A winter town and a summer port - Orazio Grevenbroeck (1676 - 1739)

ORAZIO GREVENBROECK
Milano 1676 - Napoli 1739
A winter town and a summer port
Oil on copper
We’d like to thank dr. Fabrizio Dassie for his expertise.
A certificate is available. (Milan, 25/09/2025)
Dimensions: 17 x 35 cm, 27 x 43 cm (framed)
THE ARTIST

Orazio Grevenbroeck (or Grevenbroech) was an Italian painter of Flemish descent active in Milan and Naples during the late Baroque period. Born into a family of Northern origin, he brought together the precision and luminosity of Flemish landscape tradition with the grandeur and theatricality of the Italian vedutisti. His work occupies a fascinating intersection between fantasy and topography, merging architectural invention with vivid atmospheric effects that reflect both Northern naturalism and the warm tonal sensibility of southern Italy.
Grevenbroeck is best known for his capricci—imaginary landscapes and harbor scenes populated by towers, ruins, and figures that evoke both the spirit of antiquity and the dynamism of the Baroque age. Active primarily in Naples, he moved within a circle of artists such as Niccolò Casissa, Antonio Joli, and Leonardo Coccorante, who specialized in similar picturesque and theatrical compositions. His choice of copper as a support further aligns him with the Flemish miniature tradition, allowing for meticulous precision and a jewel-like brilliance in color.
While little is documented about his training, Grevenbroeck’s works suggest exposure to the Roman and Neapolitan traditions of architectural painting and marine landscape. His treatment of light—ranging from the cool clarity of dawn to the golden glow of southern sunsets—demonstrates a refined understanding of atmospheric perspective. His paintings were highly sought after among Grand Tour collectors, who admired his ability to combine architectural fantasy, geographical suggestion, and the lyrical sensibility of the Italian coast.

THE ARTWORK

This harmonious pair of copper panels—one depicting a winter landscape with a fortified town, the other a sunlit coastal port—offers a masterful contrast of seasons and moods within Grevenbroeck’s distinctive capriccio idiom. Both compositions stage imaginary architectures within expansive settings that reveal the artist’s dual fascination with human invention and the drama of nature. The winter scene presents a fortified city wrapped in frost and shadow, its icy river traversed by tiny figures in red and blue garments. The barren trees and snow-laden roofs are rendered with crystalline detail, while the sky, layered in turbulent greys, captures the Northern melancholy that reflects Grevenbroeck’s Flemish heritage.
In contrast, the summer port opens onto a sun-drenched harbor framed by ancient ruins, towers, and arches that recall the grandeur of a Mediterranean antiquity. Small figures and ships animate the foreground and horizon, emphasizing the vitality of maritime trade and travel. The gentle luminosity of the sea and the subtle gradations of azure and ochre evoke the warmth of southern Italy, transforming the architectural fantasy into a celebration of harmony and life.
Together, the pair can be interpreted as an allegory of seasonal duality—winter and summer, storm and calm, decline and renewal—expressed through Grevenbroeck’s mastery of light, texture, and composition. The coppers’ minute brushwork and gem-like surface, characteristic of his style, reveal a painter deeply attuned to the poetic possibilities of landscape. Comparable examples of Grevenbroeck’s work are preserved in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, and in various Italian and European private collections, where he is recognized as one of the most refined interpreters of the Neapolitan capriccio tradition.