The snow-covered basin of San Martino di Castrozza and the rock front of the Pala group
The panoramic frame brings together in a single field the three planes that make up the landscape of San Martino di Castrozza. In the foreground the conifer wood closes the lower edge; beyond it, the band of snow-covered meadows is crossed by a road and holds a single isolated building; in the background the rock barrier of the Pala di San Martino group extends across the frame. The peaks follow one another from left to right: a relief with a pyramidal profile, a sector of closely set spires and, at the right edge, a pair of twinned towers. The arrangement of the planes sets out the altitudinal organisation of the basin. The valley floor is given over to meadows and settlement; above them the wood climbs the slope to the tree line; beyond that threshold the carbonate rock rises with no vegetation cover. The isolated building in the middle of the meadows belongs to the type of hay barn built for the seasonal use of pasture, and the road passing beside it follows the contour line rather than climbing the slope. Light reaches only the summits, where the rock takes on warm tones, while the band of wood and meadow stays entirely in shadow: the sun is already below the horizon for the valley floor and still lights the higher ground. The sky is cloudless and even in colour. Snow cover is continuous on the meadows and broken under the conifers, and among the trees some specimens carry no needles.
