Pieter van Laer, called il Bamboccio Haarlem 1599 - 1642

This drawing is extremely comparable in technique to another by van Laer, depicting Roman Ruins, in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (inv. D1028; see Keith Andrews, Catalogue of Netherlandish Drawings in the National Gallery of Scotland, 2 vols., Edinburgh 1985, vol.I, p.45, vol.II, fig.302), and also to a view of the Colosseum, in the Staatliche Museum, Berlin (inv. Z13084).  The Edinburgh drawing is, like this, inscribed Bamboots;  Bamboots, or Bamboccio, meaning a droll puppet, was the nickname van Laer was given by his fellow members of the Schildersbent, the guild of Netherlandish painters in Rome in the 17th Century.  These immigrant painters of genre subjects, and the subjects that they painted, in turn became known as Bamboccianti. 

The antique acqueduct seen in this drawing, also known as the Aqua Virgo, was located in the region of, and gave its name to, the modern Roman street, the Via dei Condotti.