Landscape with the Temple of the Sibyl

This moonlit landscape is painted on copper just 11 by 17 centimetres, about the size of a postcard, and Bril signed it with the date 1595 along the lower edge. High on the left stands the round Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli, an ancient Roman shrine above the falls of the river Aniene, east of Rome. The ruin was a favourite subject for northern painters travelling in Italy. Bril keeps the building recognisable, but he wraps it in what the museum calls a fantastical, northern-flavoured setting, with steep dark slopes, a waterfall beneath the temple and a full moon breaking through cloud. On the road below, a man on foot and a rider head for a stone bridge, three dogs at their heels. The copper was painted as a pair with a landing-place landscape of the same size, and both are now in the museum's storage.