Paul Bril, Wenzel Cobergher, Jacob Frankaert I, Willem I van Nieulandt y los ermitaños de Pedro de Toledo, V marqués de Villafranca

In February 1601, Don Pedro de Toledo, fifth marquis of Villafranca, contracted in Rome the Flemish painters Paul Bril, Wenzel Cobergher, Willem I van Nieulandt and Jacob Frankaert to carry out two large series of paintings, one of eremites and another one of «Huomini Illustri». This article explains that thirty paintings belonging to the series of the anchorites remain in the La Anunciada Monastery of Villafranca del Bierzo and follows the story of their making and arrival to Spain. The author studies the works in relation to the context of Paul Bril’s conception of landscape in the final years of the sixteenth Century.