Salvator Rosa was born in Naples and trained as a painter, initially working in Florence before settling in Rome.

"Landscape with Mercury and the Dishonest Woodsman" is a story that teaches the importance of honesty. Among the "Aesop Fables," a collection of instructive stories told in ancient Greece, the story of Mercury, the god of messengers, and an honest woodcutter has rarely been dealt with in Europe. According to "Aesop's Fables," a woodcutter accidentally dropped an ax into the river, and Mercury, who was pitifully soft, rescued two axes. One was a silver axe and one was a gold axe, but the woodcutter said neither of them belonged to him, and Mercury returned the woodcutter's axe as a reward for honesty and presented him with a gold axe and a silver axe. Another woodcutter who heard this story claimed that he had dropped a gold axe after throwing it into the river on purpose. Mercury was angry at the woodcutter's lie and refused to give him a gold axe. 

▲ Salvator Rosa, "Landscape with Mercury and the Dishonest Woodsman" About 1663, Oil on canvas, 125.7 x 202.1 cm, The National Gallery, London, Bought, 1837, NG 84, Photo by SayArt Sims green.
More important than the subject story in the painting is the majestic landscape of broken trees and lush grasses swirling under a cloud-filled sky. Rosa became more and more interested in the passionate landscape paintings of this period and, influenced by her trip to Venice in 1661, painted with quick brushes that could express light and color well.

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