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This painting depicts a rocky landscape with travellers on a path, with a view of a town, believed to be Huy, in the valley beyond.
It is the first mountain landscape in Lucas van Valckenborch's oeuvre, and the steep cliffs which dominate the left-hand side of this composition would become a recurring motif in his paintings.
Valckenborch, along with contemporaries such as Gillis Mostaert and Gillis van Coninxloo, was working in the tradition of the so-called 'world landscapes' - the term used to describe the panoramic vistas taken from a bird's-eye viewpoint, largely painted in Antwerp in the 16th century. Chief among the exponents of this art form were Joachim Patinir, Herri Met de Bles and ultimately Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
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