As a classical landscape this picture is unusual in probably representing a particular site - the town of Tivoli near Rome, visible in the centre distance. The horizontal shape was often used for paintings which were placed over doorways. The painting may have been commissioned for the Palazzo Colonna in Rome, which belonged to one of Rome\'s oldest aristocratic families. This type of design, with a road from one side leading into the landscape, was one developed by Poussin, for example in the \'Landscape in the Roman Campagna\'. The paint in Dughet\'s landscape is more freely handled than that of Poussin or Claude.