A small painting by Claude Lorrain, dated 1632, is generally described as painted dal naturale, from life (Fig. 64). It represents a scene that was visible from Claude's house on Rome's via Margutta, up the slope that was later to become the Spanish Steps, toward the church of Sta. Trinita dei Monti and the streets between the Pincio and the Quirinal hills. A preparatory drawing for the painting depicts the upper part of this view with its recognizable topography (Fig. 65). However, in a dark lower corner, Claude's painted composition flows seamlessly into a low-life scene of prostitutes with their clients. These figures perform their transactions in front of a ruined temple and antique sculpture. Evocative of ancient Rome, the setting is nonetheless entirely out of place in Claude's neighbourhood. This darkened area forms a counterpoint to the actual topography, an eruption of imagination into a scene that was otherwise meticulously observed from life.

Ancient and modern Rome, the real and the imagined, religious buildings and immoral actions, give the sense of juxtaposed registers and differing modes of address to the viewer.