Daniel van Heil
| Daniel van Heil | |
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Portrait of Daniel van Heil
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| Born | 1604, Brussels |
| Died | 1664 (aged 59–60), Brussels |
| Nationality | Flemish |
| Known for | Painting |
Daniel van Heil or Daniël van Heil (Brussels, 1604 – Brussels, 1664), was a Flemish Baroque landscape painter. He specialised in three types of landscapes: scenes with fire, landscapes with ruins and winter landscapes.
Little is known about the life and training of Daniel van Heil. He was born in Brussels. His father Leo or Leon was a painter and two of his brothers were also artists: Leo was an architect and painter and Jan Baptist was a portrait painter.
It is not known with whom Daniel trained but it was likely his father. He became a master in the Brussels Guild of St. Luke in 1627.
His son Theodoor van Heil trained with his father and produced landscapes of similar subject matter executed in the same style as his father.
The artist died in Brussels in 1664.
Daniel van Heil was a landscape painter. His subjects were principally winter landscapes, fires in cities and landscapes with ruins.
The theme of fires in cities, which appeared in the early 17th century was not new to Flemish iconography. The subject often appeared in earlier art as a secondary theme in depictions of biblical or mythological apocalypses and destruction. These earlier works often set the subject at night in an environment sometimes populated with fantastic or demonic beings. The actual subjects of these scenes included the fall of Troy, Aeneas and Juno in the underworld and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Hieronymus Bosch was the first northern artist to paint such fire scenes and later painters in the Brueghel dynasty developed the subject matter further.
In the 17th century the theme of fires in cities became an independent subject matter in its own right. The subject was explored mainly for its formal aspects and pictorial possibilities: the depiction of spectacular effects of light and shadow had become a goal in itself. A simultaneous development was for the subjects of the compositions to become less clear and elements of tradition and innovation to become mixed. This is reflected in the architectural setting of the scenes, where contemporary architecture forms the background for a mythological or biblical scene. This mixing up of myth and contemporary events was possibly a result of the experiences of the artist who lived in a time when war and destruction of cities by armies was not uncommon. These works thus used the iconic examples of classical antiquity to give voice to their indignation about contemporary destructions they had witnessed.
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