3-002-683 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Peasants near Roman Ruins, c1760. Monaldi specialized in anecdotal images of peasants, such as this idyllic scene with peasants during a break, eating, drinking, and playing music. It is an amusing image of a simple life focused on immediate pleasures and contrasted with the ruins of the heroic past of ancient Rome. The pyramid is surely based on the small one just outside the city walls, built by a Roman named Caius Cestius in AD 11, but here it is placed in an idealized landscape.