Attributed to Joost de Momper II

Attributed to JOOST DE MOMPER II (Antwerp, 1564 - Antwerp, 1635).
"Landscape."
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has a frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 117 x 183 cm; 135 x 200 cm (frame).
This landscape unfolds before the viewer as an imagined geography that, without renouncing the observation of nature, transforms it into a grandiose and almost theatrical scenery. In this work similar to the one painted by the artist Joost Momper II, "Sea and Mountain Landscape" in the Prado Museum (inv. P001592), the gaze is lost among steep rock formations, winding paths and wide openings towards the horizon.
This type of composition fully responds to the Flemish tradition of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, in which nature acquires an autonomous protagonism. Momper, heir to the inventions of Joachim Patinir and in dialogue with the sensibility of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, constructs landscapes that oscillate between the fantastic and the plausible. The artist's biography illuminates these formal choices. Born in Antwerp into an important family of painters, son of Bartolomeus Momper, Joost was trained in an environment where the craft was passed down from generation to generation and where the workshop functioned as a genuine artistic enterprise. Joost joined the Guild of Saint Luke around 1581 and was appointed dean in 1611. His career was marked by both official commissions and a constant production destined for the market. His possible trip to Italy, suggested by the affinity of his drawings with those of Paul Bril and his stylistic closeness to Ludovico Pozzoserrato, broadened his visual repertoire, incorporating a more luminous and open sensibility.
However, one of the most fascinating aspects of his work, which this landscape allows us to glimpse, is the collective character of his production. In 17th century Antwerp, the large workshops operated on a system of specialization: the master designed the general composition of the landscape, while other painters added figures, animals or narrative details. The Momper workshop, physically and professionally close to that of the Brueghels, participated in this dynamic of constant collaboration. It is not unlikely that several hands were involved in compositions such as this one, following a model that is also documented in works in the Prado, where the participation of different artists in the same painting is explicit.