Landscape with Horsemen and a Fortified Town

Ercole Bazzicaluva was the son of a painter and studied in Florence under the architect, stage designer, and painter Giulio Parigi, closely emulating the pen and ink landscape drawings that had originally brought Parigi fame. Although Bazzicaluva pursued a political and military career and was not primarily an artist, his landscapes--the present sheet is a typical example--were much praised in their time and may be compared to the nature studies of his Florentine contemporaries Jacques Callot and Remigio Cantagallina.