Aelbert Cuyp, 'Ubbergen Castle', about 1655

The ruins of this castle seem to have been absorbed by the landscape. Aelbert Cuyp has employed the same palette of colours and the same camouflage patterns to depict the crumbling walls as he used for the autumnal woods and the hillside behind. The reflections in the still waters of the lake add to the impression that the stone towers and tumbledown ramparts are merging into their surroundings.

One dissenting note suggests that there is still force and significance in the castle. The right-hand tower is intact, and the spire on its conical roof breaks through the line of the horizon and the wispy grey cloud above. It is a moment of strength and confidence, a reminder of the castle’s former glory.

This may have had some resonance to a contemporary audience who were likely to have recognised the castle. It is the castle of Ubbergen, near Nijmegen in the Dutch Province of Gelderland. The fourteenth-century building was ruined in 1582 during the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands and as such was seen as a symbol of national independence. This painting isn’t dated but was probably made in 1655, less than a decade after the Treaty of Münster (1648), when the Dutch finally won independence from Spain (an event depicted by Gerard ter Borch in The Swearing of the Oath of Ratification of the Treaty of Münster). The castle no longer exists – it was finally pulled down in 1712 and replaced with a house.

The red coat of the shepherd and the mounted gentleman beside him catch our eye, and we might think that Cuyp is inviting us to imagine the conversation between the two. Maybe they are discussing the castle’s role in their national history, while the sheep and – in the distance – the cattle which graze peacefully on the shore of the lake seem to suggest more peaceful, plentiful times.

The cloud formations against the bright blue-gold of the sky seem to form a plume, emerging like smoke from a volcano – though this is probably accidental. The nearest live volcano to Dordrecht, where Cuyp lived and worked, is Mount Vesuvius, hundreds of miles to the south, and he never went there. However, he was heavily influenced by Dutch artists who did travel to Italy, usually to train and work in Rome. They returned to Holland with a penchant for using lighter, warmer colours and for painting sunny Mediterranean skies; Cuyp responded to this new Italianate style by developing the characteristic light of his own. Typically, it is reminiscent of the golden light of a late summer afternoon, though perhaps here there is a more autumnal feel than usual.