Patinir, la invención del paisaje

The Flemish painter Joachim Patinir (c.1480–1524) was the first European artist to specialise in landscape painting. Patinir’s striking vistas combine observation of naturalistic detail with lyrical fantasy, evoking the idea of a world landscape, which is arguably Patinir’s most significant contribution to Western art. In 1540, Felipe de Guevara, friend and artistic advisor to Charles V and later to Philip II, in his Comments on Painting, cited Patinir among the three greatest painters alongside.

Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck, and this in part explains why the largest holding of Patinir’s art can today be found in Madrid’s Prado Museum. Art historian Richard Jacques will introduce both the artist and Miguel Ángel Trujillo’s intriguing film Patinir, la inveción del paisaje, addressing the enigma of a painter whose biography is largely unknown, and who revolutionised the art market and even the very concept of painting at the dawn of the 16th century.

Richard Jacques is a PhD candidate in Art History at Durham University. His doctoral research, which the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica funds, explores the language of suffering in the works of Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664). Richard also holds degrees in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and Christian theology from Kings College London.