Mountainous Landscape with a Chapel

Download4000 × 2404 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Jacob de Gheyn II (Dutch, 1565–1629)
Medium: Pen and brown ink, on laid paper
Size: 16.5 × 27.7 cm (6 1/2 × 10 7/8 in.)
Culture: Dutch
Museum: J. Paul Getty Museum
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Drawn in a calligraphic style, the sheet depicts a sweeping mountainous landscape with a road winding along a cliff, over a stone bridge, and through a village. A picturesque chapel on the edge of an abyss stands in the composition's center. At right a panorama with a meandering river is made all the more expansive by the low horizon line. At left houses are nestled into the base of high rocks which reach up to the top edge of the sheet.

With its deep view into the distance, this drawing continues the compositional format of the landscapes of Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569). Yet the variety of curving, zigzag, scratchy pen lines impart a sense of animation into the stillness of a Bruegelian world landscape. The extraordinary verve and variety of lines animate the boulders, shrubs, trees, and clouds, creating a landscape that teems with life.

Text: J. Paul Getty Trust, CC BY 4.0.