Putti in a Landscape

Executed in oil on canvas, Vassallo employs a muted palette that softens the foliage and sky, allowing the delicate modeling of the infants’ bodies to stand out. The handling of light on the bark and stone demonstrates a Flemish Baroque sensibility, with fine brushwork that conveys texture and a sense of three‑dimensionality.

Vassallo trained under the Flemish artist Vincenzo Malò, a pupil of the Teniers workshop and a follower of Rubens. This lineage, combined with the influence of Genoese contemporaries such as Sinibaldo Scorza and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, informs the work’s hybrid style that merges Northern European baroque vigor with local Italian motifs.

Since its creation, the painting has remained in private and institutional hands before entering the State Hermitage Museum’s holdings, where it is displayed as part of the museum’s Baroque collection.