Circle of Joos de Momper, XVIIth century

Circle of JOOS DE MOMPER (Antwerp, Belgium, 1564 - 1635).
Flemish school of the 17th century.
"Mountain river".
Oil on panel.
Cradled.
Measurements: 73 x 105 cm; 92,5 x 124 cm (frame).

This painting is a characteristic example of the imaginary and grandiose landscape that was popular in Flanders during that time.

It depicts a mountain scene with a river meandering between rocks and flowing into the foreground. There is great spatial depth in the composition, achieved by the use of color: the dark, warm tones in the foreground contrast with the cool blues and greens in the background, creating a sense of atmospheric distance.

On the left, a tree with bare branches frames the scene and guides the eye towards the valley. In the center and right, steep mountains and rock formations dominate the landscape, with waterfalls and a bridge adding dynamism. Amidst the natural surroundings, small rural buildings and diminutive figures (such as a walker with a dog and shepherds with sheep) add human scale to the monumental landscape.

The whole conveys a dramatic and poetic atmosphere, typical of the style of Joos de Momper and his followers, in which nature appears imposing and almost sublime, as opposed to the smallness of the human being.

Joos de Momper, belonging to the Flemish Baroque school of landscape painting, was appointed master of the Antwerp Guild in 1581, when he was only seventeen years old. Historians consider him to have made a training trip to Italy in the same decade, given the profound Italian influence of his landscapes. Highly valued in his time, De Momper enjoyed the patronage of the most prominent people in Flanders at the time, including the Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, governor of the region. His fame also led him to have an important workshop, where Louis de Caullery and his son Philippe de Momper, among others, were trained. This master devoted himself mainly to landscape painting, and often collaborated with painters such as Frans Francken II, Pieter Snayers, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Jan Brueghel the Younger, among others. He painted fantasy landscapes, captured from a high point of view and with a chromatic work of Mannerist heritage (transition from the brown of the foreground to the green of the middle planes, to finally end in the blues of the background), and also more realistic ones, with a lower point of view and more natural colors. He is currently represented in important collections in Europe and America, among them the