Italian Landscape
1700
unspecified
From the collection of Rijksmuseum
1700
unspecified
From the collection of Rijksmuseum
You see a dirt road winding past a river, with travelers on foot, on horseback, and in a cart. This painting is one of hundreds made in Italy in the late 1600s for tourists on the Grand Tour. Artists churned them out quickly—so quickly that most names are lost. The scene feels generic, but the little figures give it life: a man doffing his hat, a dog trotting alongside. To see how other artists turned the same views into something more personal, look up the Rijksmuseum’s collection of Dutch Italianate landscapes.
