Not very much is known about Herri met de Bles, a Flemish Northern Renaissance and Mannerist painter. He painted in tiny detail fantastical vibrantly coloured worlds that are quite wonderful. He was alive when Europe was mutating from the late Middle Ages of the post classical era to the early modern period. The Columbian Exchange between the Old World and the New World greatly affected almost every society on Earth.
'Met de Bles is known for his inventive "world landscapes," vast panoramas seen from an elevated bird's-eye view, and filled with minute detail. These landscapes usually included a narrative religious scene in the foreground, thereby combining late medieval piety with a new, Renaissance interest in the physical, material world.' Text from here
'Landscape with the Path to Calvary' 1540
'The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah' (c 1526)
Detail of 'The Temptation of St. Anthony' (c 1550-1560)
