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Lot Essay
Regarded by Rothlisberger as 'a masterpiece, in very good condition', this picture is evidently, as he argues, of circa 1635, when Breenbergh, who had been in Rome for nearly a decade from the end of 1619, had reestablished himself in Amsterdam. The date now visible on the picture presumably originally read 1635, or 1633, and seems to have been strengthened when the picture was cleaned after its sale in 1973.
As Röthlisberger points out, the subject, taken from Acts, 10:24, is 'altogether unique' in painting of the period. Writing of Breenbergh's approach to landscape, but with special reference to this picture, he observes: 'The landscape portions were enriched with countless details designed to make the scenes interesting and to engage the viewer in a visual peregrination.' Breenbergh's interpretation of Caesarea, a coastal town near the modern city of Haifa, draws on his experience of Rome. On the left is the Tomb of Caecilia Metella: this, and the wall with the arch beside it, appear in the same position in the Landscape with Eliezar and Rebecca (Röthlisberger no. 82), which Röthlisberger compares with a dated picture of 1625 and regards as the 'most elaborate composition' of the artist's Italian years. The flambeau, hung on a pole from the tomb, serves, as Röthlisberger notes, to emphasise the figure of the kneeling Cornelius, who is immediately below it. The group of buildings on the right reappears without the farm house in a similar position on a smaller scale in the Landscape with the Finding of Moses of 1636 in the National Gallery, London (Röthlisberger no. 182), in which a simpler bridge and a monument with a column echo the Roman bridge and the tower - which recalls the Torre delle Milizie and is also used in the background of the Landscape with Christ and the Centurion of 1631-4 (Röthlisberger no. 146) - in the present picture. Breenbergh redeployed the group of buildings, again without the farm house, but in a central position, in the Landscape with Cimon and Iphigenia in a Roman collection (Röthlisberger, no. 209, where dated about 1644).
As Röthlisberger points out, the subject, taken from Acts, 10:24, is 'altogether unique' in painting of the period. Writing of Breenbergh's approach to landscape, but with special reference to this picture, he observes: 'The landscape portions were enriched with countless details designed to make the scenes interesting and to engage the viewer in a visual peregrination.' Breenbergh's interpretation of Caesarea, a coastal town near the modern city of Haifa, draws on his experience of Rome. On the left is the Tomb of Caecilia Metella: this, and the wall with the arch beside it, appear in the same position in the Landscape with Eliezar and Rebecca (Röthlisberger no. 82), which Röthlisberger compares with a dated picture of 1625 and regards as the 'most elaborate composition' of the artist's Italian years. The flambeau, hung on a pole from the tomb, serves, as Röthlisberger notes, to emphasise the figure of the kneeling Cornelius, who is immediately below it. The group of buildings on the right reappears without the farm house in a similar position on a smaller scale in the Landscape with the Finding of Moses of 1636 in the National Gallery, London (Röthlisberger no. 182), in which a simpler bridge and a monument with a column echo the Roman bridge and the tower - which recalls the Torre delle Milizie and is also used in the background of the Landscape with Christ and the Centurion of 1631-4 (Röthlisberger no. 146) - in the present picture. Breenbergh redeployed the group of buildings, again without the farm house, but in a central position, in the Landscape with Cimon and Iphigenia in a Roman collection (Röthlisberger, no. 209, where dated about 1644).