The Dresden landscape painter Jakob Wilhelm Mechau spent a total of twelve years in Rome. He was influenced by the idealised landscapes of Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, but also by contemporaries such as Jakob Philipp Hackert. In the drawing with the round arch motif and the staffage figures, he emphasised the rural, idyllic character of the location and at the same time concentrated on a realistic and detailed depiction of nature. Mechau reproduced the play of light and shadow on the finely moulded foliage and bushes with superimposed brushstrokes in shades of brown.