Jan Baptist Weenix

Figures and livestock among ruins

The present work has recently been rediscovered after a disappearance of more than half a century. The picture – painted in 1656 after Weenix’s return to Utrecht – shows an imaginary location in Rome which includes such famous monuments as the well-known antique statue Equus cum Leone, a lion attacking a horse and in the middle distance – not far from the shore – the Pyramid of Gaius Cestius from 12 B. C., one of the best-preserved monuments from antiquity. In the distance the Castel Sant’Angelo, the mausoleum of Hadrian located along the Tiber is clearly recognizable.