BY the 17th Century, the style was becoming fossilised and only Tanyu could enliven it with his own variations. Much copied later by his 2 younger brothers. Here his virtuosity is demonstrated by deliberately choosing to paint in both major Chinese styles:- southern school (left-hand screen) and northern school (right-hand screen).
Nominally inspired by Lucretius' De rerum natura, Piero di Cosimo's The Forest Fire takes its scientific subject and embellishes it with fantastical creatures from the artist's imagination: Bulls, bears, lions and deer-like creatures with human faces all flee wearily from a fire.
Rubens' portrait of Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel dates from about 1629. The Earl was a great collector, and Rubens had painted the earl's wife a few years earlier on a visit to Antwerp. This drawing in pen and ink with a chalk base is unusually informal, reflecting perhaps the comfortable relationship between artist and patron.
