Description:
landscape; town; architecture; vegetation; religion - Christian
Label Text:
The glories of the Dutch sky make this small canvas feel like a monumental landscape. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, who bathed their Italianate landscapes in a warm, Mediterranean glow, Ruysdael preferred the flat plains and haze of the Netherlands. Ruysdael reflects nature’s mood by exploring the light and shadows cast on the fields stretching into the distance. In contrast, the figures and buildings are dwarfed and of secondary importance.
Ruysdael generally composed imagined or idealized landscapes, without intending to represent a specific locale. For the most part, the locations associated with his paintings have been assigned later by scholars. This painting has recently been identified as a view of Blaricum in northern Holland, based on the church and the hilly topography.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1943.16.1 |
