RKD STUDIES

1.2 Going South

... Although there are regular reports of unfortunate events that the travelling artists in question did not or barely survive(d),10 many of those – drowning, a knife wound or disease – could actually happen anywhere, according to artist biographers Van Mander and Houbraken. Before travelling, it was customary to have a will drawn up – after all, anything could happen in a couple of years. They then took the plunge, driven by wanderlust, the urge to further educate themselves professionally, learn languages, see the remains of classical antiquity with their own eyes and gain life experience.11The trip to Italy could usually be made within two months,12 but if an artist also needed to generate income along the way, the journey often took a bit longer. Jan van Bunnick (1654-1727), for example, who had left Utrecht for Germany in the Disaster Year of 1672, took at least three years before he reached Italy, as he found work en route for a longer period, first in Frankfurt and later in Speyer. After wandering around Italy and serving eight years with Count Francesco II d'Este in Modena, he travelled back home through France, armed with a travel pass from the count, exactly reversed to the journey of Willem Schellinks.Not enough research has yet been done on the activity of female artists from the Low Countries,13 let alone their mobility, with a few exceptions.14 There is reason to believe that female artists were less mobile than their male counterparts. Furthermore, in historical migration literature, it is a generally accepted fact that women who did migrate, usually covered shorter distances than men.15 If a woman travelled, it was mostly in a family context, in the company of a husband or brother. Michaelina Wautiers (1604-1689) might have travelled to France, Italy and Spain with her brother Charles.16 Amsterdam-born Diana Glauber (1650-na 1721) is said to have travelled with her brothers Johannes and Johann Gottlieb to France and Italy in the 1670s.17 Interesting are the mentions of a certain Sara from Bruges, who is called Sara di Vanzi (c. 1602-1652) in the Roman records (also called Sara Fiammingo, Sara di Vanci or de Vannis) and who makes quite an independent impression.18 She traded in pigments and was active as an ‘afsetter’ (colourist); she also rented living accommodations to artists and was a washerwoman. In 1629-1630, she lived in Strada Paolina (Babuino), where the painters Hendrik van Houten (Enrico Favalde),19 Marcus Hendricksz. Wouters and Giovanni Gelton lived with her. Presumably by 1647-1648 she was living in Strada Margutta, again as a dealer in pigments ('colorara'), laundress and 'concubina' of the otherwise unknown painter Giovanni Baptista Basali. On 9 March 1652, she was buried in the parish of San Lorenzo in Lucina, piazza del Popolo, presumably aged about 52.Many artists who travelled to Italy were still young and unmarried. Finding a life partner was a good reason to stay in Italy for good and start a family there. Some of them had painting daughters, like, for instance, Valerius van Diependale (1533/44-1599/1600) in Milan, father of Prudentia van Diependale (Profondovalle) (active c. 1590...

9.3 Dark Halos in Sweerts’ Italian Paintings

... A Game of Draughts only one halo emerges in the IRR image, around the little boy in the centre of the composition [12-13].29In the case of A Game of Draughts, MA-XRF scanning was able to visualize additional halos surrounding all figures in the elemental distribution maps of iron, manganese, potassium and lead [14-15]. Each halo seems to have been painted with a slightly different paint mixture, as the signal intensity of the elements differ from halo to halo. All halos contain iron, but only the halo framing the head of the boy pointing towards the door emerges in the lead map, whereas the halo around the head of the boy in the bright red uniform seems comparatively richer in manganese.In A Game of Backgammon, halos can be seen in the lead, iron and copper maps [16-19]. In this painting too, each halo seems to have been painted with a slightly different paint mixture, while microscopic examination indicated that all halos have a greyish colour....

... aintings originating from his Italian period. This indicates that apparently, Sweerts did not need this technique while working in the Low Countries on a double, grey over red ground, suggesting that the dark halo technique may be a way for Sweerts to deal with the typical Italian (reddish) brown ground....

9.2 The Palette of Michael Sweerts

... search is still needed, some preliminary general conclusions can be drawn, which will be discussed here.Sweerts’ palette throughout his career included earth pigments, lead white, vermilion, red and yellow lake pigments, bone black, a copper-based green pigment (perhaps verdigris) and ultramarine. Both during his Italian sojourn and his stay in the Netherlands, Sweerts extensively used earth pigments, such as ochres, umbers and also green earths. In all paintings examined in the current study, a large amount of iron and manganese were found. These elements can be found throughout the paintings. The presence of both elements is not limited to brownish colours only, but iron and manganese are also detected in colours ranging from yellow and red to green. This seems to suggest that Sweerts was able to create a lot of different colours, tones and hues with only earth pigments, a consistent practice throughout his career....

