2-740-904 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Six Landscapes: Path Between Swamp and Wooded Bank, c. 1595. One of a series of six wooded landscapes, this print characterizes some of the most significant developments in 17th-century Dutch landscape and provides a striking contrast to the dramatic forest interiors of other Flemish immigrant artists. As etching superseded engraving in landscape prints, original compositions designed by printmakers replaced reproductions of works by contemporary painters. Savery's etching also anticipates the rise of Dutch realism, with more accurate representations of the native landscape. The broken contours of the trees describe a sun-drenched afternoon as soldiers, identified by their distinctive hats and armored chest plates, journey along a path through the rolling countryside.