Stag hunt

Paul Bril, a Flemish painter who spent most of his career in Rome, painted this stag hunt around 1590 as part of a growing market for landscape paintings among Roman collectors. Bril was instrumental in developing the idealized Italianate landscape tradition that would later influence Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. His hunting scenes combined Flemish naturalistic detail with the warm light and classical ruins of the Roman campagna.

The composition demonstrates Bril's characteristic layered approach to landscape, with dark foreground trees framing a lighter middle ground and atmospheric distance. The palette transitions from rich greens and browns in the foreground to cool blues at the horizon.