This painting, which has never been lined – highly unusual for a seventeenth-century canvas – only became known to the art historical community in 1995, when it appeared at auction. Accordingly, it is not included in Roethlisberger’s catalogue raisonné, which had been published two years earlier. In the meantime, however, Roethlisberger has dated it to around 1620. It thus marks the transition from the fantasy landscapes of the sixteenth century to the more naturalistic works of the seventeenth-century masters.