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By tradition, the promising young artists of the Netherlands rounded off their education with a trip to the art centers of Italy.1 Honthorst’s itinerary has not yet been mapped out, but by studying the available documents, we know of several routes customarily taken by the young painters. Van Mander says that Hendrick Goltzius sailed from Amsterdam to Hamburg and then went overland to Rome, stopping at Munich, Venice, Bologna and Florence.2 Honthorst might also have crossed the Alps by way of the St. Gotthard Pass as did his fellow-townsman Hendrick Terbrugghen on his return to Utrecht in 1614.3 Another possible route was to travel through France, possibly visiting Paris, and then taking a boat from Marseilles, landing at Livorno, Naples or Rome.

Within two years after his return from Italy, Honthorst executed a painting which was revolutionary for the decoration of Dutch interiors. His 1622 signed and dated Musical Ceiling, Collection F. Stonor, London (Cat. Rais. 198; fig. 24), marked the beginning of illusionistic ceiling decoration in the Netherlands.1 Prior to that time, Dutch ceilings usually consisted of natural oak beams, often painted in a warm red-brown or green, and as a rule, they were decorated with carved ornaments such as lion heads and family crests.2 This break with the traditional Dutch ceiling decoration was not widespread, but it was the beginning of an interest in Italian illusionistic ceilings and an attempt to employ this decorative style in private Dutch houses which later extended to town halls and palaces.