2007 Catalogue - Colnaghi

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 Colnaghi
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.