The Master of the Small Landscapes (in

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: Meester van de Kleine Landschappen) was a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

artist from the mid-16th century known for his landscape drawings. The name of this unidentified artist is derived from a series of 44 prints of landscapes that were created after the artist’s drawings, some of which have been preserved. Together with the work of

Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; – 9 September 1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genr ...

, the drawings of the Master played an important role in the evolution of

Northern Renaissance The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renais ...

landscape art from the

world landscape The world landscape, a translation of the German ''Weltlandschaft'', is a type of composition in Western painting showing an imaginary panoramic landscape seen from an elevated viewpoint that includes mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings. ...

into an independent genre.

Publication history

The prints were published by

Hieronymus Cock Hieronymus Cock, or Hieronymus Wellens de Cock (1518 – 3 October 1570) was a Flemish painter and etcher as well as a publisher and distributor of prints.

in Antwerp in two series. The first series was published in 1559 with the title ''Multifarium casularum ruriumque lineamenta curiose ad vivum expressa'' (translated as: 'Many and very beautiful places of diverse village dwellings, homesteads, files, streets, and such like, and furnished with all sorts of small animals. Altogether drawn from life and primarily located around Antwerp'). The first series contained 14 sheets. Master of the Small Landscapes - Tower on a river

Master of the Small Landscapes - Tower on a river

The second series was published in 1561 with the title ''Praediorum villarum et rusticarum caularum icons elegantissimi'' ('Elegant pictures of country manours, villas and cottages drawn from life in copper plates').Leopoldine van Hogendorp Prosperetti, 'Landscape and Philosophy in the Art of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625)'
Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009 The second series contained 30 sheets. An edition of both volumes together also appeared 1561. A third edition was published by

Philips Galle Philip (or Philips) Galle (1537 – March 1612) was a Dutch publisher, best known for publishing old master prints, which he also produced as designer and engraver. He is especially known for his reproductive engravings of paintings. Life Gal ...

in 1601 in Antwerp under the title '' Regiunculae et villae aliquot ducatus Brabantiae a. P. Breughelio delineatae et in pictorum gratiam a Nicolao Joannis Piscatore excusae et in lucem editae, Amstelodami'' ('Small Counties and Villages primarily in the duchy of Brabant'). His son

Theodoor Galle Dirck or Theodoor Galle (16 July 1571 – 18 December 1633) was a Flemish Baroque engraver. Biography He learned the art of engraving from his father Philip Galle. He married Catharina Moerentorff (Moretus), daughter of the prominent printer ...

published the series again a few years later (probably in 1610). In 1612

Claes Jansz. Visscher Claes Janszoon Visscher (1587 – 19 June 1652) was a Dutch Golden Age drawing, draughtsman, engraver, mapmaker, and publisher. He was the founder of the successful Visscher family mapmaking business. The firm that he established in Amsterdam wo ...

published a further edition of 26 of the original 44 views in Amsterdam.Hans M. Schmidt, et al. "Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists, §I: Master of the Small Landscapes"
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 Jun. 2014 Visscher created a new title page and added two additional prints at the end of the series. The first two editions by Cock were not particularly successful but the 1601 Galle edition, on the other hand, was quite successful.

Attribution of the drawings and prints

The publications of Cock did not name the artist responsible for the designs. The original title page only stated that the landscapes were drawn from nature in the vicinity of Antwerp.Larry Silver, Peasant Scenes and Landscapes: The Rise of Pictorial Genres in the Antwerp Art Market, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012 Philips Galle's 1601 edition attributed the designs to

Cornelis Cort Cornelis Cort (c. 1533 – c. 17 March 1578) was a Dutch engraver and draughtsman. He spent the last 12 years of his life in Italy, where he was known as ''Cornelio Fiammingo''. Biography Born in Hoorn or Edam, Cort may have been a pupil of D ...

while Claes Jansz. Visscher described them as 'some country farms and cottages of the duchy of Brabant, drawn by P. Bruegel'. These attributions to Cort and Bruegel are now generally regarded as unsubstantiated. The following candidates have been proposed for identification with the Master of the Small Landscapes: Hieronymus Cock,

Cornelis van Dalem Cornelis van Dalem (1530/35 – 1573 or 1576) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp in the middle of the 16th century and an important contributor to the development of landscape art in the Low Countries.Carl Van de Velde. " ...

Hans Bol Hans Bol or Jan Bol (16 December 1534 – 20 November 1593), was a Flemish-Belgian painter, print artist, miniaturist painter and draftsman.Meester van de Kleine Landschappen
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

Some scholars have divided the authorship of the Small Landscapes drawings between two or more artists. Others believe the artist to be an unknown, independent master. The original prints were probably engraved by Jan and Lucas van Doetechum. The later Dutch reprint contained engravings by Claes Jansz. Visscher himself as the original plates for the series had remained in Antwerp in the possession of the Galle publishing house. Visscher made changes to the original prints by reducing their size, cropping the images and making alterations to the staffage. He changed or moved the original figures and added new figures.Alexandra Onuf, ''Envisioning Netherlandish Unity: Claes Visscher's 1612 Copies of the Small Landscape Prints''
in: Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, Volume 3: Issue 1 (2011)

The drawings

Master of the Small Landscapes - Village View

Many of the drawings that formed the basis for the series of prints have been preserved and are in the collections of the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

, the

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, the

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

and

Chatsworth House Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family sin ...

Art historical significance

The works of the Master of the small landscapes constitute an important link in the evolution of the landscape into an independent genre. The landscape as developed in the first half of the 16th century by Netherlandish artists such as

Joachim Patinir Joachim Patinir, also called Patenier (c. 1480 – 5 October 1524), was a Flemish Renaissance painter of history and landscape subjects. He was Flemish, from the area of modern Wallonia, but worked in Antwerp, then the centre of the art market ...

is referred to as 'world landscape'. These world landscapes represented imaginary panoramic landscapes seen from an elevated viewpoint and usually included a Biblical or historical narrative. Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 'Large Landscapes' published by Hieronymus Cock in the mid 1550s included non-narrative world landscapes as well as religious subjects. A further evolution was the series of 'Landscapes with Biblical and Mythological Scenes' published in 1558 by Hieronymus Cock after designs by his brother

Matthys Cock Matthys Cock or Matthijs Wellens de Cock (c. 1505 – 1548) was a Flemish landscape painter and draughtsman. He is known for his landscapes, marine art and architectural drawings.humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

view of the world as reflected by the humanist philosopher

Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

in his work the 'Antibarbarians', which glorified the enjoyment of a 'sancta rusticitas' (holy rusticity) in the countryside as a means to cultivate true wisdom.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Master of the Small Landscapes Landscape artists Flemish artists (before 1830)