Executed in oil on copper, this intimate landscape illustrates two figures standing before a cottage in a wooded clearing. The work marks a stylistic turning point in Flemish landscape painting, capturing the transition from the meticulous Northern architectural traditions of Antwerp to the idealized, atmospheric landscape style popular in Rome during the late sixteenth century.
The painter utilizes delicate, highly finished glazes on the smooth metallic support, rendering fine environmental details and atmospheric perspective characteristic of the circle and workshop of Paul Bril.
This oil on copper piece is a fine example of the details that Paul Bril was so fond of in his paintings. This fine example shows two figures done in the style of the times before a cottage in a partial clearing. Reminiscent of the transition from his original style of detailed architectural painting and his new found admiration of the Italians landscape style of the times.
This painting based on the transition is believed to have been painted around 1594.
Born and trained in Antwerp, Paul Bril went to Rome in 1575 and became the leading landscape painter in the city. His earliest works there were small highly finished forest scenes in the Flemish manner but his style was transformed by the study of contemporary Italian landscape painting, especially the work of Annibale Carracci.
Bril painted frescoes and often collaborated with figure painters. His mature works were idealised landscapes showing a close observation of nature and understanding of aerial perspective.
He arrived in Rome having travelled from Antwerp to join his elder brother Matthijs. He followed Matthijs’s example, making detailed sketches of classical architecture which he incorporated into his paintings. Bril worked in a variety of media, including frescoes and small paintings on copper.
He inspired many northern European artists to visit Rome, extending his influence through them and through prints made after his work. He sometimes used the visual pun of a pair of spectacles (‘bril’ in Dutch) as his signature.
