In the breadth of its panoramic scope, this miniature, in which the influence of Brueghel the Elder is mingled with Bol's typically intimate and tactile rendering of naturalistic details, remains as appealing to the modern viewer as it must have been at the time of its creation.

The painting illustrates a parable from the gospel of Luke (XII, 15-16) in which Jesus, called to give an opinion on the unequal fortune that has befallen two brothers, denounces the futility of human efforts to accumulate wealth in a self-serving way, without a spirit of sharing. Thus, in the parable, God lays waste to the rich man's vain illusion of protecting himself from the vagaries of fate by building more and larger storehouses to contain the harvest that he would of course do better to share with his workers, with the forceful reminder of his imminent death.

In the painting, such drama seems still far away: in front of the rich man's picturesque, protective castle, from which vantage point he is able to comfortably survey the activities of his labourers as they bring to him the fruits of their harvest, or further in the distance prepare to build his new storehouses, the figure nevertheless contemplates the chests and sacks that contain his wealth with a certain melancholy anxiety. The pride and vanity of his aspirations are underscored by the presence of the peacock, while a turkey, a species imported from the New World which quickly became associated with stupidity, adds a timely note to the scene while introducing subtle political connotations. These become all the clearer when one considers that this marvellous gouache was painted the year after Bol emigrated to the United Provinces, fleeing the Spanish oppression like so many of his fellows.

The highly detailed topographical profile of the city that appears below, in which the characteristic silhouette of the Brussels town hall is visible as well as its city walls with large tower, supports the metaphorical aspect of the picture. And while all appears quite serene, with the threat of divine chastisement only suggested in the clouds gathering on the horizon in the distance, Bol's vision is almost prophetic of the turbulent period of recession that the Southern Provinces would undergo under the iron rule of a foreign power whose ruthless taxation and anti-libertarian oppression would ultimately lead to its own downfall.

In addition to these political considerations, of note here is the precision of the topographical rendering of the urban landscape, the hallmark of this artist who is acknowledged as the initiator of the cityscape as an independent genre. His miniatures regularly feature views of Brussels, but also of Antwerp, Bergen op Zoom, The Hague and even Amsterdam.

In particular, the church shown below the city walls of Brussels also appears in a miniature in the collection of the Residence in Munich (cf. H. Buchheit and R. Oldenbourg, Das Miniaturenkabinett der Münchener Residenz, Munich 1921, pl. 3), while the more fanciful detail of the castle that flanks the composition on the left appears in a gouache dated 1589 in the collection of the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. N° M508).

About HANS BOL
1534 - Malines - Antwerp – 1593

In the years following the take-over of the city of Amsterdam by the Calvinists, there was great economic recovery, as well as a renewed interest in the arts. This was why many painters of Flemish birth and training chose to settle in Amsterdam rather than in Haarlem, which helped to account for a huge renewal in landscape painting in particular.

Among these Flemish emigrants there figured the names of Gillis van Coninxloo, David Vinckboons and Hans Bol, who was one of the first to settle there. He was born in Malines was the pupil of his two uncles, Jean and Jacques Bol. His name can be found registered at the Guild of this City in 1560. In the wake of the pillage of 1572, he went to work in Antwerp, where he obtained rights of citizenship. However, when the war caused him to flee in 1584, he undertook a series of journeys, which led him successively to Berg-op-Zoom, Dordrecht and Delft, before he finally settled in Amsterdam in 1586.

He became particularly celebrated for his landscapes with their great panoramas, peopled with many small figures, where there is to be found the spirit of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, whose fame he largely helped to broadcast in this country, thereby influencing a whole generation of painters. Jacob Savery of Courtrai, Georg Hoefnagel and Frans Boels were his disciples.