Fantastic Landscape with Figures Crossing a Bridge
16th century
Medium
Brush and brown and gray wash, heightened with white over black chalk on heavy brown paper
Dimensions
11 x 15 5/8 in. (27.9 x 39.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1961
Accession Number
61.165.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
Lancelot Blondeel's *Fantastic Landscape with Figures Crossing a Bridge (16th century) transports viewers into an imaginative Flemish Renaissance world. Created by the Bruges-based artist, architect, and designer (c 1498–1561), this drawing captures a dreamlike vista of towering buildings, a graceful bridge spanned by tiny figures, and expansive landscapes. Blondeel, influenced by Italian Renaissance masters like Raphael, blended Northern precision with fantastical elements, evoking the Mannerist taste for the extraordinary during a time when artists explored perspective and narrative in prepa...