important representative. This stay in Sacchi's studio may have been instrumental in the artist's evolutions towards the "gran maniera" of painting. Miel worked with Andrea Sacchi on the painting Urban VIII visits the Church of the Gesù (Galleria Barberini, Rome, 1641). It is believed that Sacchi only executed a small portion of the painting himself and that Jan Miel executed the foreground figures after drawings by Sacchi. Old auction catalogues mentioned that Miel contributed the staffage to the landscapes of Claude Lorrain during his stay in Rome, but it has not been possible to attribute the human figures in Lorrain's works to Miel. Later evolution Around 1650 he began to paint less bambocciate and to concentrate on religious paintings for Roman churches executed in a large format. There are a number of works from the 1650s in this more dignified style such as an altarpiece of The Madonna and Child with Saints in the Duomo di Santa Maria della Scala in Chieri dating from 1651. At the same time, Miel also created small paintings with religious subjects. These works were commissioned by eminent patrons from Rome such as the Barberini family. His work also showed a tendency towards classicism as is evidenced by his Dido and Aeneas (musée des beaux-arts de Cambrai). After moving to Turin in 1658 he decorated the royal hunting lodge at Venaria Reale with large-scale hunting scenes (portions of which are now lost). He painted more and more history paintings which demonstrate an intensification of the classical tendencies already present in the religious paintings of the 1650s. Miel also began to study and copy the works of Raphael and Annibale Carracci, just as he had copied the works of Pieter van Laer at the beginning of his career. Prints Miel was also a skilled engraver. He designed the frontispiece for La povertà contenta (Rome, 1650) of Daniello Bartoli and the illustrations for De bello belgico (Rome, 1647) of Famiano Strada. References External links 1599 births 1663 deaths Flemish Baroque painters Flemish genre painters People from East Flanders Court painters Fresco painters Catholic painters