BRIL, Matthijs the Younger

Flemish painter and draughtsman of landscapes, brother of the more famous Paul Bril. He moved to Rome at a young age. He spent most of his active career in Rome where his drawings of ancient Roman sites played an important role in the development of topographical landscape art. He was also a painter of capricci (architectural fantasies), with typical rustic hills with a few ruins. He is documented as the painter of several frescoes in the Vatican.

He died young and his younger brother Paul Bril, who had joined him in Rome, finished his commissions.