Getty Museum
The Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome
Creator
Cornelis van PoelenburghDutch Artist · 1594–1595
All works by this person →Cornelis van Poelenburgh was a founder of Dutch Italianate landscape painting. He studied under the Utrecht Mannerist Abraham Bloemaert, but his years in Rome, from 1617 to 1625, were more decisive for his development. An early member of the *schildersbent,* the club for Rome's Netherlandish painters, he was nicknamed "Satyr." In Rome, a friend noted that Poelenburgh "exerted himself to the utmost
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1623
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk
- Culture
- Dutch
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
After choosing this unusual side angle on the arch of Septimius Severus, Cornelis van Poelenburgh concentrated on the contrasting patterns of sunlight and shade on the structure. He juxtaposed broadly washed areas of deep shadow with brilliantly illuminated passages articulated by the white paper. His interesting choice of an oblique view of the arch, highlighting the narrow columns, and his omission of several architectural features allowed Poelenburgh to treat it as blocks of light and shadow rather than as a specific structure. Clusters of vegetation growing through cracks in the stonework, formed with simple, looped strokes, appear as the only distraction.
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