RKD STUDIES

Volume 3, page 60-69

... ed in Venice (whether it was his intention to leave for home in the end, I do not know) around the time Govert van der Leeuw, also known as the Lione was there, who helped carry him to earth in November of 1678. Johannes Glauber was also there, who also told me that Karel painted in Venice with a Dutch merchant, became ill but recovered after a short while, but finally overloaded his stomach with too much food and died. He was buried in the Catholic fashion (though Reformed), wrapped in a habit. It is remarkable that there were at the same time three masters in art who were baptised Karel, namely Carlo Maratta...

... than the afore-mentioned. I have seen a fairly large piece by him full of a bustle of figures which is very well arranged and dressed in farmer’s fashion and also cleverly grouped. Also airily and loosely brushed were the background and trees, so that ...

... beautiful,Thus I was, when I was with Paris and Adonis.And in the second he addresses the maker thus:How Buns! Back to painting Venus?Don’t let Venus mess wi...

... on the rocks, so naturally thinly and translucently that it appeared to be nothing other than natural water. He was able to depict...

... g over her sins. The supplemental work depicted a cliff which he painted in black and white and then evenly hatched it with brown yellow madder and Spanish green, so that it appeared very natural and powerful [3]. And he kept that same way of handling for his fruit pieces, of which he made many that found ready buyers or were sold, so that he would have gathered a stiff purse with them if such a method had long prevailed. But this was not the case, since colourful paintings again changed to drab ones and he was therefore taken for a fraud. Our Amstelstroom writer [= Joannis Antonides van der Goes] says about...

Volume 3, page 50-59

... red into the city by way of the market square, which crawled with people who shouted after them, sorcerers, sorcerers, up to ...

... ason: People of great worth have not always had time on their side. The affairs of the world know their tides and in addition, that which is most excellent is subservient to the inconstancy and fickleness of fortune.Boasters and braggarts have always been able to push their way ahead of others into the favour of people while others sigh. Fancy talkers know, asfather Abraham says, how to fill the cellar of their stomachs so well that they ought to be shored up with struts....

... ing stretched by so many; and the saying of Van Mander, Turnips are good when they are well-stewed, so twisted out of its true meaning that it may well be of service if an Interpretation, or closer explanation of it were given.It is something quite different when a painter places in his work and sells as his own discovery figures gathered from paintings, drawings, and prints by other masters. It is something else to help oneself to the elegance of the figures, costumes, and attributes of others, so that...

... inter is free to steal a figure here, a leg, or arm etc. there, and thus compose an assemblage of what is scraped together, but, on the contrary, that which is stolen must be welded, reshaped, stewed in the mind as in a pot and prepared and served up with the sauce of intellect, so that it will be tasty, as is validated by this example.A scene in which each part was entirely stolen was put before the great Michelangelo to pass judgement on it. But the would-be m...

... t a group of onlookers, talking away in funny fool's costume and masked [3]. This small work is skilfully drawn, inventively arranged and clearly painted. I have also seen various depictions of Christ on the cross by him which were artfully drawn, naturally coloured and boldly painted, and in which the brown and light were observed to satisfaction. Painters paint shadows so that what they wish to emphasize stands out with stronger light, professor Petrus Francius says very aptly, for a painter demonstrates his intellect by th...

... rything has been undone by his creations’s hand.I am mistaken, alas! I am mistaken. It is only paint that I see represented.The cloud which obscures the light has me go astray: no:Jardin has fooled me by the art of his brush.But commendable deceit has never suffered punishment.Here he blows life into dead paints through his spirit.My soul has a desire to often enter this Church.Here they preach, with the brush, how Christ before dying,Prays to his father, that those who threaten his life,May be freed from their sin. Thus...

Volume 3, page 10-19

... ld gentleman made mock of her and asked whether he would give her that much money for it? Who answered yes, and more, but he charged her to take it to the most important art-loving gentlemen, which ...

... reading, a small statue of Christ who measures his cross, and Joseph in the distance at his workbench, which has remained incomplete. The figure of the woman is dressed in celadon coloured linen so artfully and broadly pleated that one can see nothing more beautiful [1].He would have had 1,500 guilders from the Marquis de Bethune [= François Gaston de Béthune, marquis ...

... he was serious, said: We shall think about it in due time, and look around for a suitable object. There is no need said Jan, I have already spared you the trouble, I already have one, our Griet is a plump and comely girl whom I will marry, and she is already with child. His father, see...

