Nicolaes Berchem

Italianate Landscape with a Ruin

Berchem very likely never visited Italy; yet this landscape is clearly ‘southern’ in nature. The landscape basks in the warm evening sunlight; the approaching sunset has coloured the sky golden yellow. The bridge and the circular structure are clearly based on the Ponte Lucano with the remains of the Tomb of the Plautii built by the Romans near Tivoli. Berchem would have seen these structures in works of other artists such as Jan Both and Jan Asselijn.