CATALOGUE OF PAINTINGS
Literature: To be included (and reproduced in colour) in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of works by Paul Bril currently being prepared by Dr. Luuk Pijl . Recently discovered, this painting is an important addition to the oeuvre of Paul Bril. 1 The subject depicted comes from the late ancient Greek novel Historiae Aethiopicae by the Syrian Heliodorus. The story tells of the love affair of the Greek Theagenes and the Ethiopian Chariclea, a princess and priestess of Apollo. Theagenes has abducted Chariclea but while fleeing, the couple are taken captive by pirates, whose chief wants to take Chariclea for himself. However, at a feast on the Nile delta, the pirates end up quarrelling and kill each other (which is the scene depicted in the middle distance). Theagenes is wounded in the fight, and when a band of brigands comes upon them, the couple are taken captive, once again, while the robbers plunder the ship. A second group of brigands appear and, having driven the first band away, take the young lovers to their nearby village, which is the main scene in this work. After numerous vicissitudes, the story ends happily with the marriage of the couple. Although virtually unknown today, the Historiae Aethiopicae was popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A French translation appeared from 1547 onwards in several editions, and an important edition with engravings by Crispijn van de Passe appeared in Paris in 1624. The subject was thought to be suitable for palace decorations; in the King’s apartment at Fontainebleau the story was depicted by Ambroise Dubois in 1609/10, and in 1625 Abraham Bloemaert was commissioned by Frederik Hendrik of Nassau, Prince of Orange, to paint the story on the occasion of his marriage with Amalia van Solms. Bloemaert’s Theagenes and Chariclea among the Slain Sailors, now in Potsdam, Sanssouci, shows the scene on the beach, which is rendered in Bril’s painting in the middle distance. 2 01 Paul Bril (Breda 1553/54 – 1626 Rome) An extensive mountainous coastal Landscape with Brigands abducting Theagenes and Chariclea Oil on canvas 41 3 /8 x 58 1 /4 in. (105 x 148 cm.) 19 Noting stylistic similarities with works Bril painted during the last years of his prolific life, such as the fine Landscape with Nymphs and Satyrs in Oberlin, dated 1623, and the Landscape with the Temptation of Christ in Birmingham, dated 1626, we can date our painting to around 1625. 3 As Dr. Pijl notes, the <strong>Colnaghi</strong> picture demonstrates that Bril was a master of observation. Many details are meticulously rendered, from the plants and trees to the sunset and harbour in the distance. The alternating zones of dark and light give the landscape a clear structure and also provide a convincing suggestion of depth. Although Bril often relied on Northern and Italian figure painters for the staffage in his landscapes, 4 the figures in the present work are stylistically in keeping with his own way of figure painting. They are unusually large in size: no other painting with figures of this scale is extant, which makes our painting even more important among Bril’s late works. Paul Bril was born in Antwerp in 1554. After his training there he left for Lyon (1574) and settled in Rome by 1582, where he spent the rest of his life. In Rome from 1590 on, Paul Bril created small landscapes on copper which are a synthesis of the late mannerist landscapes invented by Gillis III van Coninxloo and continued by Martin de Vos, Jan Brueghel the Elder’s velvet adoption of the same source, Saedeleer’s engravings, and Joos de Momper’s alpine landscapes. Most figures in Bril’s landscapes were painted by fellow artists who were also often northern residents in Rome: Elsheimer, Rottenhamer and Rubens. These small landscapes were, for Bril, a huge artistic and commercial success both in Italy and in Flanders. He worked in Rome for important patrons, including Popes Gregory XIII, Sixtus V and Clement VIII and Cardinals Sfondrato, Borromée, Scipione Borghese, del Nero and Matei and members of their respective families.
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