two years in Italy. Unlike his genre paintings, his oil studies show him to be an unconventional painter who enjoyed experimenting. Two men in monk’s robes stand in front of the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. Even if one could see romantic symbols in the Back views and the animal skull in the foreground, these take a back seat to the view of the enormous arches of the walls, which is entirely focussed on the immediate impression.