Paul Bril (Antwerp, Belgium c.1554 - Rome, Italy 1626)

Born in Antwerp in 1554, he moved to Rome in 1574, where he became the city’s leading landscape painter.

His earliest artworks were small, highly finished woodland scenes in the Flemish style. Subsequently, his style was transformed by the study of contemporary Italian landscape painting, especially influenced by Annibale Carracci.

Bril painted frescoes and often collaborated with figure painters. Many of his works are in Rome: frescoes in the Lateran, the Holy Staircase and others in S. Cecilia in Trastevere; in the Clementina Room at the Vatican, a seascape with S. Clemente and, in the adjacent room, another six landscapes dating to around 1602, which eventually joined the eleven in the Rospigliosi casino (around 1609).

His mature works demonstrate a careful observation of nature and an understanding of aerial perspective.

His Italianate landscapes had a great influence on landscape painting in Italy and Northern Europe.

He had many pupils in Rome, including W. Nieulant and Agostino Tassi.

He died in Rome in 1626.

Photo UniCredit Group (Sebastiano Pellion di Persano)