Art Institute of Chicago

Landscape with River and Mill

Unknown Artist

Date

c. 1540

Medium

Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper

Culture

Flanders

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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.

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