17 Facts About Paul Bril

Paul Bril was a Flemish painter and printmaker principally known for his landscapes.

Paul Bril was the son of the painter Matthijs Bril the Elder.

Paul Bril established his reputation with commissions from Pope Gregory XIII in the Collegio Romano.

Paul Bril's success was assured after Pope Sixtus V became his principal patron.

Paul Bril was part of a team specialized in landscape painting and thus participated in almost every assignment which entailed decorative landscapes, such as in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, the Vatican Palace and the Scala Santa.

Paul Bril completed this commission in the Vatican Palace's Sala Clementina in collaboration with the brothers Giovanni and Cherubino Alberti.

In 1601 Paul Bril received another major commission, to paint a series of large canvases featuring properties of the Mattei family.

Paul Bril further painted landscape frescoes in the Casino dell'Aurora of the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome.

Paul Bril's patrons were among the most influential people in Rome and included members from the Colonna, Borghese, Mattei and Barberini families in Rome as well as Cardinal Federico Borromeo in Milan, Cardinal Carlo de' Medici in Florence and Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga in Mantua.

In 1621, Paul Bril became director of the Accademia di San Luca, the artists' academy in Rome.

Paul Bril had many students including his son Cyriacus Bril, Luigi Carboni, Balthasar Lauwers, Willem van Nieulandt II, Pieter Spierinckx, Agostino Tassi and Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom.

Paul Bril initially painted in the late Mannerist style developed by his brother.

Paul Bril contrasted steep cliffs with chasms or dark, twisting trees growing from hills next to flat, sunlit pastures.

Paul Bril's compositions became calmer and his style more classicising around 1605.

Paul Bril is considered a precursor of the Dutch Italianates such as Cornelius van Poelenburgh and Bartholomeus Breenbergh, and, to a certain extent, of the Flemish and Dutch genre painters active in Rome known as the Bamboccianti.

Paul Bril painted small cabinet paintings on copper and panel commencing from the 1590s.

Paul Bril let the Dutch landscape artist Bartholomeus Breenbergh live in his Roman residence for many years.