Beggars in front of a Roman Limekiln
by ASSELYN, Jan, Oil on wood, 38 x 33 cm
This canvas is one of the rare ‘Bambocciata’ paintings by Asselyn, painted during trips through Rome with Jan Both between 1638 and 1640. (Bambocciata: genre scene of popular life in the suburbs of Rome made popular by the Netherlandish painter Pieter van Laer, known in Italy as Il Bamboccio.) it depicts one of the many limekilns in Rome, where antique fragments were utilised to make Baroque building material. Beggars and homeless people are playing morra and warming themselves on the roof of the kiln.