Hilly Landscape With Figures By A River 

Abraham Bloemaert painted this landscape scene in oils sometime in the 17th century, a period when this medium had become widespread. It's fascinating how oil paint allows for a remarkable level of detail, especially in the textures of the foliage and the rolling hills. Bloemaert would have built up these effects through layers of glazes, a time-consuming and painstaking process. Of course, while this image conveys a sense of leisurely wandering, we shouldn't forget that pigments like those used to create Bloemaert's paints often relied on global trade networks, with materials sourced from all corners of the world. The labour involved in extracting and processing these pigments, as well as the canvas preparation, were all part of the bigger picture of the art's creation. So when looking at the piece, consider the landscape not only as a picturesque scene, but as a product of a complex economic and social system that stretched far beyond the artist's studio.