The painting entered the Museum`s holdings as a work of the school of Jan Both, but it is listed as an original by the painter in the 1843 catalogue. In 1973 Valdivieso identifies it as one of the landscapes recorded in the Buen Retiro inventory of 1701 and proposes it be ascribed to Herman van Swanevelt. This attribution is backed by Luna (1984), Barghahn (1986) and Steland (2001 and forthcoming), the latter of whom points out its stylistic similarity to various drawings signed by the painter in 1636, especially Landscape with Orchard and Saint Fiacre of Meaux at Prayer, which Steland attributes to Van Swanevelt. In her opinion, it is a reverse reproduction of the composition and elements of the present landscape, with minor changes.

As in the two previous landscapes, here too the composition is enclosed on either side and it stretches into the distance in the centre. However, the trees and the cabin which frame the composition on the right form a mass that is even more open than in Landscape with Carthusian (Saint Bruno)? (P2064), resulting in a more sweeping overall effect and a more naturalistic transition from foreground to background.

The pictorial treatment of the leaves and trunks of the trees on the right is characteristic of Van Swanevelt. The handling of the rocks is likewise very similar to that of the rock face in Landscape with Saint Benedict of Nursia (P2065). However, the pictorial treatment of the three small trees in the midground is different. These were added afterwards to unify the foreground and background. The same device is found in three of the Buen Retiro landscapes attributed here to Jan Both: Landscape with Carmelites (P2058), Landscape with Fisherman Family at Dusk (P2141) and Mountain Pass (P5443). The type and handling of the trees coincide in all of them.

But what is more, the X-ray image shows that the mountains in the background are noticeably outlined in light in a very similar way to Jan Both`s vertical landscapes. All this suggests his possible collaboration in this landscape. The earliest documentary reference to Both`s presence in Rome relates to his joining the Accademia di San Luca in 1638. His involvement in the present landscape would confirm his arrival to the city at an earlier date.

All authors agree that the figure of a hermit is missing from the painting. It has been speculated that the empty space in front of the rocks on the left may have been set aside for a court painter to include a local hermit whose iconography would not have been well known in Italy.

Barghahn (1986) suggests it could be Saint Isidore, the patron saint of Madrid, to whom one of the hermitages built in the grounds of the Buen Retiro was dedicated. However, it is also possible that no figure was intended and that the painting was designed simply as a landscape, since Van Swanevelt`s landscapes of about 1634-35 in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj -which are compositionally and stylistically very similar to those of the Buen Retiro- also include a canvas without figures.

As for the array of vegetables in the foreground, Luna believes it to have been executed by the artist who painted the flowers in Landscape with Carthusian (Saint Bruno)? (P2064). Capitelli ascribes it to the maker of the aforementioned drawing, which Steland attributes to Van Swanevelt. However, the X-ray image does not reveal the involvement of another painter. Indeed, the foreground of Noli me tangere features a group of cabbages very similar to those represented here (Text drawn from Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 329).