... L maps [2-3]. This suggests that lead-tin-yellow is present in this area.19 This pigment has – so far – not been encountered in Sweerts’ paintings executed in the Low Countries. This seems to suggest that Sweerts only used lead-tin-yellow dur...

... the expensive pigment slightly changed after his return to the Netherlands: he limited his use of ultramarine to small details. While in Italy, he often used ultramarine for rather large or multiple areas in a painting. He reduced his use of ultramarine, by limiting the use of it to small details. Remarkably, Sweerts did not substitute the expensive pigment with a more economical alternative, like smalt. No evidence has been found that he used...

1.3 The Dataset of 1,604 Artists

... s from Rosella Vodret's important 2011 publication (in translation): In search of 'Ghiongrat': studies on Roman parish books (1600-1630), and Laura Bartoni's 2012 publication (in translation): The ways of the artists : dwellings and workshops in Baroque Rome from the registers of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte (1650-1699).32It is still possible to identify names from Hoogewerff's rich 1942 publication that were not previously brought home, which were not recognised by Vodret or Bartoni. In her contribution to this volume, for instance, Maartje Visser was able to trace back the 'Cornelio Denan' cited by Hoogewerff to the Delft painter Cornelis de Man (1621-1706).33 While processing the information in RKDartists, some of the other artists Hoogewerff mentioned could also be identified for the first time. One of them is the aforementioned Antwerp painter Jan Remeeus, whose work was unknown until recently. On 12 February 1645, he witnessed the baptism of a child of the also Antwerp painter Jan van Vilvoorden (1606?-1659) and his Italian wife Francesca Campana, together with the midwife Agnes Sermonetana, Hoogewerff writes.34 Also, the painter 'Edouardo Goedrehevre (Goedehaeve?)' must be identical to the Antwerp painter Eduart van Goedenhuysen (c. 1617-1649), who had been a pupil of Eduard Snayers (1591-after 1661) and became a master in 1635. Previously, it was not known that he had ever been to Italy. After Goedenhuysen suffered an accident and was ill for two days, he died suddenly in the parish of S. Maria Chiesa in the house where he lived in Horto di Napoli, aged 33, on 30 August 1649.35As Gert Jan van der Sman noted in his introduction to this volume, from a 17th-century Italian perspective, there was no sharp distinction between artists who came from the Northern and Southern Netherlands. In contemporary sources, they were both referred to as 'fiamminghi' or 'fiamenghi', regardless of their origin. However, the dataset from RKDartists shows that the majority of Netherlandish Italy-travellers did come from the Southern Netherlands. There were 1,075 of them, while 'only' 641 artists came from the Dutch Republic. In the case of 112 artists, both 'nationalities' had to be assigned because the artists either had been active in both regions of the Low Countries, or because it could not be determined from which of the two Netherlands they originated [10].Due to the processing of 'De Liggeren' in RKDartists, relatively many Southern Netherlandish artists originating from Antwerp appear in the database; of the 1,075 Flemish artists who visited Italy, 307 were born in Antwerp. It is possible that the number of Southern Netherlanders in Italy will become even larger when places like Brussels, Bruges, Mechelen and Ghent will be better processed in the database. The number of Northern Netherlanders in Italy is presumably smaller than the database now indicates, as it is quite possible that many of the artists with 'dual nationality' will turn out to be Southern Netherlandish after all....

10.4 Venetian Nudes in Five Muses on Mount Parnassus

... soecken’ (‘the Muses busy looking up his birth star’). Lievens’ composition showed five of the nine muses sitting on Mount Parnassus and formed a group with two paintings by Caesar van Everdingen (1616/1617–1678): The birth of Frederik Hendrik [21] and Four Muses and Pegasus [22]. The composition in the two muse paintings clearly relate to one another: the slope of Mount Parnassus continues from one painting to the other, the hairstyles and poses of several muses are very alike and both pictures are lit from the front, and slightly to the left.81 Lievens’ work had to be carefully attuned to and complement the neighbouring canvases, van Everdingen’s The birth of Frederik Hendrik and Four Muses and Pegasus.82...

