ALESSANDRO SALUCCI (Florence 1590 - Rome after 1657) ROMAN SCHOOL OF THE 17th CENTURY. Possible collaboration for the figures with the Flemish artist Jan Miel, active in Rome from 1635 to 1658. Oil painting on relined canvas in excellent condition, examined with a Wood's lamp, it does not show invasive restorations but small touch-ups. Dimensions: cm 95x74, with frame cm 111x90. Salucci is one of the first emerging personalities in Rome in the pictorial genre of architectural caprices, in vogue in the first half of the 17th century. Like Viviano Codazzi, Salucci makes ancient Roman monuments the protagonists, but, unlike the former, he places them in a contemporary context where the aristocratic buildings of the time and the remains of ancient monuments coexist with the humblest dwellings. Furthermore, unlike Codazzi, Salucci does not pursue the intent of representing buildings in an objective or verisimilar way; some of his works appear as fanciful architectural scenographies, see photo. We can clearly notice this in the painting presented here, where the composition, in a succession of multiple perspective planes, is dynamic; a sort of exercise in architectural composition animated by figures. The two figures in motion under the arch of the bridge are of excellent perspective effect, see photo. Further emphasized by the mountains on the horizon, all this makes the architectures even more imposing. The characters inserted in different attitudes, in this architectural context, reduce its imposing grandeur, giving us an image of daily life in a particular and scenographic contrast, see photo. Unlike the Flemish and Dutch artists active in Rome, who sought realism in their depictions of Roman urban landscapes, Salucci's views do not aim to give a realistic rendition of his subjects. His views tend to mix the ancient monuments of Rome with fantasy elements, and therefore resemble more "capriccios." The ancient structures in his compositions are not recorded in archaeological detail, but are used exclusively for decorative effects. Salucci's compositions are generally made up of a Roman portico that dominates the center on the left or right, and figures in the foreground. He also often included in his views a portico with paired columns and pedestals. The listed characteristics are found in the painting under examination. Alessandro Salucci, in the realization of his works, often collaborated with painters specializing in the execution of figures who enriched his architectural compositions with images. Collaborations have been recorded with Jan Miel, Michelangelo Cerquozzi and Johannes Lingelbach. These three collaborators all painted in the bambocciante style introduced by the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer. The foreign bamboccianti had brought to Italy the existing traditions of depicting "low-life" subjects from Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting and created small-scale representations of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside. Jan Miel was Salucci's most assiduous collaborator, a collaboration that began in 1635 and ended when Miel left Rome for Turin in 1658 to work at the court of Carlo Emanuele II, Duke of Savoy. Miel's figures, characters were characteristically peasants, beggars, musicians, innkeepers and porters, thus providing a rich flavor of Roman daily life to the architectural framework created by Salucci.