Cornelis van Poelenburgh - Landscape with Bathing Nudes [mid-1600s]

Cornelis van Poelenburgh - Landscape with Bathing Nudes [mid-1600s], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A sense of uninhibited freedom pervades the scene as a group of women bathe, lounge, and socialise in an area below a rocky hillside. Drying herself, the woman in the centre of the painting turns toward her voluptuous nude companion lying in the foreground. Cornelius van Poelenburgh (Utrecht, c.1586 - Utrecht, 1667) softly modeled the figures, evoking the texture of tender flesh. The landscape captures the atmospheric qualities of the Italian countryside and deliberately calls to mind an idyllic mythological land filled with languid nymphs. 

Van Poelenburgh was best known for cabinet-size paintings, small easel paintings intended to be viewed at close range. Like this one, many were painted on copper and represented ruins, shepherds, peasants, travellers, and an occasional mythological or religious scene. 

[Getty Centre, Los Angeles - Oil on copper, 13 x 17.375 inches]