1520
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Landscape with Tournament and Hunters is a 1520 oil by Jan van Scorel, a Northern Renaissance work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a green valley packed with tiny people: knights jousting, hunters with dogs, and a castle on a hill. This was painted in Italy, but the scene feels Dutch—like a postcard from a trip. The artist used poplar wood, common in Italy, not oak, which he’d use back home. It’s one of the first times a Northern painter tried Italian light and space. To see how other Dutch artists painted hunts, look up the *Art Institute of Chicago*’s collection.
Dutch painter Jan van Scorel was one of the first Northern European artists to make an extended trip to Italy to study antiquities and the new Renaissance style. This landscape must have been made during his stay in southern Europe as a young artist; the panel is made from poplar, a wood commonly used in Italy. The two aristocratic pastimes depicted, jousting and hunting, were frequent themes of Northern European landscapes, particularly in prints, and Italian patrons were drawn to these extravagant visions of courtly pursuits.
R. Sabelsky, Saint Petersburg [according to the catalogue of the Roerich sale in 1930 cited below]. Roerich Museum, New York, by 1927 [according to the catalogue of the Roerich sale]; sold, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, Mar. 27–28, 1930, no. 128. George F. Harding, Jr. (d. 1939), Chicago; bequeathed to the George F. Harding Museum, Chicago; ownership transferred to the Art Institute, 1982; accessioned, 1990.
New York, Corona Mundi International Art Center (Roerich Museum), Exhibition of Old Masters, 1927, no. 1, as Vinckboons. Art Institute of Chicago, On the Road to Italy: Early Paintings by Dutch Renaissance Master Jan van Scorel, 1998 (no cat.).
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jan van Scorel was a Dutch painter, who played a leading role in introducing aspects of Italian Renaissance painting into Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
