Mannerism Flemish School
Hans Bol was a Flemish artist renowned for his miniature paintings and prints. Born in Mechelen, Bol was a pivotal figure in the transition from the world landscape tradition to a more realistic portrayal of nature. His early works as a 'water-verwer' offered affordable wall decorations but were susceptible to copying. This led him to create intricate miniatures on parchment, a medium less easily replicated.
Bol's influence on landscape art in the Low Countries is significant. His realistic landscapes, often featuring biblical scenes or daily life, showed a departure from imaginary landscapes, which was common at the time. This shift was partly due to the influence of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Bol's completion of the Four Seasons series, initially started by Bruegel, established him as a master of landscape art, blending detailed observation with imaginative elements.
Notably, Bol's works are present in prestigious institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where pieces like "The Prodigal Son" and various landscapes reflect his mastery of pen, ink, and wash. His artworks, like the "Landscape with a View of Antwerp," stand testament to his skill in capturing the essence of the Dutch landscape, influencing a generation of Dutch painters.
For collectors, auctioneers, and art connoisseurs, Hans Bol's legacy offers a glimpse into the evolution of landscape painting. His works not only adorned the homes of the affluent during his time but continue to be celebrated for their historical and artistic value.
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Adriaen Brouwer was a Flemish painter active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the first half of the 17th century. Brouwer was an important innovator of genre painting through his vivid depictions of peasants, soldiers and other "lower class" individuals engaged in drinking, smoking, card or dice playing, fighting, music making etc. in taverns or rural settings. Brouwer contributed to the development of the genre of tronies, i.e. head or facial studies, which investigate varieties of expression. In his final year he produced a few landscapes of a tragic intensity. Brouwer's work had an important influence on the next generation of Flemish and Dutch genre painters. Although Brouwer produced only a small body of work, Dutch masters Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt collected it.
Louis de Caullery was a Flemish painter who is known for his architectural scenes, city views, genre scenes, allegorical compositions and history paintings. He was one of the pioneers of the art genre of courtly gatherings and the garden parties (fête champêtre) in Flemish painting.
Lucas van Valckenborch was a Flemish painter, mainly known for his landscapes. He also made contributions to portrait painting, and allegorical and market scenes. Court painter to Archduke Matthias, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands in Brussels, he later migrated to Austria and then Germany where he joined members of his extended family of artists who had moved there for religious reasons.
Philips Galle was a Dutch publisher, best known for publishing old master prints, which he also produced as designer and engraver. He is especially known for his reproductive engravings of paintings.
As a resident of Antwerp, Galle witnessed numerous events of the Eighty Years War, notably the siege and looting of the town in 1576 by the Spaniards, called "The Spanish Fury". This rather personal book, which was translated in several languages soon after its first publication, shows Galle as a peace-loving person who intended to stay far away from the political and military turmoil of his era.
Jacob Grimmer was a Flemish painter who was active during the Late Renaissance. He specialised in landscapes and genre scenes, often depicting the everyday life of peasants.
His style was strongly influenced by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.
Grimmer's paintings are characterized by detailed, realistic depictions of nature. His landscapes are characterized by wide expanses and intricate detail.
Jacob Grimmer was known for his ability to capture the nuances of human behaviour, so his genre works depict the lives of peasants with a touch of humour and whimsy.
Roelant Savery was a Flanders-born Dutch Golden Age painter.
Savery primarily painted landscapes in the Flemish tradition of Gillis van Coninxloo, often embellished with many meticulously painted animals and plants, regularly with a mythological or biblical theme as background. He also painted multiple flower still lifes; bouquets in stone niches, sometimes with lizards such as Flowers with Two Lizards, insects or fallen petals and regarded as his best work.
His unique style of painting, related to the then reigning Mannerism, has been highly popular with collectors and can be found in many museums in Europe and North America. His preparatory drawings are also valued highly.
Pieter Stevens the Younger was a Flemish painter and draughtsman known for his landscapes. He left Flanders to work for the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. The circulation of prints made after a series of romantic Bohemian landscape drawings by Stevens and other artists had an important influence on the development of Flemish and Dutch landscape art in the 17th century.
Gillis van Coninxloo (now also referred to as Gillis van Coninxloo II but previously referred to as Gillis van Coninxloo III) was a Flemish painter of landscapes who played an important role in the development of Northern landscape art at the turn of the 17th century. He spent the last 20 years of his life abroad, first in Germany and later in the Dutch Republic.
Pieter van der Borcht the Elder was a Flemish Renaissance painter, draughtsman and etcher. He is regarded as one of the most gifted botanical painters of the 16th century. Pieter van der Borcht the Elder also introduced new themes such as the 'monkey scene' (also called 'singerie') into Northern art.
Jan van Dornicke was a South Netherlandish painter who was born in Doornik (nowadays also known as Tournai) in about 1470 and died about 1527. His first name is sometimes spelled "Janssone", and his last name is sometimes spelled "van Doornik" or "van Dornick". He was active in Antwerp from about 1509 to about 1525. His paintings are classified stylistically as Antwerp Mannerism, and he may be the same person as the Master of 1518. This Jan van Dornicke should not be confused with an eighteenth-century Dutch artist who had the same name.
Jan van Hemessen was a leading Flemish Renaissance painter, belonging to the group of Italianizing Flemish painters called the Romanists, who were influenced by Italian Renaissance painting. Van Hemessen had visited Italy during the 1520s, and also Fontainebleau near Paris in the mid 1530s, where he was able to view the work of the colony of Italian artists known as the First School of Fontainebleau, who were working on the decorations for the Palace of Fontainebleau. Van Hemessen's works show his ability to interpret the Italian models into a new Flemish visual vocabulary.
Otto van Veen was a painter, draughtsman, and humanist active primarily in Antwerp and Brussels in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He is known for running a large studio in Antwerp, producing several emblem books, and for being, from 1594 or 1595 until 1598, Peter Paul Rubens' teacher. His role as a classically educated humanist artist (a pictor doctus), reflected in the Latin name by which he is often known, Octavius Vaenius, was influential on the young Rubens, who would take on that role himself.
