Farmhouse on the Slope of a Hill
This is a significant early example of pure landscape drawing in Europe, as it is dedicated completely to the depiction of nature for its own sake, without suggestion of a biblical or historical narrative. The rapidity and regularity of strokes used for the evergreen and deciduous trees and the sweeping lines in the foreground suggest that the landscape in Farmhouse on the Slope of a Hill was made directly from nature. The sheet comes from an album of 41 landscape studies by Fra Bartolommeo assembled by an eighteenth-century collector and disbound for sale in the mid-20th century. A member ...
Details
- Palette
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Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- pen and brown ink
- Dimensions
- sheet: height 0.223 m, width 0.294 m; secondary support: height 0.275 m, width 0.412 m
- Origin
- Italy, Florence
- Department
- Drawings
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Gift of the Hanna Fund, Purchase, Dudley P. Allen Fund, Delia E. Holden Fund and L. E. Holden Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
9 tags
Subject Matter
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Landscapes Both · 99%
The composition is dominated by a rural hillside, farmhouse buildings, trees, and open ground; the museum explicitly describes the work as a landscape devoted to the depiction of nature.
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Rural Life Both · 94%
A farmhouse complex, fences, cultivated-looking ground, and small figures establish a rural settlement as the depicted setting; this is also specified by the title.
Visual Qualities
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Linear Forms Visual · 98%
The scene is constructed with extensive contouring and repeated linear marks defining foliage, roofs, walls, hillside contours, and the foreground.
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Emphasis on Linear Perspective Visual · 90%
Receding ground lines, overlapping structures, and the placement of the farmhouse complex within the sloping terrain create evident spatial recession.
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Contour Line Visual · 95%
The trees, buildings, fences, and terrain are articulated with visible outlines and continuous drawn contours rather than broad tonal masses.
Medium and Techniques
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Drawing Metadata · 99%
The museum classifies the object as a Drawing and specifies pen and brown ink.
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Work on Paper Metadata · 98%
The work is executed on a sheet, with the catalog listing sheet dimensions and a secondary support.
Time Periods
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16th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog date of circa 1508 places the work in the sixteenth century.
Geographic Regions
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Italian Art Metadata · 99%
The artist is identified as Italian and the place of origin as Florence, Italy.
Source & rights
Fra Bartolommeo (Italian, 1472–1517). Farmhouse on the Slope of a Hill. Cleveland Museum of Art.