Muleteers beside an Italian Ruin, Jan Asselijn, c. 1650
Asselijn had spent time in Rome, where he recorded his impressions in drawings. Once back in Amsterdam, he painted this view of a huge aqueduct. This monument to the faded glory of ancient Rome now shelters simple country folk and their herds. In the sunlight beneath one arch, a traveller is relieving himself, just like the urinating donkey in the foreground that partially conceals him.