Paul Bril
1554-1626 Belgium/Mannerism-Baroque
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Brief Biography-Paul Bril of Antwerp was born in 1554. His older brother, Matthew, was a successful artist in Rome engaged by Pope Gregory XIII, who granted him a generous pension for life to paint in the Vatican. Paul studied with Damiaen Wortelmans (Daniel Ortelmans) in Antwerp before following Matthew to Rome, where the works of Titian and Carracci swayed him. On the passing of Matthew in 1584, the Pope conferred his pension on Paul to continue his work on frescoes, and he quickly gained a high reputation. Sixtus V employed him at the Sistine Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore. Pope Clement VIII commissioned a landscape in the Sala Clementina sixty-eight feet wide depicting Saint Clement thrown into the sea with an anchor tied to his neck. His later landscapes were easel paintings, some influenced by Elsheimer, for which he became most noted. In addition, Carracci inserted staffage into some of his pictures, raising their merit considerably. He died in Rome in 1626 Agostino Tassi and Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom were two of his many notable students |
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