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It seems certain that it was Monsignor Agucchi, the majordomo of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, who brought the works of the young Bolognese painter, Domenichino, to the attention of his master, who had moved to Rome in 1602. Under the guidance of Annibale Carracci, Domenichino helped to establish the popularity of the classical and ideal landscape.
The anecdotal content of the painting lends itself to a variety of interpretations. The attitudes of observation, action, and expectation adopted by the figures - represented from left to right by a single person, a couple, and a family group, and differentiated by colour into red, blue, and yellow appear to correspond to three different historical perspectives: past, present, and future. They are presented, respectively, as a woman musing over the way she has come, a man carrying his companion across the river, and a peasant with his wife and children who are removing their boots. Perhaps the picture is intended as an illustration of the proverb "he who has crossed the ford, knows how deep the water is." Yet the ending remains open to conjecture: will the man in the middle of the ford reach his goal and will the others, waiting on the bank, follow him? The significance of the picture can only be grasped if we bear in mind the high intellectual level Aldobrandini - Agucchi. The episodic composition, the smooth brush strokes, the sober and yet joyous palette, and the clear air might even seem ingenuous, but it is a refined naivete, more deliberate than natural.
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