Italianate Landscape with the Ruins of Brederode Castle

Most of the ruins Berchem depicted were figments of his own imagination. Here, on the contrary, the ruins of the Dutch castle of Brederode, still extant today, are set in a southern landscape. The scene is animated by shepherds who seem to be at home in the Campagna Romana. The architecture dominating the picture is conceived as large as if it were a monument from antiquity.