(Antwerp 1554–1626 Rome)
A river landscape,
oil on copper, tondo, diameter 11.2 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection, until 2011;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
F. Cappelletti, Dipingere e appendere paesi e fiori e frutta, a Roma nel primo Seicento, in: Roma al tempo di Caravaggio 1600–1630. Saggi, ed. by R. Vodret, exhibition catalogue, vol. 2, Milan 2012, p. 428, fig. 20 (as Paul Bril)

This painting is an example of Paul Bril’s works for private patrons and a refined Wunderkammer item. These precious paintings were small scale objects usually on copper or panel. In this work Bril depicts a brilliant landscape which is rich in miniaturist-like details, such as the branches of the trees and the row of poplars on the ridge of the hill encircling the castle in the background. Dominating the landscape, the broad open sky is streaked with cloud tinged with the pink light of dusk or dawn.

Paul Bril trained in Antwerp and then moved to Italy at the age of twenty four. His elder brother Matthijs (circa 1550–1583) was already an established painter in Rome and on his arrival he engaged his brother to help him with executing frescoes in the Vatican, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII. However, in 1583 Matthijs died prematurely and Paul Bril was left to take command of the papal commissions, both in the Vatican and in various churches and villas in and around Rome. Fortified by his Northern cultural heritage he exerted a significant influence, encouraging conditions for pure landscape painting to emerge as a distinct genre in painting in its own right.