Trained in his native Bologna, Viola arrived in Rome around 1600, and lived with his countryman Francesco Albani (1578–1660), who would later marry Viola’s stepdaughter. These painters sometimes worked with Domenichino (1581–1641), who was also from Bologna; Viola, who specialized in landscapes, painted the settings in their collaborative frescoes at the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati.
Viola also had a successful practice in small landscape paintings, often created in pairs, like this one; the pendant, or mate, to this Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew is Christ and the Samaritan Woman, now at the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College. The two biblical scenes are theologically linked, both involving the life-changing recognition of Christ as redeemer—by two brothers who became apostles and by an anonymous woman, respectively. The contrasting landscape settings build on Domenichino’s ideal, classicizing examples and his subtle use of color, both of which went on to influence subsequent generations of painters, from Nicolas Poussin to Claude Lorrain to John Constable.