Curatorial Narrative The Battle of Issus, or possibly Ipsus, executed in 1611 by Frederik Van Valckenborch, occupies a unique position within the trajectory of Northern European painting. Situated at the confluence of Renaissance and Baroque currents, this work embodies the artist’s facility with the fine brushwork characteristic of the former style, while exhibiting the dramatic intensity of the latter. The subject matter, conventionally regarded as botanical, appears instead as an allegorical landscape, imbued with a sense of atmospheric heaviness that pervades the entire canvas.Upon enlargement to 57×44 inches, this work’s chromatic structure assumes a richly textured quality, with the interplay between blues, browns, and reds yielding a spatial rhythm that is both dynamic and introspective. The atmospheric weight of the painting is further accentuated by the artist’s masterful deployment of chiaroscuro, which imbues the composit