A Capriccio set in the Roman Countryside (Primary Title)
A Scene in the Roman Countryside (Former Title)
Jan Baptist Weenix, Dutch, 1621 - 1660/1 (Artist)
A “capriccio” is a special Italian term for an imaginative—or capricious—type of landscape painting usually involving ancient ruins. Indeed, Weenix may have introduced this whimsical spirit in the form of the unpredictable goat (or caper in Latin) as the painting’s main figure, as if to celebrate the free and untethered nature of the human imagination.
Signed, upper edge of stone pedestal: J. Weenix f.
Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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