The Conversion of Saul Frederik van Valckenborch

The invention of the Flemish World Landscape was one of the greatest achievements of sixteenth- century Netherlandish painting. The tradition of the cosmic landscape, which originated with Patinir and was renewed and secularized in the middle of the century in the art of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, still exerted a powerful influence in the early 1600s.
In the second half of the century, inspired by developments in Italy, artists began to pay attention to depicting the land with topographical accuracy. Although painters still insisted on separating the space into three distinct divisions, they spent far more time out in nature making sketches of the towns and the surrounding scenery, which they later used as the basis for recreating realistic images in paint. The handling of light and colour still showed the after-effects of Italian mannerism: landscapes seem to come alive thanks to the use of chiaroscuro, that is, the dramatic contrast of light and shade, as exemplified by Frederik van Valckenborch’s The Conversion of Saul.