Napolitan School, 17th Century, Imaginary Landscape

This fantastic landscape is in keeping with the spirit specific to the Napolitan school of the 17th century, and particularly the disturbing and picturesque landscapes of Salvatore Rosa (1615-1673), customary artist of landscapes with immense and tormented skies and rocks with strange shapes.
Here, theatrical ruins devoured by vegetation look like rock, in the background of the painting, other more architectural ruins evoke a destroyed or abandoned city.
It is a melancholy fantasy totally in the vein of this singular painter of the 17th century Napolitan.
In our painting, the landscape is treated for itself and it is self-sufficient, no need for the pretext of a subject. All the elements that constitute it take on a particularly significant presence and participate in its mystery.
We find in this work the notable influence of the great and very personal artist that was Salvatore Rosa; this had a considerable impact on contemporary Napolitan artists as well as those who were active over the following decades.
This painting by the hand of a follower of Salvatore Rosa seems to us to be datable to the years 1670-1690.
Old frame, posterior to the painting.