... here enough life in the brewery now? Though she did not feel much like it, she still could not keep herself from laughing at his comical act.Then he took refuge in the brush. The first thing that he made was an emblematic image of his corrupt household. The room lay in disarray beyond order, the dog slobbered from the pot, the cat walked off with the bacon, the children rolled about unrestrained on the floor, ma took it easy in a chair and looked on this activity, and for a joke he had painted himself in it, with a rummer in the hand, and a monkey on the mantelshelf who peeked at all of this with a long sno...

... pponent sitting opposite him, and who looks the image of villainy. Next to her sits a painted little whore who already basks in the certain profit that will follow at the end of the game. In addition the room and the furnishings are inventively arrayed, just as the carpet, which lies on the table, is painted in detail. But he did not get as much for it as people are now prepared to pay. Still he was always satisfied.--------Through bending of the body, grimaces and strange jumpsTo express as if with the aid of human tongues.This serves for the education of painting youths so that they get used to impressing a fixed idea of all the body’s movements which originate from the motions of the soul, by which they can have their images look as if speakin...

... thout laughing.Finally I still have this to say, that he thoroughly understood the distinctions between people, of which we have spoken more broadly elsewhere, because I have seen scenes by him in which gentlemen and farmers were depicted together, but it was almost to be seen from the way of standing and the making of movements or gestures, without paying heed to the clothing, who was a farmer and who a gentleman. A well-bred man (the saying goes) stands on one, a farmer on two legs. Because of the elegance that this observation brings to art, Horace also introduced it as one of his rules for playwrights. Hear what his translator [= Andries Pels] says:...

... erson in his own natural capacity, in all his actions, in which respect I cannot point youthful painters for a concept of the same, to more competent examples than the brushwork of our Jan Steen.The reader has already seen a commendable list of his art works unroll for which three digits per hundred is now paid more than when he lived.It happened that he sold a piece of painting and had received some gold for it. His wife really wanted him to hand it over, but he sailed off to the tavern with it, drank up part of it and gambled away the rest, and...

Volume 2, page 340-349

... h wide steps.Aristotle agrees with this when he says: Three things are needed to arrive at knowledge: nature, instruction and practice, and unless practice joins nature and instruction no fruit is to be expected.Finally (nothing ventured, nothing gained) I must refer the cowardly spirits to the donkey and apply these lines to them.Youths, who live thoughtlessly;And never crave wisdom;Nor feel their spirit raised,To imitate nobler spirits:Observe its image in paint...

... where Old Age arrived in Amsterdam, accompanied by Plenty, by the same poet.Here they come to Amsterdam, out of need to beg for assistance:For each finds her lap cared for by plenty.He who’s need is discovered by ‘t Y, will not lack for hearth or food.Her disposition mild in nature, which meets everyone with aid,Will be treated most mildly by heaven.Who helps the old and poor will in return be blessed by God....

... open?The sweet tooth fears no close watch,Metal gate, nor deep moat.He comes in dripping from above,But finds nothing but paint and canvas,And she the appearance of red discs:Thus let the virgin ply her trade,Thus art is too alert for a God.After him follows FRANS POST, contemporary of the commendable landscape painter Pieter de...

... ived in Dordrecht next to the Groothoofdspoort, above the Ossenhoofd, where he also died.After him follows PIETER FRIS, alias Good Natured. This bent name, which was conferred on him in Rome, being only 17 years old, arose on the occasion of a certain emblematic apparatus at his induction or consecration into the society. His bent brothers had (as they are usually accustomed to show something that is strange, or farcical) pasted coloured paper together in tube like fashion, a little wider at the front and therefore narrowing at the end, so that bent in a circle it resembled a snake...

... ll you then help build art,To common fame, and inOur bent keep quietYou have Good- naturedly survivedOur bent initiation without fearOn your face there wasNot even the least to be readWhat looked like any fear.Which showed your great heartThus praised by one and all,And are now greeted as brother,By your bent-name, which shall beAnd also remain, Good Natured....

... d according to their natural meaning. We therefore also needed to invent a sham battle so as not to separate some names from their meaning or introduce them where they do not belong.What we will show did not happen in one hour, it transpired at different times, and we have followed the example of the stage poets who combine in one act distinct matters that lead to the same goal.Blonde (1) Phoebus greatly clad,Had gilded the (2) Horizon--------(1) Franciscus de Wit, histor...

