Italiaans landschap c. 1692 - 1749

Jan van Huysum rendered this Italian landscape with pen in brown ink in the early 18th century. Van Huysum never actually traveled to Italy; like many Dutch Golden Age painters, he emulated Italianate landscapes from his studio. Van Huysum was known for his flower paintings, a genre in which the Dutch excelled, and which catered to a wealthy merchant class. His depictions of the natural world reflect the economic and social structures that enabled the Dutch Golden Age. The Dutch East India Company’s trade in spices, silks, and dyes from the East, and the brutal colonization that enabled such trade, made such luxury possible. Here, however, we see no such detailed wealth, but a rather more pastoral vision. Instead, consider the absence of those material goods and the presence of nature. What vision of the world does that evoke for you? What possibilities do you see?