Landscape with Donkey-Driver

The trips to Italy undertaken by the "oltramontani", painters from the North, focused less on studying the art of the ancient world and the Renaissance, as was customary in the 16th century; they were more concerned with rendering the different everyday reality of the Italian population and landscape, and particularly the special southern light. The two small paintings by Willem de Heusch, purchased from the Czernin collection, show the atmosphere of the Roman "campagna". This kind of Italianate landscape painting renders in idealised form the wooded, hilly landscape of the environs of Rome. Street scenes or everyday activities, as shown in "Landscape with Donkey-Drivers", are alluded to as "bamboccianti" staffage figures. Here the drivers and donkey are on their way from distant plains to more craggy regions.

Ducke Astrid: Willem de Heusch, Landscape with Donkey-Drivers, in: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg./Edi.): von | from 0 auf | to 100. Residenzgalerie Salzburg 1923-2023. Salzburg 2023, S./p. 152-153