The depiction of the Italian campagna was a major artistic theme for foreign artists living in or visiting Rome. Jan Both quickly established a reputation as a landscapist. An accomplished painter, printmaker and draftsman, he specialized in Italianate landscapes and remarkably atmospheric, golden-toned pastoral scenes. His commercial success reflects a Dutch taste for local topography, with its associated nationalist appreciation for Netherlandish vistas, and for exotic themes such as Italian, sun-drenched vistas. This painting depicts a number of peasants moving leisurely along a route. The artist skilfully creates a “zig-zag” composition complemented by shifts of light and dark, giving the sense of a deep panorama. Claude’s landscape settings and rendering of atmospheric light evidently had an impact on him.