Landscape with River and Mill
c. 1540
Unknown Artist Flemish, active Antwerp, mid-16th century
Flanders
One of only a few examples to survive from the earlier decades of the 16th century, this drawing demonstrates the emerging interest in landscape as a subject independent of narrative or devotional scenes. Although the compositional elements described here seem like those one could observe—a town set in a dell—the manner of their description is stylized, indicating that the scene may have actually come from the artist’s imagination.
Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper