Signed “JHRoos” & dated "1678" undistinctly. Verso mark on frame “JH Roos signed left hand 78”. Private German & Swedish collections. Dating confirmed as 1. Characters & animals are less important in size here than in many of his usual works. 2. There are no ruins reminiscent of the disorders of the Thirty Years' War, found in paintings as late as 1676-78, about 30 years later. The War was the 17th-century religious conflict fought primarily in central Europe. It remained one of the longest and most brutal wars in human history, with more than 8 million casualties from military battles, the famine and diseases. It lasted from 1618 to 1648, starting as a battle among the Catholic & Protestant states of the Holy Roman Empire & ending in changing the geopolitical face of Europe & the role of religion & of nation-states in society. 3. The perfect mastery in the building & aspects and details of this Italian inspired idealized landscape.