Italian Landscape with Resting Travelers, Jan Both

Exhibition Label:
"Empire of Things," 2013, Kate Meyer
Jan Both, one of the most celebrated of the Dutch Italianate landscape painters, introduced a new type of large-format landscape to Holland. Rather than depicting the flat Dutch landscape, Both draws from his Roman travels to paint a rocky Italian landscape warmed by golden southern light. In this painting, two men relax, sharing the road with another figure on a cart pulled by a plodding pair of oxen. The crystalline depiction of the figures and foliage in the foreground gives way to glowing yet hazy terrain that suggests an inviting destination for the travelers. Art theorist Karel van Mander (1548-1601) encouraged artists to complete their education by studying art of antiquity and the Renaissance in Rome. The large number of Italianate landscapes that Both produced during his short career attests to the significant market demand for such pictures.

Archive Label:
Jan Both trained in Italy as a young artist and became an exceedingly talented member of the second generation of Dutch Italianate landscapists. These artists combined Italian landscape elements such as penetrating, diffused sunlight; rolling forested hillsides; and ancient architectural ruins with representations of typical Dutch peasants participating in everyday activities.
Both's painting is a serene depiction of humanity in nature; the travelers rest in the hazy sunlight of the early morning while the landscape comes alive with soft, rolling clouds in the sky and ships sailing in the background. The clarity of the figures and vegetation in the foreground contrast the almost imperceptible ruins in the distance.
Jan Both returned to Utrecht around 1641 and probably executed this painting shortly thereafter. He painted until his untimely death in 1652. Both's influence is evident in the work of later major artists in Amsterdam and Haarlem.

Archive Label:
Jan Both, who worked in Rome during the late 1630s, was one of the most talented and influential painters of the 17th century Dutch Italianate landscape school. He was responsible for developing a new mode of landscape characterized by pastoral settings populated by peasants traveling along the road with ancient ruins faintly visible in the golden light of the Italian countryside. He painted specific times of day - morning, noon, midday or sunset. Here, the lyrical qualities of the evening sun envelop the landscape in an atmosphere of poetic tranquility. This aspect of Both’s style was inspired by his French contemporary and competitor, Claude Lorrain. However, Both abandoned Claude’s classical landscape with its prominent ruins and mythological scenes. He turned instead to the everyday life of Roman peasants while also maintaining the characteristic Netherlandish attention to detail.
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Both’s landscapes were especially esteemed, and no respectable collection was considered complete without an example of his work. His biography remains uncertain and little is known of his style before his trip to Italy. Admitted to the Academy of St. Luke in Rome in 1638, Both remained there with his brother, Andries, until the latter’s death in 1641, at which point he returned to Utrecht. While Andries is thought to have contributed figures to many of his brother’s early landscapes, in this instance Jan himself painted the travelers and animals.