Battle pieces of this type became extremely popular in the second half of the seventeenth century both in the Netherlands and Italy. They followed a strict series of conventions in the way the combatants were depicted. The genre had been begun by Salvator Rosa (q.v.) who was temperamentally suited to depicting the violent melancholy of these scenes. The main exponent of the tradition was Jacques Courtois, Il Borgognone, (1621-1676) who was the master of Antonio Calza. The battle shown here is probably entirely imaginary as is the landscape setting.  As was often the case at the time, neither side was  easily recognisable by their uniform, which had not developed into the precise form found in the eighteenth century.

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