Capriccio with Mediterranean Port

The painter wished to depict a lively, noisy quayside market scene set in an imaginary port. Women, children, artisans and traders, men in turbans, soldiers and several animals crowd the foreground. A fountain is clearly visible at the centre of the square, while on the left, in front of the buildings overlooking the sea, stands a huge statue of Neptune. In the background, a fortress and town buildings are visible beyond the port, and in the distance is a group of mountains.
All the main characteristics of Lingelbach’s style are evident in this painting. First, there is the reference to the Italian cities he had visited: Rome, above all, and Naples, where he stayed for a short time in 1649. The Bernini-style fountain and the church dome in the distance evoke the capital of the Papal States; the sunny quayside, the castle overlooking the sea and the mountain in the background, reminiscent of Vesuvius, allude to Naples. Second, the work testifies to the artist’s long association with the Bamboccianti, Northern painters who made their fortune in Rome in the seventeenth century with genre scenes depicting the life of ordinary people in a charming, lively style.