Berglandschaft mit Raubüberfall 

Gaspard Dughet made this red chalk drawing of a mountainous landscape with a robbery in 17th century Italy. Banditry was a constant feature of the Italian landscape in this period. Dughet's image reflects the anxiety of wealthy travellers as well as the reality of lawlessness outside of the main centres of population. But it also aestheticizes this violence. The bandits blend into the landscape, almost becoming a feature of it. The picture could be said to naturalize social relations of inequality. The image presents a romantic vision of the landscape, one that became increasingly popular as wealthy Europeans began to take the 'Grand Tour' of the continent. This drawing, like others, testifies to the contradictory social functions of art. On the one hand it reflects the concerns of a particular social class, and on the other, it obscures the sources of its wealth and power. To understand this drawing more fully we might consult contemporary police records, travel journals, and accounts of landscape painting.