Mountainous Landscape

Jan Scorel

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Jan van Scorel. The drawing shows a bridge over a deep valley with a house built on the bridge towards the left. On the right the cliff continues upwards and a series of buildings are at the top. On top of another rocky mound that can be seen under the curve of the arch are more buildings. There are two figures standing on a plateau to the right under the bridge, and another man is positioned just to the side of the bridge at the right edge. There are various trees and shrubs across the rocky landscape. Text in the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 17 JAN VAN SCOREL (b. 1495; d. 1562) MOUNTAINOUS LANDSCAPE British Museum, 1909-1-9-7. Pen and bistre. 20.8 x 15.5 cm. (8 1/8 x 5 3/4 in.). For the fantastic pile of rocks to right of the bridge, surmounted by buildings and pierced by a natural arch through which the road is carried, there are many analogies in the background of pictures by Scorel. An especially close parallel may be found in the portrait of a man recently acquired by the Kaiser Friedrich Museum at Berlin (reproduced in Amtliche Berichte aus den Königl. Kunstsammlungen, 1907, xxix, p. 38, and in Heidrich's Alt-Niederländische Malerei, 1910, Abb. 155). The drawing cannot, however, be described as a study for the picture. In the picture of the Magdalen at Amsterdam (Heidrich, Abb. 156) a very similar rock structure may be seen in the background to the left. The signature 10. SCO., divided by a house-mark, is written in the right lower corner in the same warm brown ink as was used for the drawing itself. In the reproduction the colour is slightly blacker. The back of the sheet is occupied by another drawing of the same artist, more prosaic and literal in character, representing a castle with two lofty towers; there are trees towards the left and abrupt rocks in the foreground. Scorel's drawings are of the utmost rarity; no other signed example is known. S. D."