Philip Peter Roos, called Rosa da Tivoli (St. Goar 1657-1706 Rome)

Ranking amongst his finest works, this pair of paintings by Philip Peter Roos can be dated to around 1690-1695 (Dr. Hermann Jedding, written communication, 2 March 2005). They can be compared to a series of pictures in the Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona which Jedding dates to the same period (see H. Jedding, Johan Heinrich Roos: Werke einer Pfälzer Tiermalerfamilie in den Galerien Europas, Mainz, 1998, p. 206, nos. 290 and 291). Here Roos moves the bull more emphatically into the centre of the composition, regrouping and highlighting the other animals to great effect. The ram in the second painting reoccurs in his upright composition in the Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig (op. cit., no. 270) and the resting sheep can be found in the equally upright painting at the Kunstmuseum, Basel (op. cit., no. 271).