Roman Landscape

Artist Cornelis van Poelenburgh (Dutch, 1594 or 1595-1667)

Place of OriginItaly, Rome

Dateabout 1620

DimensionsH: 17 1/2 in. (44.5 cm); W: 23 5/8 in. (60 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1956.52

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 23

Label TextBecause 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.Published ReferencesLawson, E. P., "Dutch Painters in Italy," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, I, Fall, 1957, pp., 11-15, repr. (as Breenbergh).

Vier Generaties Nystad, 1862-1962, The Hague, Nystad Antiquairs, NV, 1962, repr. (no page nos.).

Italy through Dutch Eyes, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1964, no. 50, pl. L.

Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende Landschapschilders, Utrecht, Centraal Museum, 1965, no. 13, pl. 14.

Briganti, Giuliano, Gaspar van Wittel e l'origine della veduta settecentesca, Rome, 1966, repr. p. 15.

Wittmann, Otto, "The Golden Age in the Netherlands," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 475, repr. fig. 25, p. 477.

Zucker, Paul, Fascination of Decay, Ridgewood, NJ, 1968, repr. p. 64.

Millar, Olivaer, 'The Paintings,' in Buckingham Palace and its Treasures, New York, 1968, p. 276.

Stechow, W., Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century, London, 1968, pp. 149, 153, fig. 289.

Gods and Heroes, Baroque Images of Antiquity, New York, Wildenstein, 1969, no. 28, pl. 42.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 53.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 129, pl. 92.

The Origins of the Italian Veduta, Providence, Brown University, 1978, p. 14, repr. fig. 3 (not in exhibition).

Roethlisberger, Marcel, Bartholomeus Breenbergh: the Paintings, Berlin and New York, 1981, no. 44, p. 36, repr.

Meesterlijk vee: Nederlandse veeschilders 1600-1900, Zwolle, 1988, p. 124, fig. 101.

Miedema, Hessel, Kunst historisch, Maarssen, 1989, p. 166, fig. 70.

Great Dutch Paintings from America, The Hague, 1990.

Chard, Chloe and Helen Langdon, ed., Transports: Travel, Pleasure, and Imaginative Geography, 1600-1830, New Haven, 1996, p. 162, fig. 55.

Dutch Masters: The Age of Rembrandt, Lecture by William Kloss, Chantilly, VA, Teaching Company, 2006, DVD.

Lammertse, Friso and Jaap van der Veen, Uylenburgh & Son: Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to DeLairesse, 1625-1675, Zwolle, Waanders, 2006, p. 250, fig. 195, p. 252.

Sluijter-Seijffert, Nicolette, Cornelis van Poelenburgh 1594/5-1667: the Paintings, S.I., John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2016, p. 92, fig. 79 (repr. col.), no. 240 (repr. col.) p. 370.

Exhibition HistoryAnn Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Italy through Dutch Eyes, April 22-May 24, 1964, no. 50.

Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende Landschapschilders, Mar. 10-May 30, 1965, no. 13.

New York, Wildenstein, Gods and Heroes, Baroque Images of Antiquity, 1969, no. 28.