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Lot Essay
Willem van Nieulandt II was apprenticed to Jacob Savery in Amsterdam at the age of ten. He left for Rome in 1601 to continue his training under his uncle, Willem van Nieulandt I, but soon entered the studio of Paul Bril, whose art was to have an indelible influence on his future output. He returned to Holland in 1604 and then moved immediately to Antwerp where he specialised in producing Italiante views with Roman ruins drawn from first hand observation.
Dr. Luuk Pijl has noted that this composition is distinctive within the artist's oeuvre for the prominence given to the architectural feature - in this case the Pantheon - and that this peculiarity is shared by a picture, dated 1610, in the Groninger Museum (fig. 1) whose composition is similarly dominated by the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Given that the panels are the same size, that the horizons are set at the same level and that the tonality and scale of the figures is homogenous, it is tempting to consider that the two pictures were conceived together or as part of the same set despite being painted two years apart.
We are grateful to Dr Luuk Pijl for confirming the attribution on the basis of a transparency.
Dr. Luuk Pijl has noted that this composition is distinctive within the artist's oeuvre for the prominence given to the architectural feature - in this case the Pantheon - and that this peculiarity is shared by a picture, dated 1610, in the Groninger Museum (fig. 1) whose composition is similarly dominated by the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Given that the panels are the same size, that the horizons are set at the same level and that the tonality and scale of the figures is homogenous, it is tempting to consider that the two pictures were conceived together or as part of the same set despite being painted two years apart.
We are grateful to Dr Luuk Pijl for confirming the attribution on the basis of a transparency.