This superb view of the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is an interesting example of Flemish artists’ defence of landscape as a genre in its own right. The work of Jan Frans Soolmaker, a painter of landscapes and genre scenes, with refined skilfulness and mastery, this canvas successfully captures the intimate spirit of this complex whose construction was ordered by King Philip II in the mid 16^th century.

The interest aroused by the building contributed to the fact that, even before its completion (1563-1584), many artists had already painted views of it. That is the case of the drawing from 1576 by Rodrigo de Holanda or the canvas painted in 1582 by Fabrizio Castello (1562-1617), the latter based on a scale drawing by Juan de Herrera of the monastery’s western façade.

That drawing led the architect to sign a contract in 1584 with the Flemish engraver Pedro Perret (1555-1625) to create a series of prints that went on sale in 1589 and which were compiled in a book titled Sumario y breve declaración de los diseños y estampas de la fábrica de San Lorenzo el Real del Escorial.

Not much is known about the life and work of Soolmaker. However, we do know that in 1665 he drew up his testament in Amsterdam in anticipation of his imminent departure to Italy via Portugal and Spain, a journey he most likely completed, for there is an Italian landscape made by his hand from 1668. He therefore must have known El Escorial first hand. Nonetheless, depictions of the Monastery were common among 17^th century artists—in paintings, drawings, etchings—which leaves the possibility that this view could have been based on an , perhaps by Perret or one made in 1662 by Johannes Blaeu (1596-1673), a practice which was quite standard at the time.

The work puts architecture at the service of nature, at the centre of the composition and emerging in the midst of a naturalist landscape, which starts in the foreground with figures of peasants rendered with free-flowing brushstrokes, and extends into the depths of the painting, respecting the urban limits of the complex. The intense perspective invites the beholder to closely observe each detail of the façade and of the plan, whose courtyards emulate the shape of a grid, an attribute of the saint to which the temple was dedicated.

The canvas has a number painted at the bottom right, indicating that the work probably once belonged to an important collection.