Artwork
Drovers with cattle under an arch of the Colosseum in Rome
Drovers with cattle under an arch of the Colosseum in Rome is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Jan Asselijn. It dates from 1640 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts a landscape in which cattle drovers are positioned beneath one of the arches of the Colosseum in Rome.
The painting depicts a landscape in which cattle drovers are positioned beneath one of the arches of the Colosseum in Rome. This composition places everyday rural laborers and their livestock against the backdrop of ancient Roman ruins, a common motif in seventeenth-century Italianate landscape painting. The work captures the interaction between the transient activity of herding and the enduring, monumental presence of the Colosseum, with the architectural framework of the arch emphasizing the scale of the ruins while integrating human and animal figures into the historic setting.
Technique & Style
The work is an oil painting executed on a wood panel, in the Dutch Italianate landscape tradition. The composition balances the architectural detail of the Colosseum with a naturalistic rendering of livestock, using a restrained palette of earth tones to convey depth and spatial recession. The diagonal thrust of the arch guides the viewer's eye toward the central pastoral motif.
Specific details of the artist's brushwork and the painting's current condition are not documented in the available sources.
History & Provenance
Drovers with cattle under an arch of the Colosseum in Rome was created by Jan Asselijn in 1640. It is a landscape on panel, measuring 42 cm in height and 45 cm in width, and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Its provenance includes ownership by Lucretia Johanna van Winter and members of the Six family, Hendrik Six van Hillegom, Jan Pieter Six VI, Pieter Hendrik Six van Vromade, and Jan Six van Vromade, before it entered the museum. The work was featured in the exhibition The Bentvueghels. A Notorious Art Society in Rome.
Legacy
The painting's depiction of Roman antiquity was prized by later Dutch collectors, reflected in its long descent through the van Winter and Six family collections before entering the Rijksmuseum. Its composition of cattle beneath the Colosseum arch is representative of the Dutch Italianate tradition that merged classical architecture with pastoral motifs, and its inclusion in the Bentvueghels exhibition underscores Asselijn's association with that circle of Netherlandish artists active in Rome.
Overview
Jan Asselijn’s 1640 oil painting, titled Drovers with Cattle under an Arch of the Colosseum in Rome, presents a tranquil scene of livestock and their handlers beneath a massive stone arch. The composition balances the earthy foreground of cows, dogs and figures with a luminous sky framed by the ancient structure, while a distant castle punctuates the horizon. The work is part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection.
Context
Asselijn, a Dutch landscape specialist, frequently incorporated Italianate elements after his travels in Italy. The inclusion of the Colosseum’s arch aligns with the 17th‑century Dutch appetite for exotic, historically charged scenery, merging Northern realism with Southern antiquity to satisfy collectors’ tastes for both topographical accuracy and romanticized ruin.
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