Landscape with a Battle between Two Rams

This animated scene stands in opposition to the grand classical landscape tradition of Poussin, Claude, and Bourdon. The landscape and vegetation were most likely painted by Gaspard Dughet, Poussin’s brother-in-law, and the figures by Jan Miel, a Flemish artist who moved to Rome in the 1630s. Miel specialized in scenes of ribald contemporary life referred to as bambocciate and derived from northern European genre subjects. Comparable collaborations between Dughet and Miel are found in the Doria Pamphilj collection, Rome. While this painting’s early provenance is unknown, it likely was purchased or commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Maria Brancaccio (1592–1675), a collector of Roman school landscapes and significant patron of Salvator Rosa.