Lot 16: Kerstiaen de Keuninck the Elder , Courtrai 1560 - 1632/3 Antwerp A panoramic mountainous landscape, with two shepherds and their cattle resting along a path in the foreground oil on panel

remains of a signature(?) lower right oil on panel

measurements note 43.8 by 65 cm.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
This work possesses the typical characteristics of De Keuninck's alpine landscapes: a diagonally receding extensive mountain landscape with imposing rock formations and a gradual progress from the brown-yellow tones of the foreground to the blue-greenish tones in the background, closely following the principles of atmospheric perspective. Compare for example, the signed Mountainous Landscape with a Waterfall in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no.1983.452).υ1 In his imaginary landscapes De Keuninck explores the dramatic pictorial effects of nature. Here the artist contrasts the rays of sun with falling water and the dark shadows cast by monumental rocks with the brightly illuminated sky. Analogous to the New York picture, the landscape is treated as an independent subject, only herdsmen feature as staffage figures, contrary to the majority of his alpine landscapes in which biblical or mythological figures have been added. 1. See H. Devisscher, Kerstiaen de Keuninck, 1560-1633, Freren 1987, p. 147, cat. no. A7, reproduced p. 148.