Dune Landscape with a Country Road

A sandy road with cart tracks winds among the dunes. Meadows are interspersed with copses, a farmhouse and a church tower. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, landscapes were often unrealistic, but this changed around 1630, when artists started painting places that were increasingly recognisable. This simple landscape by Pieter van Santvoort is an early example of this new type of landscape.