Crossing the Pass
1639 - 1641. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
The present painting may be considered a companion piece to the previous work on account of its format, size, compositional scheme and subject matter. It entered the Museum`s holdings as an original work by Jan Both. This attribution is maintained in subsequent catalogues and backed by Valdivieso (1973) and Barghahn (1986). Steland (forthcoming) ascribes it, with certain reservations, to Herman van Swanevelt.
However, as in the previous landscape, following the works recent cleaning the attribution to Jan Both would appear to be correct. It is possible that Both may have based the composition of this landscape on drawings by Van Swanevelt. Indeed, the overall compositional scheme is very similar to that of various drawings attributed to the latter, such as Italian Landscape with Figures on a Road. The woman riding an ass with a man walking beside her is one of the iconographical motifs most commonly repeated by this artist in drawings and paintings. However, like the previous landscape, it is closer in formal treatment and lighting to Both`s vertical landscapes Baptism of the Eunuch of Queen Candace (P2060) and Taking the Cattle out (P2061).
Nevertheless, it differs from them and from Mountain Pass (P5443) in the type of tree depicted. Indeed, here the tree with a broad, sturdy trunk taken from Van Swanevelt`s Roman landscapes is replaced by one with a slimmer, undulating trunk that became characteristic of Both`s later landscapes. The figure type is characteristic of the painter. In older Museum catalogues they are attributed to Andries Both (1612/13-1642) (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, pp. 330).