This panel is the work of a landscape painter born in Frisia in 1602. His scenes tend to feature local landscapes or fictional ruins set in the Italian countryside. This panel belongs to the latter group, although there is no evidence that Mancadan ever travelled to Italy. His knowledge of the subject may have been gleaned from the numerous prints series of such landscapes that circulated and were hugely popular in the northern United Provinces (modern-day Netherlands). Talented artists like Bartholomeus Breenbergh and Jan Both left marvellous examples of these types of works. Mancadan’s technique, which remained the same throughout his career, consisted in applying different coats of glaze over a detailed underdrawing in shades of brown. The oil painting was acquired for the Thyssen Collection in 1974.