Cornelis van Dalem

Cornelis van Dalem (1530/35 – 1573 or 1576) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp in the middle of the 16th century and an important contributor to the development of landscape art in the Low Countries.

Cornelis and his older brother Lodewijk likely enjoyed a humanistic education and were both trained as painters with the obscure artist Jan Adriaensens.

[1] Despite being a member of the Guild of Saint Luke, Cornelis van Dalem only practiced painting as an amateur and he remained a merchant his entire career.

The façade had a relief of the goddess Pictura in front of an easel, of Minerva and Mercury as well the stone busts of Durer and Jan van Eyck with laudatory inscriptions.

Van Dalem appears not to have been concerned much about teaching Spranger the art of painting but more about ensuring that his apprentice kept his studio clean and tidy.

Around this time there were also increasing rumours about the possible heretical leanings of the van Dalem household: it was said they never went to the Catholic Church but rather attended Protestant gatherings.

[11] Van Dalem's composition, which was probably made in 1565, is dominated by a high, steep cliff which only leaves a small strip of heaven at the top of the painting.

The top of the rock is covered with trees and shrubs that are painted very precisely and a flute-playing shepherd descends the cliff amidst his herd of goats.

It has been surmised that van Dalem intended to depict primitive man in his natural environment, as described in the De rerum natura.

He shows in his composition several elements that were deemed at the time to play a role in the civilization process such as communication, fixed housing, domestication of animals and culture (music).

This composition appears to depict a further stage of development in the evolution of man when people have founded communities and wear woven clothes.

A painting with a similar subject matter depicting the Flight into Eypt was formerly in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin but was lost during World War II.

Here van Dalem seems to address the topic of the decay of culture, which is represented in the form of a ruined church, dilapidated hut and barren trees and earth.

In 1561 he was responsible for the publication of Frans Huys' two-sheet engraving of the entire Strait of Messina seen in bird's-eye view after a design by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

[9] Van Dalem's name was forgotten in later ages and it was only in the early 20th century that art historians such as Ludwig Burchard rediscovered the artist and his work.