The invention of the classicinsing landscape
The depiction of landscape was one of the innovations that characterised Italian painting in the early decades of the seventeenth century. Such works tend to be idyllic scenes that evoke an Arcadian vision of the countryside without any pretence at being specific views. We find harmoniously balanced compositions arranged horizontally in line with the style of Bolognese classicism, as well as precise, specific descriptions of nature that can be related to the style of Caravaggio and the northern painters working in Rome. Maíno’s landscapes can be seen as highly innovative within Spanish painting. They relate to the shady, tranquilo view created through contrasting, parallel planes, and areas of vegetation reflected in the water of the type depicted by Annibale Carracci, Domenichino, Carlo Saraceni or Adam Elsheimer.
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The penitent Magdalen. Juan Bautista Maíno. Oil on panel, 58 x 155 cm. 1612-1614. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado
