Landscape with the Flight into Egypt

The Netherlandish Joachim Patenier is viewed as the inventor, or at least principal initiator, of the “universal landscape.” His paintings enjoyed wide renown throughout Europe in the early sixteenth century and Albrecht D�rer praised him highly as a landscape artist.

A narrative, most commonly biblical, remained a necessary component of the landscapes for some time. Here, the rural European view is populated by Gospel personages and peasants of the artist’s own era,although it is no easy matter to tell them apart.