Joahim Patinir Biography

Joahim Patinir (also: Patenier) was born c. 1480 probably in Dinant, near Namur. No records exist about Patinir’s training and early work. In 1515, he was elected master to the Antwerp St. Lukas Guild. He is noted as one of the earliest painters to make landscape a main element of his compositions. The artist developed a so-called “world landscape”, a bird’s-eye view, with a seemingly endless horizon. This brought him international fame during his lifetime. Thus, three of his paintings were mentioned in 1523 in the records of the Palazzo Grimani in Venice, and

Dürer also frequently mentioned him in his notes on his travels in the Netherlands.

About twenty of his signed paintings cannot be regarded as pure landscapes. He mostly depicted religious scenes, with figures, but they were completely integrated into the landscape, which was an entirely new attitude. The painter created a depth of space by modulating the colors from warm green shades to cold grayish blue. This was an atmospheric perspective which Jan van Eyck had also used in his work almost a hundred years earlier.

Patinir had a huge influence on succeeding generations as well as on his contemporaries.

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  Landscape With St. Jerome.
  

  c. 1515-24. Oil on wood. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. Read Note.