Landscape with the Parable of the Tares among the Wheat

This painting typifies the transition from the mannered, narrative landscape paintings of the 16th century to the true-to-life observations of the 17th-century landscape painters.

In this painting the landscape functions as the setting of a biblical story. The key figure is the little man with horns lurking in the background: the devil who sows tares among the wheat while the peasants are asleep (Matthew 13:25).