DOI article:
Benesz, Hanna: Gillis van Coninxloo and his Disciples: three recently attributed landscapes from the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18947#0054
9. Willem van
den Bundel,
Forest Landscape
with Hunters,
oil on panel,
28,5 x 43 cm,
Christie's,
Amsterdam 1987
(Phot. RKD Archives,
The Hague)
died in Delft in 1655. The early Forest Landscape with the Prophet Elias
and the Children of Bethel by Willem van den Bundel (Staatliche Museen,
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin) already reveals the characteristic features of his style
- a composition built on diagonals and the decorative role of the trees. Forest
Landscape with Hunters from approximately 1620 (Christie’s Amsterdam,
1987) (ill. 9) shows the typical brown and green colours. The composition,
although still archaic overall and enclosed by lateral clusters of trees, exhibits
the beginning of a new repertoire: cultivated fields, meadows and country
buildings. It is easy to recognise the motif of the tree with tender little branches
with a few leaves in the upper left corner, the country road painted in typical
broad bands, the mirror of water and reeds, and the expanse of sky with clouds
and birds, present in the Warsaw painting as well. Forest Landscape with
Perspectwe from the Caretto Gallery in Turin shows the same structure,
while realistic in appearance and modern in composition Country Road with
Trauellers from the 163Os (private collection) (ill. 10) reveals just striking
similarity with the painting in the collections of the National Museum m
Warsaw, confirming both the time of its creation and the name of its creator.
Almost all the elements of the landscape are analogous: the lateral group of
trees on the left side, only somewhat fewer, but closed in the top corner with
a lace of similar branches, a single, subtly drawn tree, reminiscent of a palm,
placed in the same point of converging perspective lines, the large expanse of
sky with birds, the field in the distance and the road in the form of a triangle
narrowing towards the top. Only the mirror of water on the right hand side
of the composition has undergone striking elongation, and thus has become
a river whose slant adds additional emphasis to the diagonal of the road.
48
den Bundel,
Forest Landscape
with Hunters,
oil on panel,
28,5 x 43 cm,
Christie's,
Amsterdam 1987
(Phot. RKD Archives,
The Hague)
died in Delft in 1655. The early Forest Landscape with the Prophet Elias
and the Children of Bethel by Willem van den Bundel (Staatliche Museen,
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin) already reveals the characteristic features of his style
- a composition built on diagonals and the decorative role of the trees. Forest
Landscape with Hunters from approximately 1620 (Christie’s Amsterdam,
1987) (ill. 9) shows the typical brown and green colours. The composition,
although still archaic overall and enclosed by lateral clusters of trees, exhibits
the beginning of a new repertoire: cultivated fields, meadows and country
buildings. It is easy to recognise the motif of the tree with tender little branches
with a few leaves in the upper left corner, the country road painted in typical
broad bands, the mirror of water and reeds, and the expanse of sky with clouds
and birds, present in the Warsaw painting as well. Forest Landscape with
Perspectwe from the Caretto Gallery in Turin shows the same structure,
while realistic in appearance and modern in composition Country Road with
Trauellers from the 163Os (private collection) (ill. 10) reveals just striking
similarity with the painting in the collections of the National Museum m
Warsaw, confirming both the time of its creation and the name of its creator.
Almost all the elements of the landscape are analogous: the lateral group of
trees on the left side, only somewhat fewer, but closed in the top corner with
a lace of similar branches, a single, subtly drawn tree, reminiscent of a palm,
placed in the same point of converging perspective lines, the large expanse of
sky with birds, the field in the distance and the road in the form of a triangle
narrowing towards the top. Only the mirror of water on the right hand side
of the composition has undergone striking elongation, and thus has become
a river whose slant adds additional emphasis to the diagonal of the road.
48