Jan Dirksz Both

[1] In 1639 Jan collaborated with Herman van Swanevelt and Claude Lorrain on a project for the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid.

Certainly by 1646 Jan had returned to Utrecht, where he refined further his expansive, imaginary landscapes drenched with a Mediterranean golden light.

In Landscape with Bandits Leading Prisoners (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) the sandy road makes a sweeping diagonal from the left.

Touches of realism in the down-to-earth figures and detailed vegetation of the foreground contrast with the idyllic golden distance.

Jan's brother Andries (c.1612–41), who specialised in peasant scenes, died in Venice as they were returning to Utrecht.