Landscape with Shepherds Playing Music

This landscape, with shepherds playing music together with their herds of goats and sheep, is one of the earliest dated works by Herman Saftleven. It was painted during Saftleven's formative years in Rotterdam, before he settled in Utrecht in 1632. Before 1630 only engravings by Saftleven are known, depicting similar wood edges with horsemen and goats.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 10 minutes): Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for recorder in A minor