Room 27

Warm light spreads across the hills and ruins in these landscapes. Some painters had experienced the Italian countryside themselves. Others worked from pictures and ideas that had travelled north. Nicolaes Berchem, for example, painted Italianate scenes without visiting Italy. The small figures and animals give scale to a much larger setting. Follow a path, a river or the line of a hill to see how the view has been arranged. These pictures could bring the appeal of Italy into a collector’s home. Their convincing details do not mean they record a single place exactly as it appeared on one particular day.