Martin Rykaert - Mining Operations along a River - Walters 371730

Mining was an important industry in the Southern Netherlands, Germany and Austria. As many powerful figures with significant interests in mining were also great patrons of art, as Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, the theme became quite popular for landscape painting.
The precipitous descent into the valley combined with foreground detail- gypsies selling farm tools- exemplifies the startling contrasts found in later 16th-century landscapes by Lucas van Valkenborch. However, the painting technique is that of Martin Rykaert, a 17th-century painter who derived many subjects from his predecessors.