Spanish school; 17th century. "Horsemen. Oil on canvas. Re-coloured. It presents restorations. Measurements: 66 x 86 cm; 87,5 x 107 cm (frame). Three horsemen with their backs to the spectator, mount their horses that are galloping towards the distance. With this device, the artist creates a landscape constructed in depth, detracting from the prominence of the figures of the horsemen, despite their predominant position in the composition. It is worth mentioning that this was a period in which the feeling that man and nature should be complementary, one reflected in the other, began to take hold. In other words, landscape should arouse emotion and convey ideas. Thus, landscape painters such as the author of this painting tried to express their feelings through the landscape, rather than imitating it. This idea was established through two main strands: the dramatic, with its turbulent, fantastic views, and the naturalistic, which emphasised images of peaceful, serene nature, as in this case. It is this second conception that we see embodied in the present work; the painter seeks to communicate a religious reverence for the landscape, nature in its fullness, free from the industrial elements of modern life. Indeed, the artist s use of light here conveys a dreamlike atmosphere that invites the viewer to meditate and contemplate himself in the landscape. Landscape, however, is made up of very different types of manifestations which are not comparable; it does not affect all the national schools equally, remaining more faithful to tradition in schools such as the Italian, French or Dutch. Thus, in this canvas we do not find the grandiose scenery of the British and Germans, the rugged mountains. On the contrary, it is a landscape centred on the foreground. In Andalusia, this trend in landscape painting had great painters who brought great fluidity to the genre, such as Ignacio de Iriarte (Azcoitia, 1621 - Seville, 1670), and Matías de Arteaga y Alfaro (Villanueva de los Infantes, Ciudad Real, 1633 - Seville, 1703).