Paul BRIL (Anvers vers 1553/54-Rome 1626) - Lot 118

Paul BRIL (Anvers vers 1553/54-Rome 1626) * Christ on the road to Emmaus Canvas. 119 x 170 cm The authenticity of this painting was confirmed by Drs. Luuk Pijl, specialist in Flemish landscape paintings, on March 14, 2023. Provenance: Collection of Chevalier Jacques de Ghellinck. Galerie Arthur de Heuvel and Pieter de Boer, Brussels and Amsterdam, circa 1960-1965. Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, October 28, 1987, lot 124. Galerie d'Art Saint-Honoré, Paris, circa 1989-1993. Private collection, Switzerland. Literature: G. T. Faggin, 'Per Paolo Bril', Paragone, July 1965, 16th year, 185/5, p. 31, no. 13. P. Eikemeier, Deutsche und Niederlandische Malerei zwischen Renaisance und Barok, Munich, 1973, p. 15. Y. Thiery, Les peintres flamands de paysage au XVIIe siècle. Des précurseurs à Rubens, Brussels, 1987, pp. 101-102, reproduced in black and white on p. 102. A. Berger, Die Tafelgemälde Paul Brils, coll. Kunstgeschichte, Münster-Hamburg, 1993, 12, p. 88, under note 85. F. Cappelletti, Paul Bril e la pittura di paesaggio a Roma 1580-1630, Rome, 2006, p. 262, no. 85, reproduced in black and white on p. 262. Exhibition: London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Third International Art Treasures Exhibition, March 2-April 29, 1962, no. 4. Brussels, Galerie Arthur de Heuvel, Catalogue de Tableaux Anciens, 1965, no. 9. Paris, Galerie d'Art St Honoré, Les temps des Brueghel. Pierre Brueghel le jeune chroniqueur de son temps, 1990-1991, no. 10. The Flemish-Roman landscape painter Paulus Bril (1553/1554-1626) was born in Breda in 1553 or 1554. At the age of fourteen, he earned his living painting landscapes on harpsichords. Around the age of twenty, he moved to Lyon, where he worked for several years. He was in Rome in October 1582, working at the Vatican alongside his older brother Matthijs. Paul Bril died in 1626, leaving a large body of frescoes, engravings, drawings and cabinet paintings. He exerted considerable influence on later landscape painters, and is rightly regarded as the most important predecessor of Claude Lorrain (1604/1605-1682). The present painting by Paulus Bril, executed on a large canvas, became known in 1962 when it was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. At the time, the composition was known through two much smaller works by the master, painted on a copper support. A version on a metal support (28.5 x 39.5 cm.) is signed and dated "Pa Brilli 1602". It is kept at the Glasgow Art Gallery as part of the McLellan legacy. The second related copper (26 x 24 cm.) is exhibited at the Alte Pinacothek in Munich and is signed by the master "Pa Bril Roma 1603". The general composition and many details are similar in all these works. An important difference, however, is the position of Christ and his two companions. The Glasgow painting shows them in the right-hand corner, while in the Munich version, they are placed more centrally and much deeper in the landscape. In the present painting, they are placed far down in the lower right-hand corner. Comparing the capture and support of the Glasgow and Munich works with the present canvas illustrates a general evolution in Bril's easel paintings. Shortly after 1600, Bril's easel paintings generally became larger, and were often executed on canvas rather than copper. There are no authentic Paulus Bril paintings on wood. The present painting can be dated to 1603 or shortly thereafter. A drawing in the Cabinet des Dessins of the Musée du Louvre shows a related composition (see L. Wood Ruby, Paul Bril: Les Dessins, Turnhout, 1999, no. 43, fig. 45). The drawing is strongly related in composition, but cannot be considered preparatory to several other works in oil. The Louvre sheet is clearly an independent work of art and played no part in the creative process. It can be assumed that all three paintings and the drawing are based on a lost preparatory drawing. In all the works based on this drawing, the high citadel tower at the top of the mountain is the pivot of the composition. Christ's encounter with his two disciples on the road to Emmaus, as recounted in Luke's Gospel, was a popular theme in 16th- and 17th-century art. After the encounter on the road, the protagonists took their meal at Emmaus. The theme of the meeting on the road and the ensuing meal inspired many artists, including Titian (c. 1588/1490-1576), Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/1530-1569), Rembrandt (1606-1669) and Velázquez (1599-1660).