Daniel van Heil

Daniel van Heil or Daniël van Heil (1604 – 1664) was a Flemish Baroque landscape painter. He specialised in three types of landscapes: scenes with fire, landscapes with ruins and winter landscapes.

Life 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.

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. 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.

This is illustrated by van Heil's Fire of Antwerp with the Trojan horse. This composition shows the mixing of contemporary events such as the sack of Antwerp by Spanish troops in 1576 known as the Spanish Fury, with mythological elements such as the Trojan horse. It is also not entirely clear whether the city depicted is in fact Antwerp. The church represented in the centre bears a resemblance to Antwerp Cathedral but the city architecture further includes Trajan's Column of Rome. Some of the buildings depicted may actually be buildings in Brussels. This mixing of real and fantastic elements in the work reinforces the impression that the city it represents is imaginary. His winter views show the influence of the Ruisdaels as well as other artists such as Kerstiaen de Keuninck, especially in his early works. From these artists he took the compositional scheme. A characteristic motif of his landscapes is the presence of naked trees lit from behind with the interlacing branches framing the scene. His landscapes with ruins were in the style of Netherlandish Italianate landscapers.

Daniel van Heil collaborated with his brother Jan Baptist on the Infante Isabella in the gardens of the Coudenberg Palace (c. 1630, Museum of the City of Brussels). Daniel is believed to have been responsible for the landscape with the palace while his brother Jan Baptist for the staffage. The canvas shows a landscape with the palace of the governors of the Southern Netherlands near Brussels. In the foreground the Archduchess Isabella, widow of Archduke Albrecht and reigning governess, walks in the gardens of the palace in the habit of the Poor Clares, a religious order the Archduchess had joined after the death of her husband.