... silience, and softness of the paint surface marked by the brush and evoked by clever handling of malleable pigment.99Although the two muse paintings are twins in terms of subject and composition, the works differ from one another in several pictorial and painterly aspects.100 Van Eikema Hommes and Speleers have already argued that the way Lievens painted The Five Muses was reminiscent of the painting technique of Titian.101 It would be fitting for Lievens to take inspiration from Venetian painters for his large nude painting. The female body has been a central motif in painting since the Renaissance and the realm of classical mythology lent itself perfectly to this pictorial subject. Venus was the most obvious deity to be depicted nude, but the subject of Diana at her bath, accompanied by her court of nymphs, would also become popular in Venetian painting in the early 16th century. Of all the nudes, it is the motif of the reclining female nude that has come to be associated most traditionally with Venetian painting.102 Titian’s Poesie series became the fundamental reference for further nude pictorial representations for his contemporaries and painters in centuries to come, like Rubens, and also Lievens.103As referenced earlier, Lievens likely had numerous opportunities to see some paintings from the revolutionary Poesie series. When comparing Lievens’ painting to some of these, it becomes clear that he wasn’t just inspired by the colour palette and technical aspects, but that he also emulated compositions and poses.104 Rubens had a copy of Titian’s Diana and Callisto in his collection and Titian’s work was well known across Europe through engravings.105 For the figure of the commanding muse Urania, Lievens mirrored the pose of Diana, which makes it likely that Lievens knew this painting from a print [23-24]. Lievens painted the muse seen from the back with an elegant curve connecting her ribs to her hips, creating an inverted s-shape [25]. This same feminine line can be seen on the side of the companion holding the arrows in the foreground of Titian’s painting.106 Since Rubens did not slavishly copy Titian’s painting style, his painting can’t serve as a comparison beyond composition.107 However, it is probable that Lievens saw other nude paintings by Venetian painters, for example the Perseus and Andromeda by Titian [15], also part of the Poesie series, once in the collection of van Dyck, and The Muses by Tintoretto [10], once in the collection of Charles I. By drawing inspiration from Diana and Callisto for the composition, it seems Lievens wished to continue the legacy of the famous Venetian nude, which is affirmed by his technique....

... clever handling of the paint surface.111The dragging of brushes with a small amount of paint seems to have been one of Titian’s techniques for achieving the soft, broken contours that feature in so many of his later works.112 These broken contours were used to achieve further softness and poeselijckheyt, blending or ‘driving out’ the transitions between colours (verdrijven). This term is applied wherever delicate transitions were needed, especially in human skin.113 For Flaying of Marsyas, Titian even smeared the glazes for the flesh colours with his fingers in order to achieve the perfect gentle transitions from light to shade.114 In workshop practice, verdrijven referred to a light, sweeping brush movement to smoothly join separate colour zones and soften the surface appearance of depicted objects.115 This technique can be seen in the face of the muse shown in profile, that has been detailed with a fine contour line and has been fanned out with extreme care [30]. The contours are articulated with further prominent lines, however they hardly ever precisely delineate the figures [31-32].116 The outlines thus consist of several lines running partly parallel, partly over one another.117 The resulting broad, indistinct areas strongly recall the work of the late Titian and other Venetian painters,118 like Tintoretto. Having started as flu...

... e paintings invite the viewer to reach out and touch the nude flesh of the depicted body and the actual surface of the painting, combining the senses of sight and touch into one.129In this particular painting, Lievens’ handling of paint alludes to many of the features that were at the time considered exemplary of the Venetian colorito or the ruwe way of working: visible brushwork; vague forms and contours; and the use of paints of various consistencies. Although Lievens’ image is highly worked, some passages have been left deliberately uncompleted: the two farthermost muses only consist of thin, loose brushstrokes on the transparent brown underpaint. The patchiness of colour and the varied handling of paint shows that Lievens was well acquainted with the style and technique of the Venetian masters.130 For this painting, it seems Lievens was inspired by Venetian art in general and that he referred compositionally and technically to the painting series that made the Venetian nude famous, the Poesie series by Titian. This way, Lievens referred to the tradition of the tactility of the nude. The contrasting handelingen of van Everdingen and Lievens, with disegno enticing the intellect and colorito appealing to lifelikeness and sensuality, make the visitor of the Oranjezaal drawn to Lievens’ nudes and invite them to touch by means of his poeseliche approach....

