Landscape with Figures and Porta del Popolo

This is one of the few paintings in which van Bloemen depicts a real view of Rome and its environs. In most of his prolific output, the artist preferred to concentrate on idealized landscapes with a clearly classical stamp. Here, the scene unfolds on the shore of a small lake surrounded by trees. In the distance, the Muro Torto and Porta del Popolo are depicted as Bernini designed them at the time of Pope Alexander VII. Inside the Aurelian Walls, the Flaminio obelisk, the bell tower of Santa Maria del Popolo, the dome of the Chigi Chapel designed by Raffaello, and the twin churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto can be seen. In the foreground, eel fishermen and other figures appear around the lake.
The painting, dated around 1715-1720, during the artist’s mature period, draws inspiration from one of Gaspard Dughet’s best-known landscapes from the middle of the seventeenth century and now in the Ruspoli Collection. Although van Bloemen chose to depict a real view of early eighteenth-century Rome, he nevertheless placed it in a broader Arcadian environment, strongly reminiscent of the works of the leading vedutisti active in Rome in the seventeenth century.