Roman Landscape
Artist: Cornelis van Poelenburgh (Dutch, 1594 or 1595-1667)
Date: about 1620
Dimensions:
H: 17 1/2 in. (44.5 cm); W: 23 5/8 in. (60 cm)
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1956.52
Label Text:Because art was in high demand in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century, many artists specialized in a particular subject in order to find a niche in the market. Landscapes were the most plentiful and popular category of images produced in the Netherlands and encompassed everything from scenes of the local Dutch landscape to imaginary views of the Italian countryside, known as “Italianate” landscapes.
Utrecht artist Cornelis van Poelenburgh spent time in Italy, where he painted this view of the picturesque, overgrown ruins of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. The shepherds with their goats and cattle grazing among the ruins of a once-mighty empire fit into 17th-century poetic notions of the pastoral ideal—an uncomplicated way of life uncorrupted by civilization.
Utrecht artist Cornelis van Poelenburgh spent time in Italy, where he painted this view of the picturesque, overgrown ruins of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. The shepherds with their goats and cattle grazing among the ruins of a once-mighty empire fit into 17th-century poetic notions of the pastoral ideal—an uncomplicated way of life uncorrupted by civilization.
On view
In Collection(s)