Patinir
Madrid 7/3/2007 - 10/7/2007
Joachim Patinir’s date of birth is unknown, but he was probably born in modern-day south-east Belgium between 1480 and 1485. It is generally thought that from 1515 he worked as a painter in Antwerp and that he died there in 1524. The present exhibition intends to shed light on his biography and career and above all to draw the public’s attention to some of the most evocative and mysterious landscapes ever painted.
With the exception of some works that cannot travel for conservation reasons, the exhibition Joachim Patinir brings together all the works considered to be by the artist and his studio, including some recent attributions.
Described by Dürer at the outset of the Renaissance as “the good painter of landscapes”, Patinir was considered the first modern painter to specialise in this genre. The exhibition opens with a selection of works by forerunners of the artist in which a growing interest in the natural setting is evident. Nonetheless, neither Bosch, Robert Campin, Hans Memling or Dirk Bouts, among other forerunners of the artist, went on to specialise in landscape despite their evident influence on this genre. The exhibition examines the work of some of these predecessors of Patinir in whose painting landscape ceased to act as a mere background to the figures and became a setting in which the actions depicted took place.
- Curator:
- Dr Alejandro Vergara, Chief Curator of Flemish Painting at the Museo del Prado.