5.1 Brussels Artists among the Fiamminghi

... ome from a Catholic-Habsburg stronghold in the North, they were predisposed towards Rome’s artistic culture and patronage networks. In the early decades of the 17th century, Brussels experienced an explosion of artistic creativity in the wake of the iconoclastic riots that took place across the region at the end of the 16th century. The Habsburg Archdukes Albert (1559-1621) and Isabella (1566-1633), who had been installed as rulers in 1599, ushered in a period of rebuilding and revitalization that made Brussels an important center of the Counter-Reformation.25 Like their Habsburg predecessors, the Archdukes embraced the visual language of antiquity as an expression of the authority of court and church, and largely employed artists who had worked in Italy or who were knowledgeable in the antique tradition. The appointment of the architect, painter, and antiquarian Wenzel Coebergher (ca. 1560-1634) [3] as their first court artist in 1605 — four years before Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) — was a testament to their ambitions.26 Coebergher, who had spent twenty years in Naples and Rome, became critical in shaping the city’s artistic landscape with a renewed visual language, evident in his most important project for the Archdukes, the pilgrimage church of Scherpenheuvel, which encompassed painting, sculpture, and architecture.This artistic and cultural environment would have significantly impacted the young Duquesnoy, who began his career by training with his father, the sculptor Jérôme Duquesnoy I (ca. 1570-1650), around 1611-1612.27 Jérôme the Elder worked regularly for the archducal court under the auspices of Coebergher on major sculptural commissions both within and outside of the city. Although few of these sculptures survive, the monumental tabernacle in the Church of St. Martin in Aalst [4], just outside of Brussels, for example, demonstrates the scope and character of Jérôme the Elder’s work, as well as his reception of a classicizing idiom.28 By 1618, Duquesnoy had decided to undertake the journey south. He sought the support of the Archdukes, and submitted a petition requesting a financial stipend for two to three years of study in Rome. According to the document, this period would enable him to the study the antique and improve his art (‘pour s’esvertuer davantaige au faict de son art’).29 The sculptor’s devotion to antique sculpture once he settled in the city was indicative of his Brussels training, then stimulated by a direct and ongoing encounter with Rome’s monuments and the dialogues that ensued with like-minded artists.In comparison to Duquesnoy, little is known about Cousin, Spierincks, and Sweerts’ education and training in Brussels. Spierincks registered as a pupil of the painter Michel de Bordeaux (1579-1627) in 1612, and Cousin is documented as an apprentice of Gilles Claessens in 1618.30 No records document Sweerts’ registration in the guild or his artistic training, but the painter Theodoor van Loon (1581/2-1649) [5], who spent his career between Brussels and Rome, was likely a pivotal artistic model for the young painter’s development of a classicizing style and poignant naturalism.31 Despite the lack of documentation on these artists’ early careers, they each would have encountered the distinctive blend of Flemish and Italian traditions that took shape across Brussels’ landscape, and witnessed the ways in which a classicizing visual language served the needs of the Counter-Reformation. Their motivations for traveling south would have been similar to Duquesnoy’s, and they probably realized that Rome held rich potential in the short and long-term.32 These circumstances must have impacted their decision not to return north immediately — or at all. Although Duquesnoy, for instance, was presumably expected to return to the Netherlands in the service of the court, he never did. Whether this decision reflected the changing political circumstances after Albert’s death in 1621, which reverted rule of the Southern Netherlands back to Spain, or resulted from abundant opportunity (or more likely a combination thereof), it gave rise to Duquesnoy’s prominent and respected place within the Roman art world....

3.4 Public Commissions

... e chiaroscuro effect, and, as we have seen him do in other paintings, enriched the scene with narrative details. For example, in The Miracle of the Mule Miel elaborated on the subject by including the delightful detail of the elderly man who, incredulous at what he is seeing, puts on his glasses....

... 6 Miel was put in charge of painting the large fresco of The Crossing of the Red Sea (200 x 500 cm) in the so-called Gallery of Alexander VII in the Quiri...

... is that the commission for the Chieri altarpiece followed swiftly on the tail of Miel’s public debut at San Martino ai Monti, indicating that by 1651 Miel was already considered to be a good history painter. The Chieri painting is particularly important because it is one of the few altarpieces by Miel. From what we know of his public commissions, it is clear that he specialized in the production of frescoes rather than altarpieces. In the context of the competitive art market of 17th-century Rome, being able to work in fresco was a crucial skill required to fulfill a patron’s requests.47 As demonstrated by Miel’s participation in the Quirinal Palace, it was also one of the best ways to take part in important collective decorative schemes.The altarpiece in Chieri is also interesting because it can be read as a summary of Miel’s formation as an artist. In the upper register, the facial features of the saints seem to be idealized and recall the typical figures of Andrea Sacchi, such as the figures in the fresco of The Triumph of Divine Wisdom in the Palazzo Barberini or the altarpiece of St Helen and ...

