Abstract

The recent discovery of a self-portrait by Paul Bril has enabled the author to explore the circulation of figurative models and art practice between Italy and Northern Europe. A more complex profile of Bril than hitherto thought emerged, that of a painter able to move from the landscape studied from life to the idealized one as well as to promote the image of himself and his brother Matthijs, also a painter and talented draughtsman, who prematurely died. The investigation made it possible to reconstruct the complex network of connections between Bril and engravers such as H. Hondius, to deepen the primary role attributed to drawing in the creative process by the leading representative of Flemish artists present in Rome between the 16th and 17th centuries, and to identify a new portrait of Bril, already referred to A. Elsheimer, attributing it to the hand of Paul himself