Lot Essay
As observed by Frerichs in the Amsterdam catalogue, this belongs to a series of sketchbook drawings, which Roethlisberger (op.cit., nos. 63-6) dates in the last years of the artist's stay in Rome. Two of these are inscribed in the same way, one of which is signed with monogram.
The present lot may be compared to the sheet from this series in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (Bock-Rosenberg, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis sämtlicher Zeichnungen, Die Niederländischen Meister, Berlin, 1930, no. 310, not illustrated), which shows the road to Bracciano (the ancient Via Claudia, later crossing the Via Cassia) in an almost flat landscape with bushes and rocks.
Possibly the present lot shows another part of that same road below the oakwood 'Le Quercie d'Orlando'. Breenbergh is known to have worked for Duke Paolo Giordano II Orsini (1591-1655), whose summer residence was at Bracciano (cf. Roethlisberger, op.cit., no. 107)
The present lot may be compared to the sheet from this series in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (Bock-Rosenberg, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis sämtlicher Zeichnungen, Die Niederländischen Meister, Berlin, 1930, no. 310, not illustrated), which shows the road to Bracciano (the ancient Via Claudia, later crossing the Via Cassia) in an almost flat landscape with bushes and rocks.
Possibly the present lot shows another part of that same road below the oakwood 'Le Quercie d'Orlando'. Breenbergh is known to have worked for Duke Paolo Giordano II Orsini (1591-1655), whose summer residence was at Bracciano (cf. Roethlisberger, op.cit., no. 107)