... and soldier painter. (11) Jacques Vaillant. (12) Daniël Mijtens II, commendable painter from The Hague, Cornelis van Ryssen, who was in Rome for his baptismal meal, composed this verse about it.Facades grace buildings.Beautiful banners grace ships,Head decoration beautifies womenThe pink blush graces the lips,And the cheeks, the clothes as wellAre made handsome by their colours,Thus you become to your honourOur brightly coloured MAGPIE....

Volume 2, page 330-339

... he thought it good to introduce him to the King to that end, as happened. The king then gave the order to summon him from Brussels to Paris.Van der Meulen, who now saw that Fortune nodded at him from afar, broke up from Brussels with his household and entered the service of the King, who granted him 2,000 crowns annually and a free dwelling in Gobelins [= Paris]. In addition the King paid for his expenses when he followed the army. He was an eyewitness to most of the conquêtes or conquests of cities and othe...

... think of any subterfuge to escape her intention without incurring the hatred of Le Brun (which he feared). Thus he agreed (out of necessity) to a second marriage to ingratiate himself more closely with L...

... f necessitated to return to Rome in the year 1634.By him have come out in print the histories of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Il Pastor Fido or married shepherd, as well as the Passion or suffering of Christ in 24 quarter plates artfully etched by Melchior Küsel I of Augsburg, and also various prospects of Roman buildings, palaces, pleasure courts and wells decorated by a multitude of figures which, though small, could all be recognized by sex or own costumes or dress....

... amongst which may be found some that are executed in such a way that the texture of the skin is observed after life. But when the preference of art lovers for still life and flower pieces increased and especially Jan Davidsz. de Heem was making hay with them, he let himself be advised to take up flower and fruit painting, at which he would have succeeded if he had not been so slow. He answered his friends, who urged him on to greater diligence, that he would apply himself more if he were married. His eye fell on Cornelia Spaeroogh, the daughter of Harmen Claesz Spaeroogh in the...

... ctices today.Worn out, Kick later again came to live in Amsterdam, where he also died in the year 1675.At the end for our last digression, with the conclusion of our first volume, we promised the reader that we would put to the test what instruction can achieve for those who possess a low spirit and whether, spurred on by distinguished examples, they may be made competent for great undertakings in art. That will now be the target at which we will take aim.It is essential and also customary that youths may be led by the bridle of upbringing to such an end as parents or guardians judge may deem be best and most useful....

... e took (says Plutarch in his book about Education) two young dogs from one nest and raised one of them for the hunt and the other for the kitchen. He then addressed the Lacedemonians thus: oh Lacedemonians! It is moral lessons and upbringing that make for virtue, and I will demonstrate this. Hereupon he had a rin...

... t to work with little progress.Both these sayings presuppose a suitable subject, meaning one who possesses a fertile spirit and reason and says that in such a one the examples and acts of others are seeds of acuity that promise a bounteous harvest and which combined with nature, passion and inclination can achieve wonders. By which expression the second member of our proposition is powerfully answered, with rejection of those who possess a low spirit, as incapable of great undertakings in art....

Volume 2, page 320-329

... g him (we shall not mention his name) painfully in the eye, since he had for many years been living at the court as painter. He developed a hatred for De Baen but did not show it in the least, but instead feigned to be his friend. De Baen believed this, being good-hearted, and therefore showed him many signs of his friendship. But he bottled up his hatred until it vented itself in a damned resolution, and he made plans to murder him. For this purpose he came to The Hague, but found no occasion to carry this out in the evening or at night, seeing that De Baen always went about with his dog, on which he relied.The murderous man decided to do it...

... the most learned, learnedness then being as highly esteemed as money today, was stimulated by ambition and this ambition spurred him on to desire and alertness. And when the saying--------* Antenos was the son of Venus. Posirio thus relates the occasion or cause of his being borne by her: Venus had given birth to Cupid, but when the boy remained small and did not grow, she asked the oracle for advice, which answered that as long as Cupid was alone he would become no bigger. Antenos once born grew up and became big. Cupid seeing this did not tolerate that he outgrew him. If Antenos walked ahead of him, he flapped his wings and boldly walked behind him, etc....

... the art of painting or other sciences. Which is why, as of old, the saying: Not everyone is so fortunate as to be allowed to visit Corinth, was in use amongst the Greeks. Many who had parents who understood this were raised with the arts and sciences as if they were baby food (as the saying goes), and they found the trail cleared to proceed with big strides to their fame and fortune, which others had to find by nasty roundabout routes. This fortune was apportioned to the phoenix of marine painters,WILLEM van de VELDE II. He was born in Amsterdam [= Leiden] in the year 1633 and inclined to art from his youth on, he was encouraged in it and instructe...

