Landscape with ancient tower, animals and men

The painting was included in the Royal Site of Carditello in 1817 and placed in Entrance Hall symmetrical to the Dining Room, where it remained until the Royal Site was decommissioned.

The work is one of the pieces in the unpublished series of five landscapes, commissioned from Pieter Mulier known as “il Tempesta” (the Storm) to replace some hunting portraits. It depicts an ancient tower standing out on top of a rocky ridge.

It cannot be ruled out that this collection, referred to in an old inventory as the 'Castiglione school', was much larger and had a narrative nature. However, to date, it is difficult to appreciate this aspect, due to the dismemberment caused by the different dislocations it has undergone.

Nevertheless, it can be assumed, in all probability, that this series belonged to the Farnese Collection, where some landscape depictions are collected, and they’re all attributable to the stylistic code of the Flemish Pieter Mulier.

His paintings, characterized by a serene and pastoral atmosphere, in which human nature, buildings and animals are almost lost, acted as a bridge between the Roman landscape of the seventeenth century and the Venetian one of the eighteenth century.