Men resting in a rocky landscape.

Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 cm, unsigned (canvas sl. loosening at upper left).

Without frame.

This picture is characteristic of the rocky landscapes produced by the workshop of the painter, printmaker and poet Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), who spent most of his life between Florence and Rome. The sublime force of this painting comes from the strong vertical movement ending in the ascending rocks which creates a natural arch, framing and looming over the figures in the foreground. In the 1650s he developed a particular type of landscape that became especially popular in the following centuries, typified by arid, rocky landscapes where the human figures are dominated by the menacing nature that surrounds them. Comparable in composition and technical execution are a "Wooded Bank with Figures" in the collection of the National Gallery of London (inv. L867), or "A Rocky Coast, with Soldiers Studying a Plan" at Christ Church Art Gallery, Oxford. The figure group in the left foreground shows an affinity with the figures in "Bandits on a rocky coast", now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. 34.137).