Southern Landscape 

Curator: Right now we’re looking at "Southern Landscape" by Jan Dirksz Both. It's an oil on canvas, though undated. You immediately sense this Dutch Golden Age style radiating out, don’t you? Editor: Absolutely! My first thought: a melancholic amber haze, like looking through time-tinted glasses. I feel as though someone has bottled golden hour. Curator: Both certainly had a knack for that, a luminosity characteristic of his landscapes. Notice how he frames the scene, using a repoussoir on the left. A copse of trees to drive the eye inwards. Editor: Yes, and that crumbling architectural structure too. It grounds the wildness of the scene somehow. Though calling it "wild" might be a touch melodramatic. Is it really so free? The careful tonal gradations feel very considered, very constructed. Curator: Considered, indeed. Both specialized in these idealized Italianate landscapes. Though I suspect he never actually ventured that far south! It's more Italy as dreamt by a Dutchman. Look closely at those figures traveling. What do you sense there? Editor: An idealized calm, I suppose. A peaceful co-existence between humans, nature and their ruins. It feels almost theatrical though; perhaps staged for our benefit? What I'm most struck by, in the final analysis, is just how luminous the piece is. Curator: Luminous, indeed. Both managed to instill such warmth in what otherwise might be a mere pictorial record. Editor: Ultimately, a gentle meditation, rendered in light. One easily could become lost in its layers of umber, ochre, and gold.