Lucas Gassel

Lucas Gassel (* 1500 in Helmond, † after 1568 in Brussels) was a Flemish painter and draftsman. His richly detailed paintings in oil or water colors show mostly biblical themes amidst a fictional, mostly mountainous Rocky landscapes.

Life

About Gassels origin and his education is not known. He may have begun his career as a painter in Antwerp 1520-1530, he worked initially perhaps other artists, for whom he created backgrounds with landscapes. According to other data, he worked in Brussels and was a friend of Dominicus Lampsonius. His last (known) image is dated 1568. About Gassels further whereabouts are unknown.

Selections

  • Mountainous landscape ( two paintings, both 1538)
  • David and Bathsheba ( nine versions, 1540-1559 ), oil on panel, in addition a drawing
  • Landscape with copper mine ( 1544), oil on wood
  • Flight into Egypt ( 1547)
  • Judah and Tamar ( 1548)
  • Christ and the Canaanite woman ( 1550)
  • Landscape with Noli me tangere '
  • Mercury and Argus ( lost last Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna )
  • The three angels before Abraham (1568, last known work ), pen and ink drawing

Individual motives were templates for engravings:

  • Landscapes with biblical characters and saints, five sheets, of Joannes and Lucas van Doetecum (published 1562 )
  • Jerome in the Desert

Style

Gassels landscape painting in the tradition of Joachim Patinir and Herri (met de ) Bles. Many of his paintings could be workshop activities, thus only in lots of his hand. Marcellus Coffermans possibly painted the figure inventory of some images Gassels.

Gassels landscapes with mountains, cliffs and valleys are mostly ( in the foreground brownish, bluish background) divided by color space, as well as the detail of the image depth decreases. Striking are the figures whose stocky body and a little oversized heads seem very realistic.

Noteworthy is the subject of David and Bathsheba, the painted Gassel in nine versions. Right there is the palace of David and Bathsheba's left of the garden, between an area with a playground for Rounders ( the precursor of tennis), a lawn (probably for target practice ) and in the background a circular maze. Some versions show a fountain with a Manneken Pis figure; the figures of the version from the period around 1543 are probably by another hand.

Hendrik Hondius I Bible Integrated Authority File
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