Alessandro SALUCCI (Italian, 1590-c.1660)
and Jan MIEL (Flemish, 1599-1664)
A Capriccio of a Mediterranean Seaport with the Arch of Janus Quadrifons and the Pantheon
Oil on panel: 17 x 26 inches / 43.5 x 66 cm.
 
 Alessandro Salucci was born in Florence in 1590 but by 1628 he was living and working in Rome. Much of his time there was spent executing frescoes, such as those in the church of S. Maria in Vallicella and at the Villa Chigi (then called Villa Sacchetto), on which he collaborated with Andrea Sacchi and Pietro da Cortona.
The Flemish painter Jan Miel arrived in Rome in the early 1630s, and from this time onwards he collaborated with Salucci on the imaginary architectural subjects for which he is now best known. The present painting is highly typical of their work, with the architectural elements by Salucci displaying his distinctively free hand and a luminescence, inspired by Claude Lorraine, which successfully fuses light with the buildings of the background. Jan Miel added the foreground figures, which are informed by the genre types of the Bamboccianti - the group of northern painters then working in Rome at this period producing anecdotal low-life subjects. 
Salucci and Miel continued to work together in Rome throughout the 1630s and 1640s, and among their most important collaborations are the series of four Imaginary Architectural Perspectives in the Gherardesca collection in Florence.