Landscape 1600 - 1700

This small landscape, made with pen and brown ink, invites us into a world defined by texture and rhythm. The composition centers around a rugged rock formation, possibly ruins, whose rough texture is emphasized by dense hatching. The artist uses horizontal and diagonal strokes across the paper to create a sense of depth, as the foreground textures gently dissolve into the distance. The landscape is populated by trees, clouds, and small human figures, each rendered with the same careful, textural approach. Look closely at how the light is suggested not through traditional shading but through the varying density and direction of the lines. This technique emphasizes a certain flatness, reminding us that we are looking at lines on a page, and not just a window onto another world. The ink strokes themselves become a subject, drawing attention to the artwork’s materiality and constructed nature.