Pastoral scene against the background of ruins

Painting from the museum’s collection depicts an idyllic scene – the courtship of a pair of shepherds taking place with ancient ruins in the background. The flirting couple is accompanied by a herd of cattle – cows, sheep, goats with long woolly hair, standing or resting among the ruins. A dog with white and brown patches stands next to a seated woman. In the lower right corner of the painting, there are a shepherd’s stick, a straw hat with a folded brim and a red sash to tie under the chin, and a horn used to call animals laying on the ground. The colours of the scene are bright, the light falls from the upper left corner of the painting. It is framed by a wide, wooden, moulded frame decorated with a band of pearl ornamentation and laurel leaves with fruits. The painting is attributed to Jan Baptist Weenix (b. 1621, d. 1660), a Dutch painter and copperplate engraver educated in Utrecht. In 1642 Weenix went to Italy where he worked for Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphili, later Pope Innocent X. After his return to the country, following a short stay in Amsterdam, he moved to Utrecht, where in 1647 he chaired the Guild of Painters of Saint Luke. He died young, in unexplained circumstances. His work is dominated by landscapes in the Italian type, often with a motif of ruins, pastoral scenes as well as views of coastal beaches and ports with Classicising architecture. The painting is exhibited in the Gala Corridor on the first floor of the castle.