Master of the small landscapes

As Master of the Small Landscapes one is Flemish artists from the mid-16th century, respectively. The artist, who is not known by name, got his emergency name from a series of 44 copper engravings with landscape pictures, which were created from his drawings. Drawings by the master are considered significant examples of the emergence of Dutch landscape painting as an independent genre .

Copper engravings

The eponymous copper engravings by the master of the small landscapes mostly show village and town views and were first published in two separate books by Hieronymus Cock . The engravings were probably engraved by Jan and Lucas van Doetechum :

• Antwerp 1559 - 14 engravings in:
  • Multifarium casularum ruriumque lineamenta curiose ad vivum expressa
• Antwerp 1561 - 30 engravings in:
  • Praediorum villarum et rusticarum caularum icons elegantissimi

An edition of both volumes together was also published in 1561.

The engravings were then published again by Theodor Galle in Antwerp in 1601. Further editions followed.

Art historical importance

As one of the early examples of Dutch landscape observation, the work of the master of the small landscapes, who is not known by name, is considered by experts to be one of the most important drawings of the 16th and 17th centuries. It shows the origin (genesis) of a Dutch landscape painting, with which landscape representation developed into an independent genre. The master's pictures show how a new European perception of landscape begins in the Netherlands and how pictures emerge that only want to show nature.

Landscape paintings like those of the master of the small landscapes probably also influenced the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Ä. and his successors. They are thus forerunners and possibly models of the production of paintings of this kind in the southern Netherlands, which grew after the armistice in Antwerp in the Eighty Years War and then in the period of peace around 1610, the consideration of the master's works thus also gives the beginning to interpret the political and economic situation of early 17th century art in Flanders and Brabant .

Identification attempts

The first editions of H. Cock did not mention the artist of the copper engravings by name. In the edition by Theodor Galle in Antwerp in 1601, the templates were then referred to as a work by Cornelis Cort . Further editions tried to sell these engravings as a work by Pieter Breugel. However, this assignment was found to be incorrect in art history. Various proposals were then made to assign drawings from the artist's hand of the copper engravings published by Cock to a Hans Bol , Cornelis van Dalem , Cornelis Massys or other Dutch draftsmen. Today such works are generally assigned to the anonymous master of the small landscapes . The abundance of names that have been used to identify the master over the course of time raises the question of whether all the drawings assigned to this artist are from his hand or whether some could not come from other masters.

literature

• F. Anzelewsky, P. Dreyer et al. (Eds.): Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Ä. as a draftsman. Origin and Succession (exhibition catalog of the State Museums of Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett). Berlin 1975
• Konrad Oberhuber (ed.): Master drawings from six centuries. The Ian Woodner Collection (exhibition catalog Haus der Kunst). Munich 1986
• Mark Jones (Ed.): Fake? The Art of Deception. (Exhibition catalog British Museum 1990). London 1990
• H. Mielke: Pieter Bruegel. The drawings . Turnhout 1996
• EJ Sluijter: Over Brabantse vodden, economische concurrentie, artistieke wedijver en de groei van de markt voor schilderijen in de eerste decennia van de zeventiende eeuw . In: Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 50 (1999), pp. 112–43
• A. Strech (Ed.): “After life and from imagination”. Dutch drawings from the 15th to 18th centuries from the Städelsche Kunstinstitut (exhibition catalog, the Städelsches Kunstinstitut and Städtische Galerie, Graphic Collection, Frankfurt 2000). Frankfurt 2000.
• A. Wied (Ed.): The Flemish Landscape 1520-1700 (exhibition catalog of Villa Hügel 2003). Lingen 2003
• Reinhard Liess : Pieter Bruegel the Elder Ä. and the so-called "master of small landscapes". A revision . In: Reinhard Liess: Jan Vermeer van Delft, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Ä., Rogier van der Weyden. Three studies on Dutch art . Göttingen 2004, pp. 63-92. ISBN 3-89971-149-1 .
• E. Wiemann et al. a .: The discovery of the landscape. Masterpieces of Dutch art from the 16th and 17th centuries (exhibition catalog Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 2005/2006). Cologne 2005.
• Nils Büttner: History of landscape painting . Munich 2006