Landscape with Figures

A man and woman, dressed in seventeenth-century garb, rest on some rocks in a landscape as their dog sniffs around nearby. The man holds a musket with a long barrel, while the woman’s left hand rests on a lute sitting face down on the ground. Behind them, nestled on a rocky outcrop, is a house and a crenulated round tower above; an archway, perhaps carved out of the rockface, connects the two. Three small figures, a donkey and a dog congregate around a thatched overhang. The landscape stretching out behind them has an indeterminate quality, though a body of water is perhaps suggested. Despite the patch of brilliant blue sky, the billowing clouds are touched with impending darkness and the long shadows suggest that it could be early evening.

The Dutch painter Jacob van Staverden (c. 1656–after 1716) was a member of the Bamboccianti, a group of Northern European artists working in the Italian city of Rome and famous for their perceivably bawdy scenes of everyday life, often in fantasy rural settings. The subject matter of this picture fits into their repertoire, though the meaning of the couple in the foreground and the nature of the setting remains unclear and enigmatic.