Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; XVII century.
"Country scene".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 58,5 x 44,5 cm.
Italy was the favorite place for northern European painters to paint outdoors, an incipient practice in the seventeenth century, for this reason there is some aesthetic correlation between the landscape schools, which over the decades began to establish their singularities and their own identity. In this case, the author depicts a costumbrista scene with two characters at the doors of an architectural construction that is opened by a semicircular arch to the landscape.
The rise of pastoral painting during the 17th century in Germany may have been motivated by the need to escape from the social and political debacle of the time. It was a period of conflict and sudden change, with the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) deeply affecting Germans. Pastoral painting offered an idealized and escapist view of life, in contrast to the reality of war and devastation. However, in this magnificent scene with shepherd, the worried face and the day electrified by the incipient storm does not convey a peaceful image but, on the contrary, it seems to us a sort of transcript of the difficult historical moment. On the other hand, in the Germanic landscape painting of the period, the influence of the Dutch landscape painters can be appreciated.