Garden Scene in a Country House, A Town Beyond (Primary Title)
A View in a Garden of a Country House with Gardeners Digging, A Town Beyond (Former Title)
Sebastian Vrancx, Flemish, 1573 - 1647 (Artist)
This exterior genre scene exhibits the profound
influence that Vrancx’s earlier apprenticeship in Italy
had on his representation of cultural life in his native
Flanders. The late Renaissance–style architecture
is unambiguously Italianate, as is the geometric
arrangement of predominantly evergreen plants in
the garden. The linear perspective of the composition
reveals his indebtedness to the well-established
conventions of Italian landscape paintings. The scene
portrays the lord of the household overseeing the
activity of some of the laborers while his wife and
young child stroll leisurely between garden rows.
A younger pair of nobles stand conversing before
the entrance of the house. Vrancx illustrates the
hierarchical distinctions between these squires and
their employees in their different activities and attire,
but he also highlights the subordination of these social
conventions to the rhythms of the seasons as the
workers transport plants from the greenhouse in
anticipation of spring.
The Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection
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