Deer Hunting In A Forest Landscape. Paul Bril & Atelier (end Of The XVIth Century)

Oil on oak panel (2 plates attached) Superb carved wooden frame with its original gilding (17th century) Dimensions with frame: 71 x 90 cm. The panel alone: 50 x 67 cm The painter shows us here on several planes, a wooded landscape; near a clearing hunters on horseback and pikes pursue a deer. But here, it is nature, abundant, profuse with these large trees with foliage ranging from soft green to golden brown, which gives all its importance to this superb landscape with its abundant birds crossing a beautiful sky. All the meticulousness dear to the Flemish masters is present in this composition which takes up a great classic that had great success with collectors of the time. Paul Bril and his workshop have produced this kind of subject several times, with modesty, we can compare our painting with that of the Louvre where the artist takes up the figures of the horseman and the prickly man on the left. (see attached photo) Paul Bril was born in Antwerp around 1553, he died in Rome in 1626. An important figure in landscape painting in the early years of the 17th century, Paul Bril was one of the initiators of the composite “vedute”. This Nordic painter, born in the Spanish Netherlands, was transplanted to Italy, where he exerted an immense influence through his capital role as an artist of transition between the fantastic Mannerist landscape and the classicizing composite landscape. After training in Antwerp, Bril, in 1574, went to France via Lyon to go like so many others to Rome where his brother Matthys was living. From 1582, the presence of Bril in Rome is attested, and even without interruption from 1593 to his death. In 1606, he witnessed the marriage of the painter Elsheimer, which confirmed the importance of his position in the Roman artistic world, which was so deeply internationalized. Under the influence of his brother, Bril devoted himself to frescoes in Rome, deploying considerable activity as a landscape designer in churches and papal or cardinal palaces. His style then evolves from a complicated and agitated mannerism, close to the manner of Girolama Muziano, to a sort of strongly constructed classicism, with simplified elements, which bears the influence of Annibale Carracci. It was not until quite late, at the very end of the 16th century, that Bril began to paint on an easel and with a slightly different inspiration: landscapes often embellished with mythological scenes and marked by the effects of the sun and the light of great quality. Thus, before the arrival of Elsheimer, it prefigures a fundamental evolution of the Italianate landscape, from Swanewelt and Claude to Bamboccianti, from Poelenburgh and Both to Vanvitelli. After 1600 and as in the fresco, Mannerist virtuosity, sharp and contrasting effects, decorative and unrealistic arrangements are simplified in a broader and more solidly constructed way. The alternation of dark and light areas, the successive play of blues, greens and yellows become the usual pattern of these pleasantly arranged backstage views, with deep perspectives, traversed by a powerful and deaf vegetal and luminist lyricism. Bril's reputation was immense and, already in 1620, a Roman amateur like Mancini put him in the forefront of landscape painters, after Carracci. Jacques Foucart (excerpt) In addition to the Louvre, many museums display works by Paul Bril in their collections. Excellent state of preservation. Sold with invoice & certificate