VIANEN, Paulus van
(b. ca. 1570, Utrecht, d. 1613, Prague)

Scenic Sketch

1601-03
Brush, grey wash, pen, brown ink, 192 x 286 mm
Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest

Paulus van Vianen was one of the most prominent masters of the gold- and silversmith craft in Prague, but he was also a landscapist during his period in Salzburg between 1601 and 1609. He developed here his natural, direct mode of expression.

The present sheet is from one of his Salzburg sketchbooks, most of the sheets of which have perished, while those that survived are scattered around the world. They are preserved in larger groups now only in the Budapest collection (17 sheets) and the one in Berlin (14 sheets). Included among his depictions are mountain panoramas, forest and river valley landscapes, impressively expert studies of nature, as well as topographically accurate townscapes.