Paul Bril

One of the most influential Italianate landscape painters in the Netherlands, Paul Bril was born in Antwerp in 1554. His father and brother Matthijs (ca. 1550-1583) were both landscape painters as well. In 1574 Bril traveled to Rome via Lyon; the first documented reference to the artist in Rome is his admission to the Accademia di San Luca in 1582. Bril was named "Principe" of the Accademia in 1620, and "Secondo Consigliere" in 1624. Bril worked predominantly in fresco during the 1580s; his earliest dated easel painting is from 1594 (Germany, private collection). He was also a prolific draughtsman and etcher. Early works (before 1600) are distinctly Flemish in character, with vigorously charged Mannerist forms and an artificially defined aerial perspective. Later works (after about 1600) betray the influence of Annibale Carracci, Domenichino, Girolamo Muziano (1532-1592), and others, and are characterized by more classically organized horizontal compositions and a more naturalistic palette.