Arcadian Landscape with a Sacrificial Feast

Jan van Huysum made this landscape as a pair with a view of fishermen by a lake. Both are painted on copper plates of exactly the same size, 57 by 68 centimetres, which is large for a copper support, and the two entered the national collection together in 1809.

In the companion the foreground goes to men working at the water. This one belongs to women. They gather flowers into baskets and vases and hang garlands on an altar, making it ready for a sacrifice in the open air. Van Huysum signed this plate at the lower left as well, in a shorter form than on its pendant, Jan V. Huysum fecit.