Arcadian Landscape with a Bust of Flora
Jan van Huysum
1724 - 1725
In a clearing in the forest, women and shepherds are making a sacrifice to Flora, the goddess of flowers. The stream flows to an ancient town and some rocky mountains.
Van Huysum specialised in lavish still-lifes, but he also painted this type of scene. The idealised landscape and the warm, golden light look Italian. Van Huysum would have based it on drawings and paintings by fellow artists, as he never made the trip to Italy himself.
oil on canvas
52 x 71 cm.
Loan Friends of the Mauritshuis Foundation, 1997