Matthijs Bril or Matthijs Bril the Younger (1550 – 8 June 1583) 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; ...

painter and draughtsman of

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...

. He spent most of his active career in Rome where his drawings of ancient Roman sites played an important role in the development of topographical landscape art.Nicola Courtright. "Matthijs Bril." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 16 September 2016 He was also a painter of capricci (architectural fantasies), with typical rustic hills with a few ruins.Matthijs Bril
on Hadrianus He died young and his younger brother

Paul Bril Paul Bril (1554 – 7 October 1626) was a Flemish painter and printmaker principally known for his landscapes.Nicola Courtright. "Paul Bril." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 September 2016 He spent most of ...

, who had joined him in Rome, finished his commissions.''Jan en Kasper van Balen'' in: Frans Jozef van den Branden, ', Antwerp: J.-E. Buschmann, 1883, p. 184–190

Life

Matthijs was born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, the son of the painter Matthijs Bril the Elder.Biographical details
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 ...

Matthijs and his younger brother

likely started their artistic training with their father in Antwerp. Matthijs moved to Rome probably around 1575. In Rome he worked on several

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

es in the

Vatican Palace The Apostolic Palace ( la, Palatium Apostolicum; it, Palazzo Apostolico) is the official residence of the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the V ...

including the ''Views of Rome with the Translation of the Remains of St. Gregory Nazianzus'', executed soon after the actual transfer of the saint's remains in June 1580. Matthijs was joined by his younger brother Paul probably around or after 1582. Mathijs Bril’s second project in Rome was in the

Tower of the Winds The Tower of the Winds or the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes is an octagonal Pentelic marble clocktower in the Roman Agora in Athens that functioned as a ''horologion'' or "timepiece". It is considered the world's first meteorological stat ...

. This building in the Vatican Palace was built between 1578 and 1580 after a design by the Bolognese architect

Ottaviano Mascherino Ottaviano Nonni (1536 – 6 August 1606), called Il Mascherino, was an Italian architect, sculptor, and painter born in Bologna. Apprentice of Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, he was active in Emilia and in Rome, where he had been living in the rione of ...

as an astronomical observatory to study the

Gregorian Calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

Reform implemented by pope

Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...

.The Tower of Winds
at Archivum Secretum Vaticanum With the assistance of his brother Paul, Matthijs Bril decorated four rooms with biblical cycles in landscape friezes and two rooms with topographical views of Rome and imaginary

vedute A ''veduta'' (Italian for "view"; plural ''vedute'') is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, more often, print of a cityscape or some other vista. The painters of ''vedute'' are referred to as ''vedutisti''. Origins This genre ...

within an illusionistic framework. He also painted landscapes in two rooms of the Palazzo Orsini in

Monterotondo Monterotondo is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, central Italy. History According to some historians, Monterotondo is the heir of the ancient Sabine town of Eretum, although the modern settlement appeared in the 10th-11th ce ...

(north of Rome), which he signed with small glasses (a pun on his surname as the

word 'bril' means 'glasses'). When Matthijs died in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1583, his brother continued his work, picking up many of Matthijs' commissions.

Work

Matthijs Bril's work is now mainly known through his frescoes and drawings. Matthijs was specialized in landscapes. He painted two types of landscapes: landscapes with a topographical interest and imaginary landscapes. Mathijs Bril - Moonlight landscape

Matthijs contributed to the genre of topographical painting in combining close attention to detail with a perspective that highlights the monumentality of the depicted buildings. The latter was achieved by using a lowered viewpoint and dynamic recession into the distance of the depicted object. His imaginary landscapes without a topographical interest are more typically

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

in their close observation of nature and dramatic contrasts of light and dark. Their palette is dominated by acid blues and greens and the brushwork is impressionistic. These imaginary landscapes were used by his brother Paul and others as an inspiration for their work. These paintings are now known through a series of prints made by the

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 ...

engraver

Simon Frisius Simon de Vries or Simon Frisius (1570–75 in Harlingen – 1628–29 in The Hague),Simon Frisius
in the

. They were published in 1611 and 1613–14 in two volumes under the title ''Topographia Variarum Regionum.'' Matthijs was a prolific draughtsman and his drawings are a principal source of information on his work. Many of his drawings were kept by his brother Paul and copied by contemporaries, such as

Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) 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 collabora ...

. Matthijs is known to have collaborated with the Italian painters

Antonio Tempesta Antonio Tempesta, also called il Tempestino (1555 – 5 August 1630), was an Italian painter and engraver, whose art acted as a point of connection between Baroque Rome and the culture of Antwerp. Much of his work depicts major battles and his ...

, Niccolo Circignani and

Matteo da Siena Matteo di Giovanni (c. 1430 – 1495) was an Italian Renaissance artist from the Sienese School. Biography Matteo di Giovanni di Bartolo was born in Borgo Sansepolcro around 1430. His family relocated to Siena and he is firmly associated with ...

on various projects.

References

Sources

*Peter and Linda Murray, ''The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists. Fifth Edition: Revised and Enlarged'' (Penguin Books, London, 1988), 51. *Carla Hendriks, ''Northern Landscapes on Roman Walls: The Frescoes of Matthijs and Paul Bril.'' (Florence : Centro Di della Edifimi, c2003). *Anton Mayer, ''Das Leben und die Werke der Brueder Matthaeus und Paul Brill.'' (Leipzig: K.W. Hiersemann, 1910).

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bril, Mathijs 16th-century Flemish painters Italian vedutisti Flemish landscape painters Artists from the Spanish Netherlands Fresco painters 1550s births 1583 deaths Flemish Renaissance painters Painters from Antwerp