Marco Ricci was active chiefly as a landscape painter, and was at his finest working on a small scale. Here hermits or monks are pictured in a dramatic mountainside landscape. A steep rocky incline with sparse tree cover occupies the left side of the composition, with a stream flowing down through the rocks. At the right four figures are shown standing, sitting or kneeling in the landscape; two or them are worshipping at a cross at the lower right. In the background beyond the figures buildings, possibly including a church, are visible. In subjects such as this there is some influence of the painter Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749).