Imaginary View of the Roman "Campagna"

Description The Flemish painter Jan Frans van Bloemen was one of many northern artists who settled in Rome and specialized in landscape painting. The Roman "campagna" was the countryside around Rome, and, in the background of this scene, the Sabine hills can be seen. Figures talk in the foreground; further back, sheep graze. Evoking the mood of pastoral poetry of antiquity, the scenery is represented as having an air of unchanging tranquility and is characteristic of the classical landscapes so popular during the 17th century. For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 396, p. 509.

Provenance Marquess Filippo Marignoli, Rome and Spoleto, until 1898 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Marquess Francesco Marignoli, 1898 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome, 1899 [mode of acquisition unknown] [1900 catalogue supplement: no. 61]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902