Lucas Gassel or Lucas van Gassel (

Deurne, Netherlands Deurne () is a rural municipality and eponymous village in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. Including the villages of Liessel, Vlierden, Neerkant, and Helenaveen, Deurne had a population of in and covers an area of . History ...

, c. 1485 –

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, 1568 or 1569)Lucas Gassel
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

was a Flemish Renaissance painter and draughtsman known for his landscapes. He helped further develop and modernize the landscape tradition in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture ...

. He also designed prints which were published by the

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

publisher

Hieronymus Cock Hieronymus Cock, or Hieronymus Wellens de Cock (1518 – 3 October 1570) was a Flemish painter and etcher as well as a publisher and distributor of prints.

.Lucas Gassel, ''The gardens of a Renaissance palace, with episodes from the story of David and Bathsheba, in a panoramic landscape adorned with mountains and a port''
at De Jonckheere Gallery

Life

Little is known about his life. Born in Deurne, Netherlands, Gassel is believed to have moved to Antwerp before 1520. Here he received his artistic training. Historiographical tradition links him to the artistic milieu of

, a city which he is assumed to have moved to. The influences visible in his work link him much more to the Antwerp school of painting.Luc Serck, Gassel, Lucas
in: Dictionnaire des peintres belges On the other hand, his frequent depictions of scenes at the court point to a possible stay in Brussels where the court was located. He was a humanist and was linked with other humanists in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

. He was a friend of

Dominicus Lampsonius Dominicus Lampsonius (Latinised form of Dominique Lampsone) (1532, in Bruges – 1599, in Liège) was a Flemish humanist, poet and painter. A secretary to various Prince-Bishops of Liège, he maintained an extensive correspondence with humanists ...

who included him in his 1572 publication ''Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris effigies'' (literal translation: Effigies of some celebrated painters of Lower Germany), a set of 23 engraved portraits of leading artists from the Low Countries who had died.Lucas Gassel
in

Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander I (May 1548 – 2 September 1606) was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembere ...

's ''

Schilder-boeck or is a book written by the Flemish writer and painter Karel van Mander first published in 1604 in Haarlem in the Dutch Republic, where van Mander resided. The book is written in 17th-century Dutch and its title is commonly translated into Engl ...

'', 1604 Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris
1572 edition in the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

Work

His earliest work dates from 1538, he is known for painting landscapes and architectural studies without regard for realistic depiction. He continued in the mid-16th century the '

world landscape The world landscape, a translation of the German ''Weltlandschaft'', is a type of composition in Western painting showing an imaginary panoramic landscape seen from an elevated viewpoint that includes mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings. ...

' tradition of wide landscape vistas created by the likes of

Joachim Patinir Joachim Patinir, also called Patenier (c. 1480 – 5 October 1524), was a Flemish Renaissance painter of history and landscape subjects. He was Flemish, from the area of modern Wallonia, but worked in Antwerp, then the centre of the art market ...

in the Southern Netherlands.Lucas Gassel, ''Landscape with the return of the prodigal son''
at Sotheby's In contrast to Patinir, Gassel's landscapes are bustling with life and activity, with depictions of rivers and mountains, cityscapes with palaces and leisure gardens. Themes he painted included parables from the Bible, classical subjects, courtly leisure pursuits or every day life. These characters are mainly pretexts to present the panoramic view in which they are included. He managed to mix fantastic rocky masses and a refined world of sweetness.Lucas Gassel, ''A panoramic river landscape with Judah and Tamar''
at Christie's His landscapes follow the tradition established by Joachim Patinir and

Herri met de Bles Herri met de Bles, also known as Henri Blès, Herri de Dinant, Herry de Patinir, and ''il Civetta'' (c. 1490 – after 1566), was a Flemish Northern Renaissance and Mannerist landscape painter, native of Bouvignes or Dinant (both in present-day ...

who structured their landscapes on a diagonal axis and using a division in three tones. Gassel's landscapes modernised this style by accentuating the graphic aspect, their preference for dull colors and the reduction of the level of detail. Lucas Gassel - Landscape with the return of the prodigal son

Lucas Gassel - Landscape with the return of the prodigal son

Gassel painted at least four versions of episodes from the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba in the grounds of a Renaissance Palace (

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...

in Hartford, the collection of the Duke of Palmela in Lisbon, the collection of Doctor Restrelli and at De Jonckheere Gallery in 2018). In addition to various scenes depicting the Biblical story, the paintings also depict entertainments and games popular at royal courts in the 16th century. In the foreground can be seen one of the first depictions of tennis in European art. Other games portrayed in the paintings are ''boule á l’anneau'' (hoop ball), which involves hitting a ball under hoops using a wooden stick, a forerunner of

croquet Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Its international governing body is the Worl ...

. In the ''Episodes from the story of David and Bathsheba'', steep cliffs can be seen and was a constant motif in several of his paintings; it showed similarities to works by Herri met de Bles, whom he may have influenced and who may have been his pupil in the early 1530s and was at least 10 years his junior. Gassel and de Bles are depicted together (along with Hans Holbein) in a 1764 coloured engraving by

Jan l'Admiral Jan l'Admiral (1699–1773) was an 18th-century engraver from the northern Netherlands. Biography He was born in Amsterdam to an engraver of the same name and is known for a series of engravings for a new edition of Karel van Mander's ''Schilderb ...

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gassel, Lucas 1490s births 1568 deaths Flemish Renaissance painters Flemish landscape painters People from Helmond