Gillis van Coninxloo

Gillis Van Conixloo (Antwerp, 1544 - Amsterdam, 1607).
"Diana and Actaeon.
Oil on canvas. relined.
Measurements: 110 x 165 cm; 137 x 193 cm (frame).

Gillis Van Conixloo was a Flemish painter specialized in landscape painting. He reached an outstanding fame in this genre being considered as a pillar of the denominated school of Frankhental. The German city was his refuge after the fall of Antwerp to the Spanish troops in 1585, until 1595, when he was also forced to leave Frankhental to settle in Amsterdam. Van Coninxloo, considered by Karel van Mander the most important landscape painter of his time, renewed the traditional landscape painting, which he conceived as an idealized interpretation of nature, which would allow a more natural approach to the landscape. Distancing himself from the so-called "world landscapes" of Joachim Patinir and Pieter Brueghel the Elder, with their lofty horizons and panoramic vision, Coninxloo opted for the selection of small fragments of nature brought to the foreground, as seen in the Wooded Landscape dated 1598 (Vaduz, Prince of Liechtenstein).
Among his disciples and followers of the Frankhental school were Pieter Schoubroeck and Anton Mirou.