A number of boats navigate a pale turquoise lake that is surrounded on all sides by dark trees. The white sail of the vessel in the middle ground provides a bright accent, its curve complementing the shape of the branches at top left. In the foreground, two men stand on the shore, talking and leaning on their fishing rods; to the right, a passenger plays the lute as his boat pushes off. Few seem concerned with work.
Idealised, imaginary landscape views were extremely popular in seventeenth-century Italy. It is possible that this one, like its companion piece Landscape with Hunting Party, was made to hang above a door in the Palazzo Giustiniani in Rome. Viola has borrowed certain details within the painting – the sailing boat left of centre, for example – from a work by the celebrated painter Domenichino (private collection). He is also known to have studied the work of Annibale Carracci, to whom this painting was once attributed.
A number of boats navigate a pale turquoise lake that is surrounded on all sides by dark trees. The white sail of the vessel in the middle ground provides a bright accent, its curve complementing the shape of the branches at top left. In the foreground, two men stand on the shore, talking and leaning on their fishing rods; to the right, a passenger plays the lute as his boat pushes off. Few seem concerned with work.
Idealised, imaginary landscape views were extremely popular in seventeenth-century Italy. It is possible that this one, like its companion piece Landscape with Hunting Party, was made to hang above a door in the Palazzo Giustiniani in Rome. Viola has borrowed certain details within the painting – the sailing boat left of centre, for example – from a work by the celebrated painter Domenichino (private collection). He is also known to have studied the work of Annibale Carracci, to whom this painting was once attributed.
