Nature Discerned: Providence and Perspective in Gilles van Coninxloo’s Sylva

Abstract

Van Mander treats landscape painting in the Coninxloo biography as exemplary of the craft of painting itself. The qualities Van Mander singles out, the ability to paint anything the eye can see and to revivify withering trees through his art, are evident in these works and contribute to the paintings' hints of past and present metamorphoses. Recognizing the biblical subject and looking through the spectacles of Scripture provides a context of reception for analysing the details of the print with reference to the pertinent pictorial as well as theological traditions. The scriptural associations of forest settings in biblical prints and commentaries also carry over into landscapes without obvious religious subjects. Coninxloo's approach to nature in his forest landscape paintings is consistent with the ideas of nature put forth in the neo-Stoic revival during the sixteenth century. Keywords:biblical prints; Coninxloo; sixteenth century; theological traditions; Van Mander