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1. Lucas van Valckenborch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lucas van Valckenborch or Lucas van
Valckenborch the Elder[1]
(Leuven, c. 1535 –
Frankfurt am Main, 2 February 1597) was a Flemish
painter, mainly known for his landscapes. He also
made contributions to portrait painting, and allegorical
and market scenes. Court painter to Archduke
Matthias, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands in
Brussels, he later migrated to Austria and then
Germany where he joined members of his extended
family of artists who had moved there for religious
reasons.[2]
Life
Lucas van Valckenborch was born in Leuven in what
would become one of the most prominent Flemish
families of artists.[3]
Spanning three generations, 14

2. artists are recorded in the family of whom his older
brother Marten the Elder and the sons of the
latter, Frederik van Valckenborch and Gillis van
Valckenborch, were the most important
personalities.[4][5]
Meat and Fish Market (Winter)
On 26 August 1560 he is recorded as entering the
painters' guild of Mechelen.[4]
Mechelen was known at
the time as a center for oil and water-colours and
especially landscape painting.[6]
The artistic milieu of
Mechelen was decisive on the development of the
artist. Lucas van Valckenborch learned in Mechelen
the art of watercolour painting. Here he also got to
know the prominent painters Pieter Bruegel the
Elder(1528-1569) and Hans Bol (1534-1593), who
both played an important role in the development of
landscape painting in the Low Countries.[4]
The 17th-
century biographer Karel van Mander reported that
Lucas van Valckenborch learned to paint landscapes
in Mechelen.[6]

3. At the start of the iconoclastic fury of
the Beeldenstorm in 1566 Lucas van Valckenborch
left Antwerp with his brother Marten van
Valckenborch, probably for religious reasons as they
may have been protestant. A series of topographical
views, including a 1567 painted view of Liège, prove
that van Valckenborch travelled up
the Meuse valley.[4]
This trip played an important role
in his development as a landscape artist working
directly from nature.[7]
In 1570 the artist was
in Aachen, where he met up again with his brother
Marten. Here, the two brothers were also joined for
two years by Hans Vredeman de Vries, friend and
fellow artist.[4]
By 1575 Lucas had returned to Antwerp, where he
must have made a name for himself. Before 1579 the
young Archduke Matthias of Austria, the governor of
the Spanish Netherlands, hired him as his court
painter. The Archduke was particularly impressed by
his skills as a portrait painter. As court painter,
Valckenborch created in the Netherlands some works
for the Archduke, including the designs for the
Archduke's Guard and some portraits.[4]
After the
Archduke lost his position as governor in 1582, the
Archduke left the Netherlands and went to live
in Linz without position. It is not clear when Lucas van
Valckenborch joined the Archduke in Linz. Van
Mander describes the pair travelling together down
the Danube. There is no documentary evidence for
this but it is assumed that he arrived in Linz in 1582 or
earlier, and stayed there until June 1582 at least. Two

4. bills from Kremsmünster prove that he actually spent
time in Upper Austria.
Landscape with a Rural Festival
At the beginning of 1593 Lucas van Valckenborch
joined his brother Marten in Frankfurt am Main. Here
he became the teacher and collaborator of Georg
Flegel.[5]
He remained active in Frankfurt until his
death in 1597.[4]
Work
General
Lucas van Valckenborch is mainly known for his
landscapes, which depict existing and imaginary
scenes. He also painted portraits for his patron
Emperor Matthias. He was further a figure painter as
is shown in a series of nine allegories of the seasons
painted in Frankfurt from 1592.[2]
Valckenborch's earliest dated works are from 1567.
His monogram was L / VV or LVV. Early in his career

5. he placed the 'L' below the two 'V's, while after 1570
he signed with the letters inverted.[7]
His style was close to that of Pieter Brueghel the
Elder, but he modified this influence in a personal
manner and was not a slavish copyist. His work was
rooted in the same Flemish tradition, without following
the newer Mannerist movement.[2]
Landscapes
Rocky Landscape with Travelers on a Path
Van Valckenborch worked largely in the tradition of
the so-called 'world landscape' of panoramic vistas
shown from a bird's-eye viewpoint. This style of
landscape painting was developed in Antwerp in the
first half of the 16th century by artists like Joachim
Patinir, Herri met de Bles and Pieter Bruegel the
Elder. It was also practised by Lucas van
Valckenborch's contemporaries such as Gillis
Mostaert and Gillis van Coninxloo.[7]
Van
Valckenborch also painted topographically accurate

