Flemish school of the XVII century.
"Scene with figures and animals".
Oil on copper.
Measures: 47 x 49 cm; 51,5 x 63,5 cm (frame).
This country landscape with shepherds, close to the formal models of Joachim Patinir, denotes the taste for the anecdotal characteristic of the Flemish painting. This fact is shown in the quantity of figures and details with no apparent relation between them, and in the absence of a subject of importance that justifies the landscape, something that is already characteristic of both the period and the school to which the oil painting belongs. The construction based on successive planes is common in Flemish painting since the 15th century.
Joachim Patinir is considered the first Flemish landscape painter. In this genre, his works are characterized by a high horizon, revealing a lot of terrain, pointed and fantastic rocky mountains, mixing the real with the symbolic, and with the use of the subjects as a mere pretext to show these views (thus anticipating the landscape as an independent genre). At first his style was influenced by Bosch and, to a lesser extent it seems, Gerard David. It is possible that he first worked in Bruges, where he came into contact with the work of Gérard David. Like this master, he is quoted in 1515 in Antwerp, working as a teacher. Here he would meet Albrecht Dürer, initiating their friendship. He would collaborate with his friend Quinten Massys in certain works. He would achieve great fame, especially at the end of his career, for his execution and creativity, above all. His work is preserved only in some important private collections, and in certain institutions such as the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid), the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the Louvre Museum in Paris, etc.