Battle Scene

Johannes Lingelbach is only known to have painted three land battle scenes. For this painting, he probably closely studied the battle pictures of Pieter van Laer, a Dutch artist whose picturesque genre paintings of Italian street life and peasants also inspired Lingelbach. The pose of the soldier on a white steed at the right and his costume of a feathered hat, boots, and cuirass relate to Van Laer's works.



The coloring, especially the light ocher and the bright white of the horses, is characteristic of Lingelbach's work of the early 1650s. The horses' lively contours and the modeling of such details as the hat on the ground reflect his drafting abilities.