An extensive landscape with a cavalry skirmish on a ridge

This large Cavalry skirmish was most probably commissioned directly from the artists by Don Diego Mesía, as it was recorded just a few years after it executed in Don Diego's posthumous inventory of 1655. Dr. Margret Klinge, who has inspected the painting in the original (certificate of 21 February 1989), calls the picture especially impressive ('ein besonders eindruckvolles Werk'), noting that David Teniers painted the landscape, with Pieter Meulener providing the staffage. She dates the painting to around 1648-50 on stylistic grounds. It was around this time that Teniers also started receiving important commissions from from Archduke Leopold William, Governor of the Southern Netherlands, and achieved a fully mature and confident understanding of landscape, as so clearly evident here.