Fantasy view of Piazza del Popolo in winter – Flemish School, 17th century

Flemish School, 17th century. Oil on paper mounted on panel.
From the heights of a snow-covered hill—none other than Rome's Pincio Hill—where peasants are busy at work, we can see the famous Piazza del Popolo, bustling with people. This central square is the scene of a winter festival: Carnival. Everyone is enjoying themselves in their own way: in the streets, some are riding in sleighs while others are racing on horseback. In the center of the square, people have gathered around the Flaminio obelisk to dance, play pranks, and play ring toss. Taking part in the festivities, children play music while two of their friends relieve themselves behind them. The artist thus presents a dual vision of winter: the urban entertainment taking place in the center is mirrored by the two landscapes in the foreground and background. A low light bathes the scene in yellow and pink reflections as far as the distant hills, creating a striking play of shadows and backlighting on the architectural elements of the city.
In keeping with the Flemish tradition, our painter lends realism to his work by composing from a low viewpoint at eye level. Rather than attempting to embrace the whole world, he shows us a fragment of life halfway between a genre scene and a landscape. Here, the artist offers a personal interpretation of a work by Paul Bril depicting the months of January and February in a calendar series translated into engravings by Aegidius Sadeler II in 1615. While Paul Bril's long journey to Italy led him to paint rather solemn characters, our artist prefers the popular figures and comical situations characteristic of Flemish genre painting since Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

We have chosen to present this painting in a blackened wood frame with an inverted profile.
Dimensions: 38 x 56 – 52 x 70.5 cm with frame

Biography: After beginning his apprenticeship in Antwerp with Damiaan Wortelmans, Paul Bril (Antwerp, c. 1554 – Rome, October 7, 1626) left to join his brother Mathijjs in Rome in 1574, in order to assist him with his papal commissions. His first signed works date back to the late 1580s and consist mainly of monumental frescoes for the Vatican. A landscape painter trained in the Antwerp tradition, his style became more independent in the late 16th century through contact with Italy and its artists. Abandoning the dramatic effects of the Frankenthal school, he developed a more harmonious and calm style of painting in which classical architecture and ruins played an important role. Renowned throughout Italy, he was elected a principal member of the Academy of Saint Luke in Rome in 1620, and his works were collected by the most eminent figures of his time.

Bibliography:
- GIBSON, Walter S., Mirror of the Earth?: the World Landscape in Sixteenth-Century Flemish Painting, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
- THIERY, Yvonne, Flemish Landscape Painters in the 17th Century: Precursors to Rubens, Brussels, Lefèbvre et Gillet, 1988.
- VLIEGHE, Hans, Flemish Art and Architecture: 1585–1700, Yale University Press, 1998.
- WOOD RUBY, Louisa, Paul Bril: The Drawings, Belgium, Brepols, 1999.