Ansicht einer Campagnalandschaft 1590

Paul Bril’s landscape drawing at the Städel Museum captures a scene where nature and civilization intertwine. Dominating the landscape is the image of the mountain: a symbol of permanence, stability, and spiritual aspiration. Since antiquity, the image of the mountain has echoed through art and myth. In classical antiquity, the gods dwelt on Mount Olympus, and, echoing through time, the celestial mountain looms large in Chinese landscape painting, representing the bridge between earth and heaven. Consider the mountain, too, in religious contexts, such as Mount Sinai, the origin of divine law. Here, Bril's mountain is not merely a geological feature but a psychological space, loaded with cultural memory. Note the buildings that cling to it. Are these not testaments to human ambition? I invite you to dwell on the symbolism that stirs subconscious depths and echoes across epochs.