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Description: | Unlike the 'Dutch Italianate' painter Jan Baptist Weenix who specialised in Mediterranean port scenes, Jan Asselijn was best known for his extensive views of the Roman Campagna which reveal his extensive knowledge of Claude's Arcadian landscapes. This painting is therefore an unusual and particularly fine example of Asselijn's work. In the foreground the groups of figures engaged in varied activities reveal a quality of detail seemingly only drawn from first hand experience. The scene is framed to the left by a cylindrical tower reminiscent of an ancient sepulchre (such as that of Cecilia Metella on the via Appia), this overhangs an inlet of still waters on which play the reflections of three barges moored nearby; on one a man pitching hay is silhouetted against the golden sky. To the right a pair of merchants in conversation, lit by the evening sun, draws our attention across the bay to the layered landscape of cliffs plummeting into the sea. The low viewpoint of the scene emphasises the majestic grandeur of the setting, while details such as the merchants gathered round their cooking pot to the right, or the cockle gatherers in the inlet and the seamen at work on their barges by the tower lend this scene an idyllic atmosphere at once picturesque and familiar. Remarkably, this romantic sea view was probably painted in the artist's studio around 1650, probably in response to new demand stimulated by a peak of Dutch trading activity with the south during this period. | Subjects: | landscape; figure | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Asselyn, Jan (Dutch painter, ca.1610-1652) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8735... | Go to resource |
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