A peasant family resting before a ruin in a landscape

This painting appears to be the work of an artist active in the circle of Jan Miel, who himself was one of a group of artists known collectively as the Bamboccianti. The term derives from the nickname of the group's leader, Pieter van Laer, called il bamboccio ('the rag doll') because of his awkward, hunchbacked frame. Van Laer and his followers were active in Rome in the seicento and were known for their humble representations of peasant and urban life. Apart from Miel's sometime collaborator, Michelangelo Cerquozzi, the Bamboccianti were Northern artists. Their interest in genre scenes and village life, a traditionally popular subject in the Netherlands, was foreign to the Italians and seemed strange and lowbrow compared to the more familiar religious, mythological and historical compositions. Of all the Bamboccianti, the present unknown artist comes closest to Miel in style and subject matter.