Landscape with a Road below Cliffs near Bracciano

about 1625

Medium

Brown and gray wash over black chalk, on laid paper

Dimensions

40.9 × 56.2 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-207482

Prominently signed on the recto, this large, finished drawing was made as an independent work of art. On the verso of the sheet, the artist inscribed the location, attesting to his eyewitness account of the road that leads to the lake in the small town of Bracciano northwest of Rome. Large sheets like this one were topographical in their function, but here the brilliantly-lit landscape also suggests the time of day-high noon, when the sun is most dazzling. Paolo Giordano Orsini II, the Duke of Bracciano, was Breenbergh's important patron. Orsini ruled over the area of Bomarzo and Torre de Chia and Breenbergh made many drawings and paintings of his territory, including this sheet, which depicts the road to the lake at Bracciano, where the duke and his entourage went to bathe. The lake lies at the left of the composition framed by rocky cliffs. At the center of the road an inn emits smoke from its chimney, suggesting a pleasant place to rest. The tiny figures by the inn enhance the majesty of this sunlit landscape.