Grotto Landscape with a Hermitage

Last updated
Grotto Landscape with a Hermitage
Joos de Momper, Jan Brueghel the Younger - Grotto Landscape with a Hermitage.jpg
Artist Joos de Momper, Jan Brueghel the Younger
Yearca. 1625
Medium Oil on panel
Dimensions56 cm× 99 cm(22 in× 39 in)
LocationPrivate collection, Berlin

Grotto Landscape with a Hermitage, also called The Reading Hermit, is an oil on canvas painting by Flemish painters Jan Brueghel the Younger and Joos de Momper. It was painted around 1625, and is currently in private collection. It depicts a reading hermit in a monumental grotto, several pilgrims and various animals (dogs and birds). It was painted in Antwerp.

Contents

Description

Pilgrims Joos de Momper, Jan Brueghel the Younger - Grotto Landscape with a Hermitage - Detail Pilgrims.jpg
Pilgrims

Landscape

The landscape comes from Joos de Momper the Younger. It shows a mannerist color transition from brown in the foreground to green in the background. The main element of the painting is the grotto or cave, which divides the space into two levels. The fantastic rocky landscape is kept in brown, the world outside is mainly green.

Figures

The central figure in the grotto is the hermit, front left, who is absorbed in reading a book. Two well-dressed couples can be seen in the middle distance of the picture. Both couples have baskets of food with them. The figures seem less pilgrims than walkers.

Nature

The depictions of animals are striking: two dogs are running in the hermit's cave, one of them seems to be yapping at the hermit. The birds, possibly also painted by Jan Brughel, are located by the waterfall that defines the right part of the painting. There is thick forest between the grotto and the town church in the background.

Topics

Hermit Joos de Momper, Jan Brueghel the Younger - Grotto Landscape with a Hermitage - Detail Hermitage.jpg
Hermit

Untouched nature is the dominant theme of the right half of the painting, religion occupies the left half of the picture. The hermit set up an altar with a painting of crowned Mary on it. The painting juxtaposes religion and nature as well as civilization on the one hand (church in the background, elegantly dressed walkers) and untouched nature (crane, waterfall) on the other.

Cooperation between the painters

In Flemish painting of the late 16th and early 17th centuries there was often joint work by different painters. The painters specialized in a certain area, such as landscape or figures. The painting “Grotto landscape with hermitage” is an example of the collaboration: while Brughel painted the figures and animals, Joos de Momper the grotto and the landscape. This division of labor approach was quite common among painters at that time.

Joos de Momper the Younger (1564-1635) was a Flemish landscape painter. His landscape depictions show the transition from the Mannerist world landscape to the naturalistic Dutch landscape painting of the 17th century.

Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601–1678) was a Flemish landscape, flower and animal painter from the most important Flemish painting dynasty, the Brueghel family. He was the grandson of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and son of Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Both Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel grew up in Antwerp and were members of the Guild of Saint Luke, a guild-like brotherhood of painters and printers. Both painters also came from important families of painters. Joos de Momper often worked with Jan Brueghel the Elder and Jan Brueghel the Younger.

Grotto painting as a genre

Crane with waterfall Joos de Momper, Jan Brueghel the Younger - Grotto Landscape with a Hermitage - Detail Bird Water.jpg
Crane with waterfall

De Momper is considered to be the most important exponent of grotto painting: These are paintings in which a rock grotto or cave is the focus of the painting. The caves are refuge for hermits, serve as a place of pilgrimage (as in this painting) or serve as the background of a mythological story. Further representatives of grotto painting are Cornelis van Dalem (approx. 1530–1573), Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Paul Bril (approx. 1553–1626). Another grotto landscape by Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel the Elder is in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, also here with a reading hermit. [1]

Bird Joos de Momper, Jan Brueghel the Younger - Grotto Landscape with a Hermitage - Detail Bird.jpg
Bird

De Momper's name was so closely linked to rock and mountain landscapes that he was named Judocus de Momper Pictor montium Antwerpiae (Joos de Momper, Antwerp, Painter of mountains) in the then very well-known Iconography, a series of pictures by well-known painters after Anthony van Dyck. [2]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Brueghel the Elder</span> Flemish painter (1568–1625)

Jan Brueghelthe Elder was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collaborator with Peter Paul Rubens, the two artists were the leading Flemish painters in the first three decades of the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Brueghel the Younger</span> Flemish painter (1601 – 1678)

Jan Brueghelthe Younger was a Flemish Baroque painter. He was the son of Jan Brueghel the Elder, and grandson of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, both prominent painters who contributed respectively to the development of Renaissance and Baroque painting in the Habsburg Netherlands. Taking over his father's workshop at an early age, he largely painted the same subjects as his father in a style which was similar to that of his father. He gradually was able to break away from his father's style by developing a broader, more painterly, and less structured manner of painting.He regularly collaborated with leading Flemish painters of his time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hendrick van Balen the Elder</span> Flemish painter

Hendrick van Balen or Hendrick van Balen I was a Flemish Baroque painter and stained glass designer. Hendrick van Balen specialised in small cabinet pictures often painted on a copper support. His favourite themes were mythological and allegorical scenes and, to a lesser extent, religious subjects. The artist played an important role in the renewal of Flemish painting in the early 17th century and was one of the teachers of Anthony van Dyck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting</span>

Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting represents the 16th-century response to Italian Renaissance art in the Low Countries. These artists, who span from the Antwerp Mannerists and Hieronymus Bosch at the start of the 16th century to the late Northern Mannerists such as Hendrik Goltzius and Joachim Wtewael at the end, drew on both the recent innovations of Italian painting and the local traditions of the Early Netherlandish artists. Antwerp was the most important artistic centre in the region. Many artists worked for European courts, including Bosch, whose fantastic painted images left a long legacy. Jan Mabuse, Maarten van Heemskerck and Frans Floris were all instrumental in adopting Italian models and incorporating them into their own artistic language. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, with Bosch the only artist from the period to remain widely familiar, may seem atypical, but in fact his many innovations drew on the fertile artistic scene in Antwerp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan van Kessel the Younger</span>

Jan van Kessel the Younger or Jan van Kessel II, known in Spain as Juan Vanchesel el Mozo or el Joven, was a Flemish painter who after training in Antwerp worked in Spain. Known mainly for his portraits he became a court painter to the King and Queen of Spain. A few landscapes and mythological and allegorical scenes have also been attributed to him. He was formerly believed to have been active as a landscape painter, but this is now no longer generally accepted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joos de Momper</span> Flemish painter

Joos de Momper the Younger or Joost de Momper the Younger was a Flemish landscape painter active in Antwerp between the late 16th century and the early 17th century. Brueghel's influence is clearly evident in many of de Momper's paintings. His work is situated at the transition from late 16th-century Mannerism to the greater realism in landscape painting that developed in the early 17th century. He achieved considerable success during his lifetime.

The Antwerp School was a school of artists active in Antwerp, first during the 16th century when the city was the economic center of the Low Countries, and then during the 17th century when it became the artistic stronghold of the Flemish Baroque under Peter Paul Rubens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marten Ryckaert</span> Flemish painter

Marten Ryckaert or Maerten Ryckaert, was a Flemish landscape painter. He was known for his small, usually imaginary landscapes in an Italianate style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flemish Baroque painting</span> Painting movement

Flemish Baroque painting refers to the art produced in the Southern Netherlands during Spanish control in the 16th and 17th centuries. The period roughly begins when the Dutch Republic was split from the Habsburg Spain regions to the south with the Spanish recapturing of Antwerp in 1585 and goes until about 1700, when Spanish Habsburg authority ended with the death of King Charles II. Antwerp, home to the prominent artists Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens, was the artistic nexus, while other notable cities include Brussels and Ghent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frans Francken the Younger</span> Flemish painter (1581–1642)

Frans Francken the Younger was a Flemish painter who created altarpieces and furniture panels and gained his reputation chiefly through his small and delicate cabinet pictures with historical, mythological or allegorical themes. He is the best-known and most prolific member of the large Francken family of artists. Franckenplayed an important role in the development of Flemish art in the first half of the 17th century through his innovations in many genres including genre painting and his introduction of new subject matter. He was a frequent collaborator of leading Antwerp painters of his time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucas van Uden</span> Flemish painter

Lucas van Uden was a leading Flemish landscape painter, draughtsman and engraver, who lived and worked in Antwerp. He was a leading landscape painter who collaborated with various local figure painters. His most original works are his drawings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham Govaerts</span> Flemish painter

Abraham Govaerts was a Flemish painter who specialized in small cabinet-sized forest landscapes in the manner of Jan Brueghel the Elder and Gillis van Coninxloo. He was a regular collaborator with other artists who were specialists in specific genres. Govaerts would paint the landscape while these specialists painted the figures, animals or still life elements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frans de Momper</span>

Frans de Momper was a Flemish landscape painter who, after training in Antwerp, worked for a while in the Dutch Republic. Here he was exposed to the work of Dutch landscape painters such as Jan van Goyen. His later paintings prefigure the imaginative landscapes of Hercules Segers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philips de Momper the Elder</span>

Philips de Momper the Elder, Philips de Momper (I) or Philippe de Momper (I) (1598–1634) was a Flemish landscape painter and son of the prominent landscape painter Joos de Momper. His work was virtually unknown until a group of paintings, mainly depicting Treviso and Rome, which had formerly been attributed to his father were re-assigned to him. The artist is often confused with his cousin Philips de Momper the Younger.

Klaus Ertz is a German art historian specializing in the Brueghel family of artists and their workshop.

<i>Flemish Market and Washing Place</i> Painting by Joos de Momper

Flemish Market and Washing Place is an oil on canvas painting by Flemish painter Joos de Momper. It was painted in the 1620s, and it might be a collaboration between de Momper and Jan Brueghel the Elder

<i>Landscape with Sea and Mountains</i> Painting by Joos de Momper

Landscape with Sea and Mountain is an oil on canvas painting by Flemish painter Joos de Momper. It was painted in the early 1620s, and is currently housed at the Museum of Prado in Madrid.

<i>Mountain Landscape with Pilgrims in a Grotto Chapel</i> Painting by Joos de Momper

Mountain Landscape with Pilgrims in a Grotto Chapel, also known as A Hermit before a Grotto, is an oil on panel painting by Flemish painters Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel the Elder. The painting was completed at some time between 1610 and 1626. It is currently part of the private collection of the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna.

<i>Landscape with Grotto and a Rider</i> Painting by Joos de Momper

Landscape with Grotto and a Rider is an oil on panel painting by Flemish painter Joos de Momper. The painting was completed in the 1610s, possibly in 1616. It is currently housed at the art gallery of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

<i>Summer Landscape with Harvesters</i> Painting by Joos de Momper

Summer Landscape with Harvesters is an oil on canvas painting by Flemish artists Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel the Elder. It was painted in the first quarter of the 17th century, probably around 1610, and is currently housed at the Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio. After having been exposed in Toledo as an "anonymous loan," the Museum directory opted for the purchase, influenced by the reaction of the public. The painting was acquired by the Toledo Museum of Art in 2003.

References