Page of St Christopher Bearing the Christ Child by PATENIER, Joachim in the Web Gallery of Art, a searchable image collection and database of European paintings and sculptures (1100-1850)

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St Christopher Bearing the Christ Child

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Oil on panel, 48 x 59,5 cm
Rockox House, Antwerp

An influential painter in terms of the development of landscape painting in the 16th century was Joachim Patenier, who was born in Bouvignes, near Dinant. Like Quentin Massys, with whom he worked occasionally, he lived and worked in Antwerp. His contribution to the development of a new genre, the independent landscape painting, was considerable. In his religious paintings, he placed his figures against a background of immense vistas presented as a bird's eye view of a host of cosmic elements: mountains and crags, sweeping valleys, rivers and meadows, towns and villages - one after the other they draw the eye of the beholder on to a distant horizon. Although these are not yet fully independent landscape paintings, the landscape is the most important element in his compositions. The human figures play only a secondary role, as can be seen in St Christopher bearing the Christ Child, a very popular subject at that time and on into the 17th century, because St. Christopher was believed to give protection against sudden death. There can be no doubt that Pieter Bruegel studied Patenier's landscapes before leaving for Italy and painting the Alps.