Paolo Fiammingo

Pauwels Franck known in Italy as Paolo Fiammingo and Paolo Franceschi (c. 1540 - 1596), was a Flemish painter, mainly of landscapes with mythological, allegorical and religious scenes, who was active in Venice for most of his life.

No concrete details about Pauwels Franck's early life and training have been preserved. He was likely born c. 1540. His birthplace is not known. He became a member of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1561.

The exact dates and details of his travel to Italy are not known. He is believed to have passed through Florence where he had contact with artists working in the Studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. He is recorded in Venice from 1573 but was likely an assistant in Tintoretto’s workshop there already in the 1560s. In Venice he is believed to have been in contact with his fellow countryman Lodewijk Toeput, who was also working in Tintoretto's workshop. The two artists may have met in Tintoretto's workshop.

From 1584 to his death the artist was registered at the painter's guild of Venice. In Italy the artist became known by the name Paolo Fiammingo ('Paul the Fleming'). He resided and worked in Venice for the rest of his career. He opened a successful studio in Venice, which received commissions from all over Europe.

He worked for international patrons including Hans Fugger (1531-1598), the heir of a German banking dynasty. Fugger commissioned him in 1580 to produce several series of paintings to decorate Castle Kirchheim in Württemberg near Augsburg, the Fugger family's summer residence. While Paolo Fiammingo produced a large number of work in the 1580s for the Fugger commissions, he appears to have produced at the same time several versions of many of the compositions made for the Fugger family. This suggests that Paolo ran a workshop of some size at the time.

The artist painted landscapes with religious scenes but is mainly known for his allegorical and mythological scenes. The latter were inspired by Giorgione but were treated by Franck with a Venetian softness and grace and set in dreamlike landscapes. These landscapes anticipate the Italianate Flemish school later associated with Paul Bril and Jan Brueghel the Elder. A good example is the Landscape with the Expulsion of the Harpies (National Gallery London, 1592–6).

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