The Large Landscapes: Solicitudo Rustica

1556

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

The Large Landscapes: Solicitudo Rustica is a 1556 by Jan van Doetechum, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Jan van Doetechum
When & what style?: 1556 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a wide, imaginary landscape: jagged cliffs, a winding river, tiny peasants working fields, and a village tucked into the hills. This print was made from a drawing by Pieter Bruegel, who never saw the Alps up close. Instead, he mixed real mountain shapes with the flat farmland of his homeland. The artist who turned Bruegel’s sketch into this print kept the feeling of a place that doesn’t really exist—half dream, half memory. Look up more prints of flanders next.

The story of this work

Overview

In the Netherlands, Pieter Bruegel’s designs for a series of large landscape prints may have relied on sketches (now lost) he made passing through the Alps in the early 1550s. This view is more a compendium of various visual characteristics of the Alps, rather than a specific place. The elevated point of view and massive, powerful cliffs and crags in the distance give way to a river valley and flat plains akin to Bruegel’s Low Countries homeland. The figures include peasants whose mundane activities reinforce the landscape as a container for “rustic cares” ( solicitudo rustica ).