Robbers attacking Baggage Wagons

Baggage wagons carrying the material support of armies or wealthy civilians were among the most tempting targets for robbers in seventeenth-century Europe, combining slow movement with valuable contents. Wouwerman returned to this subject multiple times, and this canvas — painted in 1662 and now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum — represents one of a pair of robbery scenes in Vienna depicting different targets and circumstances. The comparison between attacking travellers on horseback and attacking the lumbering baggage wagon allowed Wouwerman to explore different compositional dynamics: the wagon's bulk and the draft animals' different character creating entirely different visual problems from the swift equestrian robbery. Late works like this 1662 canvas show Wouwerman's mature style at full development, with more complex spatial recession and refined atmospheric effects.

Canvas support accommodates the wider compositional field needed to show the baggage wagon's bulk alongside attacking riders and the landscape context. The wagon itself — a heavy vehicle with large wheels, canvas cover, and a team of horses — is rendered with documentary precision as to its construction.