Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition

BRIL, PAUL

(1554-1626), Flemish painter, was born at Antwerp. The success of his elder brother Matthew (1550-1584) in the Vatican induced him to go to Rome to live. On the death of Matthew, Paul, who far surpassed him as an artist, succeeded to his pensions and employments. He painted landscapes with a depth of chiaroscuro then little practised in Italy, and introduced into them figures well drawn and finely coloured. One of his best compositions is the "Martyrdom of St Clement," in the Sala Clementina of the Vatican.