6. landscapes. Joris Hoefnagel is believed to have used
his topographical drawings, for instance the drawn
View of Linz, for his designs for the six-volume atlas,
the Civitates orbis terrarum, published by Georg
Braun and Frans Hogenbergbetween 1572 and
1617.[2]
Lucas van Valckenborch based many of his imaginary
landscapes on drawings he had made directly from
nature during his travels. The drawings provided a
repertory of motifs, which he employed on multiple
occasions.[7]
His landscape compositions thus often
combine real places with imaginary elements. It is
therefore not possible to locate many of the views he
created. For instance, none of the many landscapes
with furnaces and forges has ever been identified. A
large portion of his landscape output was dedicated to
the depiction of rocky landscapes in which he situated
ironworks or small religious or peasant scenes.
Another recurring theme was that of rural
entertainments such as in the Landscape with a Rural
Festival (1577; Hermitage) or the two versions of
the Landscape with a Peasant Wedding and
Dance (both 1574, National Gallery of Denmark). He
also created some close-up representations of forest
landscapes.[2]

7. Autumn landscape (September)
In their mixture of fantasy and accurate topographical
details, van Valckenborch's landscape paintings offer
a view of the world and man's relationship to it. This is
particularly clear in his rocky landscapes in which the
diminutive people on the winding path are reduced by
the monumental cliffs. An example is theRocky
Landscape with Travelers on a Path (c. 1570,
Sotheby's 6 July 2016, London lot 3) where the
distant goatherd and the silhouettes of his charges
seem ant-like in comparison to the vast distance, and
the vertiginous perspective of the scene. This
dramatic visual depiction is clearly intended as a
commentary on man's place within the universe.[7]
He also painted between 1584 and 1587 a series of
large pictures depicting the labours of the months,
probably on commission for Archduke Matthias.
These compositions, of which seven survive (five of
which are in the Kunsthistorische Museum), present
the various months of the year by showing the
changing landscape and the traditional activities of
humans during each month. It is not clear whether the

8. five missing paintings were never painted or are
lost.[4]
Due to their realistic setting these compositions
carry a documentary interest. The work of Pieter
Bruegel the elder, who had painted a series of 6 on
the times of the year was influential on van
Valckenborch. Lucas van Valckenborch moved away
from the tradition of painting the landscape in three
cascading distances that were rendered in three
different colours: brown, green and blue for each
receding plane. Rather he often left out the green
tone for the middle distance. He also innovated the
thematic scenes by developing them into genre
scenes with a stronger narrative depth.[4]
Peasant tavern
Lucas van Valckenborch regularly returned to the
subject of the which was also
depicted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and later by a
whole range of Flemish artists. The subject of the
Tower of Babel is usually interpreted as a critique of
human hubris, and in particular o the Roman Catholic
Church which at the time was undertaking at great
expense large-scale construction projects such as

9. the St. Peter's Basilica. However, it has also been
viewed as a celebration of technical progress, which
would herald a better and more organized world.[8]
Portraits
Archduke Matthias is said to have engaged Lucas van
Valckenborch as his court painter for his skills as a
portrait painter. Many of the works he produced for
the Archduke were in fact portraits, including portraits
of the Archduke and his wife Sibylle von Jülich-Cleve-
Berg. These portraits were full-length portraits or bust
format. He also painted several miniature portraits of
the Archduke and his wife. It is clear that these
portraits' role was to show the power of Archduke and
to flatter his ego as he is depicted invariably in a regal
and imposing position and dressed in the latest
fashions.[4]
Lucas van Valckenborch also included miniature
portraits of himself and his friends in a number of his
landscape paintings. This is the case, for instance in
theThe Emperor's walk in the forest where he has
depicted himself on the left of the composition with his
drawing tools. In the Landscape with a Rural
Festival(1577; Hermitage) he included portraits of his
friends Abraham Ortelius, Joris Hoefnagel and himself
among the throng of revellers.[2]
Market scenes

10. Feast
Lucas van Valckenborch painted a number of market
scenes, which are also distinctively tied to the four
seasons. The Meat and Fish Market (Winter) (c.
1595, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts) is an example
of a market scene, which is also an allegory of winter.
The work was likely part of a series of four dedicated
to the seasons. The imagery of the market scenes
can be traced back to the previous generation of
painters from the Antwerp school.[9]
In the series van
Valckenborch particularly developed the tradition of
art market scenes pioneered by Pieter
Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer. He strived for a
synthesis of still-life with landscape and genre
painting.[2]
The still lifes in many of the market scenes were the
work of his assistant Georg Flegel who may also have
trained with him. A snow-covered fish market scene
(Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) is another
example of a market scene set in the winter. People
are shown skating on the ice in the background. Two

11. muffled-up well-to-do women are making their
purchases dressed in the typical Brabantstyle of
around 1580-1600. The fishmonger is shown slicing
off pieces of salmon, while his wife is taking smoked
fish from a hook. The fish and utensils in the
foreground are the work of Flegel who was able to
render the fine metal shine of the brass bucket and
the grain of the wooden water bucket.[10]
Georg Flegel
also painted the food and luxurious tableware in two
paintings of van Valckenborch depicting banquets
(Silesian Museum and St Gilgen-Salzburg,H.
Wiesenthal private collection).[2]
Gallery
Portrait of Matthias of Austria

12. 
View of Antwerp with the Frozen Scheldt

Landscape with Mine and Forge


13. Tower of Babel
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