FLEMISH PAINTER from the circle of Paul Bril (Mathijs or Matthijs Bril?)
Rome, early 17th century
Landscape
oil on canvas, cm. 104,7×152,5
The large painting depicts a charming landscape animated by figures in the foreground dressed in the latest fashion of the early 17th century. Men and women appear in pairs, wearing hats adorned with plumes, with their stockings and ruffs prominently displayed. To the right, two men stroll along the river engaged in conversation, while on the opposite bank a horseman gallops past accompanied by his dog.
The composition of the landscape is carefully structured in successive planes, with dense vegetation and tall ivy-clad trees forming a backdrop on the left, and, on the opposite side, a sunlit valley is overlooked by a castle and distant mountains. The canvas is a typical genre scene, most probably painted in Rome at the beginning of the 17th century, when the foremost landscape painter was the Flemish Paul Bril (Antwerp, 1554 – Rome, 1626). Bril had worked on the building projects of Pope Sixtus V as in the very late 16th century and became enormously influential within Roman artistic circles, effectively establishing a successful school of landscape painting. Bril’s works were represented in all the most important collections of the period, and he attracted a considerable number of followers.
The painting presented here displays many of the hallmarks of his oeuvre, particularly the crystalline, almost icy light that illuminates the valley receding into the distance. The style, however, is not entirely consistent with that of Paul Bril himself. It is more likely the work of a close follower, perhaps one from his immediate circle. Among these was his brother, Matthijs Bril, who was himself still developing a fully distinctive artistic identity. A painting such as this may therefore point towards a possible attribution in that direction.