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| Marten Ryckaert Landscape with Lake ca. 1616 oil on panel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
"Ludius in the time of the Divine Augustus began the charming custom of putting murals on walls: pictures of farms, porticoes, fancy gardens, groves, pastures, hills, fishing ponds, waterways, rivers, strands, or whatever one might choose. To these he added various groups: people out for a walk or sail, or arriving at the farms on asses or in their carriages, others fishing, chasing birds, or hunting, or even gathering grapes. Outstanding among his works are farms approached across marshlands, also one of bridegrooms with their wives on their shoulders confusedly bumping into each other. There are said to be quite a few more of that sort, of nimble and superior wit. The same man also started the custom of painting seaport scenes on open terraces, allowing a pleasant view at minimal expense. But no glory has come to muralists, only to those whose paintings can be framed. This illustrates why the artists of old better deserve our respect. For they did not adorn walls simply to please the owners, or paint on houses which were confined to one place and could not be snatched from a fire. Protogenes was content to have a cottage in a tiny garden. There were no murals in Apelles' whitewashed home, for it was not yet an agreeable effect to have paint all over the walls. All their art was civic labor, and a painter belonged to the world in common."
– from Pliny's Natural History, as rendered in the Catalogus Architectorum published by Franciscus Junius in 1694, translated by Keith Aldrich for University of California Press in 1991
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| Guercino Landscape with Boat crossing a River late 1620s-1630s drawing Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Jusepe de Ribera Landscape with Shepherds 1639 oil on canvas Collection of the Dukes of Alba, Salamanca |
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| Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi Landscape with Bathers 17th century drawing Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Jan Both Italian Landscape with Roman Warriors ca. 1650 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Gaspard Dughet Plain of Latium with River ca. 1645-50 drawing Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| David Teniers Landscape with Grotto and Gypsies ca. 1640-45 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Claude Lorrain Landscape with Figures ca. 1634-36 drawing Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Jacques d'Arthois Landscape ca. 1678-86 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Giovanni Domenico Edge of a Lake ca. 1650 drawing Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Paul Brill Landscape with Flight into Egypt before 1626 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Tobias Verhaecht Landscape with Tobias and the Angel 1617 drawing Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Jan Brueghel the Elder Landscape with Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1607 oil on panel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Rembrandt Canal with Angler and Swans 1650 etching Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Jacob van Huchtenburg Campo Vaccino, Forum Romanum 1671 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Guercino Landscape with Resting Traveler 1630s drawing Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |