Description: Bambocciade (Italian: bambocciata) was originally a derogatory term for a style of genre painting from Rome.

The first of the smaller-format Bambocciade paintings, which depict scenes from popular life in a very crude manner and contrast the "noble" Baroque classicism of the time with figures of beggars, vagrants, and small-time artisans, were by the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer. He lived and worked in Rome and, legend has it, was nicknamed "Bamboccio" (rag doll) because of his appearance. During his stay in Rome, a group of Flemish and Dutch painters gathered around him, calling themselves "Bamboccianti." An important role model for this group, alongside van Laer, was Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Initially, the Bamboccianti included Andries, Jan Both, Karel Dujardin, Jan Miel, Johannes Lingelbach, and the Italian Michelangelo Cerquozzi. Frenchman Sébastien Bourdon was also associated with the loose artist group at the beginning of his career. Other Bamboccianti artists included Michiel Sweerts, Thomas Wijck, Dirck Helmbreker, Jan Asselijn, Anton Goubau, Willem Reuter, and Jacob van Staverden. Van Laer's painting style draws on a long tradition and can be associated with, among others, Hieronymus Bosch, Adriaen van Ostade, David Ryckaert, David Teniers the Younger, and David Teniers the Elder.