Philipp Peter Roos (Frankfurt 1657 - Tivoli 1705-1706)

Roos was born in Frankfurt in 1657, son of the landscape painter Johann Heinrich Roos (1631-1685). He studied in Amsterdam, adopting the style of the Dutch painters who drew their inspiration from Italy, like Berchem and Dujardin. He moved to Rome in 1677, where he earned the nickname “Mercurius” owing to the speed with which he painted. He married the daughter of the painter Giacinto Brandi and began to execute mainly genre scenes and landscapes in the manner of Gaspard Dughet, Pieter Mulier and Pieter Van Bloemen.
He was given the soubriquet Rosa da Tivoli because of his habit of working mainly in the countryside around the Via Tiburtina; he also preferred to paint animals from life. He executed numerous paintings with herds of animals and developed an easily recognizable style, applying his paint in impastos of earthy tones. In addition to these landscapes, Roos painted other subjects that were commercially popular, among them battles, hunting scenes, architectural perspectives, portraits and still lifes. In the 1690s Pietro Gabrielli commissioned from Roos a cycle of paintings for one of the main reception rooms of Palazzo Taverna at Montegiordano, which is preserved to this day. Roos died in Tivoli in 1705 or 1706.