... ...

... hat apply to her, but I have discovered none about her father Simon de V...

... t someone who is that beautiful in that part of art will turn up to illuminate the school of Pictura with his light of art.Now follows the commendable painter FREDERIK de MOUCHERON, born in Emden in the year 1633. Inclined to art by nature from a young age on and taught the rudiments of the art of drawing, he chose to ...

... uidly hatched with the point of the brush, so that the painter Bronckhorst declared to me he had never seen better. But this lad died in the prime of his life, ...

Volume 2, page 310-319

... signed by the Duke of Luxembourg [= François-Henri de Montmorency], then Governor of Utrecht, as well as a passe-partout signed by Commander Stoupa [= Jean-Pierre Stoppa], so that he might come to Zeist near Utrecht, to paint the King's Portrait, with the promise that he would enjoy a large payment for it, which would be paid to him in The Hague, for which two gentlemen would act as guarantors, and also that he would be conducted back without any danger. De Baen certainly felt himself honoured by this,...

... others the Ruler of Waldeck [= Georg Friedrich von Waldeck], who did assure him of a good reception and compensation but reminded him of what we described above, of falling under dark suspicion with the rash rabble in view of the times, and all the more because he was captain of the civic guard of his city quarter. So he turned down the Duke of Luxembourg, and stayed home. The King of France remembered him, however, as being the best portrait painter in the Netherlands; indeed, the King later wanted to have his Ambassador, called d'Avaux [= Jean-Antoine de Mesmes], who was charged with buying art for him, to avail himself of his advice and judgement.He also enjoyed much honour and advantage from...

... sell it as long as he lived (no matter how often requested). He also emphatically ordered his children (lying on his sick bed) not to sell it except to the court of Brandenburg. Accordingly it was not until 1702 (when the King of Prussia was in The Hague, De Baen having died that same year) that his daughter presented it to the king and sold it for four hundred rixdollars.He made a lot of money in his day through the practice of art, but he also lived munificently off it, and all who came to visit him were welcome. A new hat (this was his expression) and one additional cask of wine per year make many good friends. He did get friends this way, but mostly pot lickers or...

... to the art of painting) if the one who practised the most came closest to the bull's-eye, or the target at which everyone shoots with the arrow of his cleverness. This instils additional zeal in those whose arrows fall short of the mark (if the former possess a noble spirit), and they feel spurred on to continue that practice. So should the practitioners of art also conduct themselves amongst each other, but the moment that envy arises on account of this, it is proof of a malevolent disposition, which begrudges in others what ought to be praised.This manifests itself mostly in cowards and...

... was still in progress but having no opportunity to do so because no one was admitted there, because they were not good friends, invented a ruse. He dressed up in farmer’s garb and hung around the door until he found an opportunity to encounter a servant who opened the door, whom he then addressed thus, in farmer’s fashion: I have heard that Raphael is painting a sea goddess in one of the rooms of this palace. I have never seen any such thing and therefore ask that I may see it once, adding to this: Then I can tell my children, coming home, that I have seen something unusual...

... improve them with his artful brush where they were wanting. But he refused this, saying: that he considered these pieces to be painted divinely according to art and that he who would improve on them would hav...

Volume 2, page 270-279

... 4 an entryway to a subterranean chapel or burying place was found, because they discovered skeletons and skulls. 2. The elevated place in which the apostle is to have preache...

... of men who fought for the Republic, such as Marcantonio Bragadin, who on Cypress in 1570, being besieged by the Turks, answered to the attackers of the city that he would sooner be flayed, which is also what happened to him. When he fell into their...

... distance [7]. Here there were hundreds of figures distributed on the dunes and beach in groups, and numerous carriages to be seen, each individually and skilfully drawn and painted. His way of painting resembled that of Karel du Jardin in colour, and the deep prospects, as if covered by a blue veil, closely resembled the handling of Johannes Lingelbach, but usually more detailed. Elsewhere I have seen a piece by him with horses and figures that was very similar to Philips Wouwerman, so that he may be ranked with the most commendable painters of The Netherla...

