Italian School, 17th Century

This grand Baroque landscape features a central zoomorphic rock formation that adopts the pose of a seated horse tossing his head. While the landscape possesses pastoral elements—a shepherd herds his flock in the middleground and two cattle drivers appear in the left foreground—a slightly wild undertone permeates the scene. In the rushing rapids at right and the ominously tilting ship at left, the painting simultaneously suggests the beauty and unpredictability of untamed nature.