- Gallery Text
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While many Northern artists of his generation traveled to the Eternal City, Pynas is unusual in that he stayed in Rome on two separate occasions—between 1605 and 1607, and again in 1616–17. This impeccably preserved landscape was probably made during or soon after Pynas’s first Italian sojourn. Although contemporary sources suggest that the artist studied Italian landscape from life, this drawing certainly derives from the imagination. Many stylistic and technical features of the work—the combination of dense parallel hatching and controlled washes, the carefully ordered composition, and the close attention to the effects of light—indicate Pynas’s familiarity with the landscape tradition developed in Italy by Paul Bril (as seen in the drawing displayed nearby). With its overgrown ruins of ancient buildings, its wild, oversize foliage, and its lack of human figures, the scene evokes a landscape that has been taken over by the powerful forces of nature.
- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- 1.2018.277
- People
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Jan Symonsz. Pynas, Dutch (Alkmaar 1581/1582 - 1631 Amsterdam)
- Title
- A Mountainous Landscape with an Arched Bridge over a River
- Classification
- Drawings
- Work Type
- drawing
- Date
- 1605-1607
- Culture
- Dutch
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/358849
- Location
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Level 3, Room 3600, University Research Gallery
View this object's location on our interactive map - Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Brown ink and gray wash over traces of black chalk on off-white antique laid paper, framing line in dark brown ink
- Dimensions
- 14.3 × 19.1 cm (5 5/8 × 7 1/2 in.)
framed: 31.3 × 40.2 × 2 cm (12 5/16 × 15 13/16 × 13/16 in.) - Inscriptions and Marks
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- collector's mark: Recto, lower right, black ink: cross encircled (Lugt 2903c, not identified)
- collector's mark: Verso, lower left, brown ink: RA [encircled] (Lugt 4618, mark of I.Q. van Regteren Altena)
- watermark: bottom of sheet: fragment of a coat of arms (possibly arms of Burgundy and Austria)
- Provenance
- Unidentified collector (Lugt 2903c). Prince Wladimir Nikolaevich Argoutinsky-Dolgoroukoff (without his mark)[1]. I.Q. van Regteren Altena, Amsterdam (Lugt 418), by descent to his heirs; [Christie's, London, July 10, 2014, lot 34]; Maida and George Abrams Collection, Boston
[1] According to Christie's sale catalogue - Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Maida and George Abrams Collection, Boston, Long Term Loan
- Object Number
- 1.2018.277
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Exhibition History
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Crossroads: Drawing the Dutch Landscape, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/21/2022 - 08/14/2022
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This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu