Jan Baptist Weenix

(Amsterdam 1621 - 1659 Huis ter Mey near Utrecht)

Figures among ruins

Canvas, 112 x 146 cm

Signed and dated on the left, on the pedestal: Gio. Bat. Weenix 1656

The present work has recently been rediscovered after a disappearance of more than half a century. The picture 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.