2.3 The Origins of Dirck de Vries

... arpi (1552–1623), the theologian, scientist and adviser to the government of the Republic of Venice.42 Paolo Sarpi was in the habit of meeting merchants, noblemen and foreigners, German and Flemish Protestants, and travellers in the last decades of the 16th century in the haberdashery shop of the Fleming (or Dutchman) Bernardo Secchini, called La Nave d'Oro. Here the latest news from abroad was exchanged and discussed.Around 1964, D.J. van der Meer came across a certain Tyerck Feyesz (Frisian for Dirck, son of Frederick) in his genealogical research on some families in Leeuwarden at the end of the 16th century. In a deed of 1584 Tyerck Feyesz was referred to as ‘living in Venice’, and in another deed of 1586 as ‘a painter and citizen of Venice’.43 According to Van der Meer, Tyerck Feyesz was the son of Feye Tyercks and Lijsbeth Jansdr. The notarial deed of 1584 related to the sale by Tyerck Feyesz of a house on the Weerd in Leeuwarden; the deed of 1586 concerned the donation of land-rent to the 'teenager' Thomas van Herbayum (later a renowned lawyer), son of his notary Jacob van Herbayum. Tyerck Feyesz received this rent as ‘the sole heir of his grandmother Syts Thalinghs’. This implies that our Dirck de Vries did not have an elder brother called Nicolaus (unless the latter had been disinherited); that his eldest daughter Isabeta was named after her grandmother Lijsbeth and his eldest son Frederick after his grandfather; and also that our painter was reasonably prosperous and generous in spite of having three daughters already.Van der Meer’s findings are mentioned in a dissertation of 2008 by Piet Bakker, who claims without giving a source or reason that Dirck de Vries had left Leeuwarden in 1580. The record in the Status Animarum of 1592–1993 of the holy communion and confirmation of the painter and his wife and the confirmation of the eldest four children show that he was a Catholic. In 1580 the city of Leeuwarden embraced the Protestant faith, and that may have been a reason for him to leave. De Vries’s prosperity can also be deduced from the fact that he was able to marry off four of his five daughters before his death in 1612, providing four dowries (though they may have been modest) and covering the cost of the celebrations. The churches chosen for the weddings were all on islands in the lagoon (San Michele di Murano, San Giorgio Maggiore, San Cristoforo in Isola), which suggests cheerful pageants of gondolas. The elegant clothes of young Frederick in the engraving by Goltzius indicate that he was a well-off boy. The youngest daughter, Giustina, ended up in the Low Countries, probably with her mother Oegenia.44 She became the wife of the Delft flower and still-life painter Joris Gerritsz. van Lier (c. 1589–1656), who had been an apprentice of Karel van Mander II (c. 1579-1623) and had travelled to Paris and Rome in 1611 and 1612.45I would like to conclude with another fishmarket painting by De Vries [19]. In the foreground a fishmonger (who looks strikingly like De Vries and young Frederick) presents his goods. It is cloudy daybreak; the sun is rising above the Lido, the narrow and bare island on the horizon. We see the Palladian churches of San Giorgio Maggiore, with its façade still under construction, and the Zitelle on the Giudecca island. Fishermen are bringing in their catches, and the first buyers appear. We see gondolas with cabins and the old tower of the Punta della Dogana, a little taller than it really was. By current standards the water level in the lagoon is extraordinarily low ......

2.2 The Artist and his Family in Venice

... ena, and 1588 for Fedrigo. I could not find Isabeta or Elena, even after searching in the baptismal registers of all the other parishes. In the registers of Santi Apostoli I found a Fedrigo, baptised on 13 August 1588 [9].14 Only the date of birth and the boy’s name are recorded, no parents or godfathers. Of course it could be any Fedrigo, but it doesn't rule out ours. Fedrigo or Frederick de Vries is quite well known today because of the engraving Hendrick Goltzius made of him in 1597 [10].15 The nine-year-old boy was then living with him in Haarlem as his pupil.16 We see Frederick with Goltzius’s partridge dog from Drenthe. The image was intended as a greeting to his father, ‘Theodorico Frisio Pictori aput Venetos’, from his absent son. We see a cheerful boy, well dressed, playing with the big dog; he is ready to hunt, with his horse (the dog) and his falcon (the pigeon). I wonder how Frederick travelled to Haarlem: was it with his father, his mother, or with someone else?...

... t Luke from 1619 to 1627.19Frederick made his last will in Haarlem on 21 December 1613, and died shortly afterwards at the age of 25.20 In his will he mentions his mother ‘Oegenia’ and his brother, but he doesn’t mention his father, who, as I discovered, died the year before. A hitherto unpublished document shows that Dirck de Vries breathed his last in the parish of San Giovanni Crisostomo on 3 April 1612: ‘Messer Thodero de Frisia Fleming painter 58 years old died of a fever that lasted 20 day...