This work is one of four pastoral Italian landscapes of similar size, treatment and date which may have formed a set of four, or at least two pairs. At the left of this work are the ruins of a Corinthian temple, with washing hung out in the upper portion. In the centre of the composition a horseman is giving alms to men begging. At the right, figures can be seen among fallen capitals and other masonry, below a statue of a seated man on a high plinth. In the middle distance at the left are more ruins which are clearly capricious but suggest those of the Forum, Rome. They include the Pyramid of Cestius, various Palladian buildings, and a campanile. The statue is perhaps an invention conflated from several antique prototypes; it occurs in another work by the Riccis (RCIN 404141). For a drawing related to this painting, see RCIN 905907.

Marco Ricci was the nephew and probably the pupil of Sebastiano Ricci. From an early age he concentrated on landscape, and he also developed a specialism in theatrical scenery design. Marco often collaborated with his uncle, painting the architectural or landscape backgrounds for Sebastiano's large canvases, or enlisting Sebastiano to paint the figures in his own small landscapes. The major portion of this work is clearly Marco Ricci's, however some of the larger and more important figures may have been put in by Sebastiano.