Fantasy landscape with St Charles Borromeo, Henry Ferguson, c. 1700 - c. 1720
Ferguson, who was born in Holland but spent much of his life in France, specialised in painting sculpture and ruins. This elaborate fantasy is based on the French classicising landscape tradition, and includes the figure of St Charles Borromeo indicating an oversized antique sarcophagus which bears a relief of Christ’s nativity. It is clearly allegorical, but the exact meaning is obscure.