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In a cove overlooking a turbulent sea and under fast-moving clouds, a fortified harbour stretches out on a hill in the right foreground. Crowned by a central building with a western-style entrance, this is nonetheless a Turkish area, as can be seen from the crescent moon on the flag above the fortress and the turbans of the harbour dwellers. Outside the port western ships lie at anchor, one of them flying the English St George's cross from its mizzen mast. The most striking vessel, in the left foreground, a heavily-armed three-master with the Dutch tricolour in front and the arms of Amsterdam on the escutcheon, is still under sail and approaching the harbour. A sloop has been set out from this vessel. In the right foreground a heavy trunk is being heaved ashore with considerable difficulty from a moored sloop carrying two distinguished men, one wearing a turban, another a fur hat.
The painting is signed with monogram and dated in the centre right. However, the two final figures of the date are difficult to read. Reading the third number as a 5, which is the most probable solution, this situates the composition in the painter's later career, when he concentrated on harbour views having a reference to the Levant, or eastern Mediterranean, which the Venetians first reinforced with trading posts until these were later conquered by the Turks.
The introduction of an exotic touch in Peeters' oeuvre is contemporaneous with a growing international demand for Italianising landscapes. Bonaventura Peeters the Elder, who became a free master of Antwerp in 1634, originally painted shipwrecks and rough seas, along with calmer Scheldt and coastal views and a subtly gradated palette. During the 17th century he was the leading marine painter in the Spanish Netherlands. His artistic importance can be cause for surprise because sea paintings are generally associated with the Dutch art of the Golden Age. However, like so many other genres, marine painting also originated in the Spanish Netherlands. With the migration of innovative artists like Adam Willaerts and Jan Porcellis from and to the United Provinces, the genre developed more or less in parallel in the North and the South. In terms of their quality and the finesse of their painting, the South Netherlandish seascapes deserve more attention and more detailed study than they have received until now.
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