Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Matthijs and Paul Bril (Flemish Brothers in Rome)

attributed to Matthijs Bril
Large Oak Tree
ca. 1575-83
drawing
British Museum

Matthijs Bril
River landscape
before 1583
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Matthijs Bril
River landscape with broken bridge
ca. 1570-83
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

"The artists from the north could take several different routes to Italy.  One went through Germany along the Rhine to Basel and then via the Alps to Milan or through Austria via Innsbruck to Northern Italy and Venice.  . . .  After 1618 Germany became more dangerous because of the Thirty Years War, which may well be the reason why people tended to prefer the route through France until the Treaty of Münster was signed in 1648.  Generally speaking, people circumvented the Southern Low Countries and went by sea to Normandy and then on to Paris.  . . .  The journey to the south ran along the Loire and then to Lyon.  Gerard ter Borch took another route through France, traveling via Bordeaux and Nîmes.  All sorts of northerners gathered in Lyon and several artists also worked there.  . . .  From the South of France the journey could continue through the mountains, along the coast, or by sea from Marseilles to Genoa, Livorno or Civitavecchia.  People sailed in small vessels that hugged the coast so that they could rapidly take refuge ashore in the event of danger.  . . .  Most Dutch artists never went to Italy, although it was recommended by authors like Van Mander and Hoogstraten – in 1604 and 1678 respectively.  Around 1630 Huygens wrote that Rembrandt and Lievens did not see the point of a visit to Italy; it was a waste of time, and, anyway, when they wanted to see Italian paintings there were plenty in the Netherlands."

– Peter Schatborn, from the catalogue of a 2001 exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, published in English as Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch artists in Italy, translated by Lynne Richards

Matthijs Bril
Mountainous river landscape with hermit and chapel
ca. 1570-83
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Matthijs Bril
View of ruins in the Roman Forum
before 1583
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Matthijs Bril
Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome
before 1583
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Paul Bril
Jonah thrown to the whale
ca. 1585-89
drawing (study for fresco commission, Scala Santa, Rome)
British Museum

Two pairs of matching prints below by Paul Bril represent the artist's etched version and the artist's engraved version of identical scenes.  Interesting to note that the respective museums holding the individual prints have cataloged the members of the pairs with completely different titles.  In the case of Bril's prints and drawings it is probably safe to assume that the titles we see were not supplied by the creator, but rather represent later concoctions by various culture-workers.   

Paul Bril
View of the coast of Campania
ca. 1590
etching
British Museum

Paul Bril
Riverscape with a shepherd on a hill
ca. 1590
engraving
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Paul Bril
Landscape with St Francis
1590
etching
British Museum

Paul Bril
Mountainous landscape with praying hermit
ca. 1590
engraving
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Paul Bril
Landscape with hunters
1619
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Bril
Landscape with Pan and Syrinx
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Paul Bril-
Landscape with men playing Mail à la Chicane
1624
oil on canvas
Minneapolis Institute of Art