POST, Frans
(b. 1612, Haarlem, d. 1680, Haarlem)

Brazilian Landscape with Anteater

1649
Oil on wood, 53 x 69 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Post was a visual reporter in the retinue of Prince Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen during an expedition of 1637-1644, which also included natural scientists. One of his tasks was to convey a graphic impression of the exotic fauna and flora to his countrymen back home. Post actually painted only six landscapes in Brazil and the rest in the Netherlands, probably based on studies and preliminary drawings made in the colony.

Rather than depicting the alien vegetation in all its wild proliferation, Post showed it in a state of beginning cultivation, with broad plains dotted with haciendas and churches. In terms of composition, his landscape views resemble the type of overview landscape practiced in Holland by Philips Koninck. Evidently not concerned with sensational effects in view of the exotic environment, Post aimed at a reliable depiction of the topography to the extent that it had been settled, and of nature in the early stages of domestication. This went hand in hand with a desire to represent the abundance of plant species in an encyclopedic way, especially palms, rubber trees and cacti, but also bushes, ferns and climbing plants or lianas, which the artist tended to arrange into a slightly mysterious, dark foil in the foreground, like the wings on a stage. Behind this extended - again an infinite panorama with an airy sky over the horizon.