... ak), he would take a trip to refresh his spirits a little. Thus he once undertook a pleasure trip to Antwerp to see the sublime brushwork of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck and other highflyers, as well as to visit the artists. This is something that I deliberately mention, because something remarkable occurred on that journey. In point of fact, having arrived in Antwerp, he went to visit this and that painter, including the renowned Jacob Jordaens I. Having arrived at the house, he was let in by a boy who had him go to a side room in which much art by outstanding masters hung on the wall.While he was awaiting the arr...

... at he was a portrait painter. Upon which Jordaens clasped his hands together, and said, Brother I take pity on you, are you one of those martyrs? In view of those depressing criticisms and slavish submission to every preference with which such painters often have to content themselves. Maes had already encountered this in his own time. A certain lady (whose name I will not mention here) who was far from the most beautiful, had her portrait painted by him, which he drew just as it was, with all the pox scars and wrinkles. Getting up she looked as unpleasant as could be, saying to him: What the devil, Maes, what kind o...

... in a history, whether from the Bible or from ancient history, in which animals or landscapes were required. He thereby made a lot of money but also put a lot away, and therefore showed a living example to hi...

Volume 2, page 240-249

... russia, the Elector of Saxony, and various German princes did not only buy his art works but also came to visit him in person in Amsterdam to make their own choice from what he had made. Just as he also had the honour that Peter I, the great Tsar of Muscovia not only came to visit him (while he stayed here for some time) but also desired that our Bakhuizen draw various types of ships in his presence. And his majesty drew some ships on paper at the same time (being especially inclined to learn the fundamentals of ship building). To his knowledge of naval architecture and to the respect that foreign art lovers have for his brushwork, the top poet David van Hoogstrat...

... eaths,And praise you to heaven’s vaults,Where your pen, so unsullied,So precise, so refined, fills creation.His zeal for art stayed with him to the end of his life, although he was exceptionally often plagued by the stone or gravel, which he took for a harbinger that had come to foretell his departure, which is why he prepared himself so well for that great journey and accepted it with such...

... t let the most priceless of allSlip away from you carelessly:It is Time, which quickly glides:Never will he return.Oh! How few is the number,Who measure the hours as they pass!A case that is rare, and of which I know of no other instance, remains for me to mention. As it is customary in Amsterdam that those who have accompanied the deceased to the interment should be offered a glass of wine and that this be supplied by the survivors, he had taken the care and arrangements for this on himself....

... ing of his life, it remains to say that he etched plates under the title of De Y Stroom en Zeegegezichten etc. [= The Y River, and Sea prospects] in the 71st year of his old age [3-4]. He also always had an unusual predilection for poetry and thus maintained friendships with the most esteemed poets of his time, especially with Misters Petrus Francius, Joan van Broekhuizen, Joannes Antonides van der Goes and David van Hoogstraten...

... giftFrom Venus herself, risen from the sea.We have placed his portrait at the top of Plate I and crowned the decorative frame with a ship, with a writing pen below.We have already brought a group of alert men in art on stage, and such who out of a knowledgeable concept have addressed the most important matters in art works and have also directed most of their art and energy to introduce the attributes fittingly according to reason and dedicated them as examples for the youthful painter (to follow this praiseworthy path). Now it...

... e. But instead of paying attention to these facts he had depicted the air filled with mists and clouds and storm winds. The latter he had wished to express by a grain mill that he had placed on the city walls, bent down at the four ends of the sails. In addition he had supplied the meadows with a host of cattle and trees rendered as green as in the first days of May. It is well-observed by our author as proof that the painter will not even have read the historical description in advance, at least not paying attention to this saying of the prophet: as truly as the Lord God of Israel lives, before whose face I stand, should dew or rain fall on the la...

... cension of Mary, which is no more fitting than if one were to depict the penitential preacher Jonah under the tree of the Ninevites wearing a jabot and cloak as are now used by such folks. But that someone has depicted tonsured brothers with the Ascension of Mary may be excused when one considers that such scenes were made for clerics who probably wanted it that way and that such people are prone only to talking and will not tolerate contradict...

... . Most of us sink into the grave when half way. Only few reach the top. Yes, what do I say, no one has ever come so far as to master art in all its perfection. Some have made amazing progress in it, but no one has ever been immaculately perfect and believe me, it will never happen that we encounter someone who is perfect in all parts of art. Raphael, whose art of the brush is honoured as divine, also has his failings but so many fewer that he is praised all the more, which is why he still keeps his fame as...

Volume 2, page 180-189

... ,And Priam, who depressed and helpless, in front of the city,Beseeched the proud enemy with folded hands.He also found himself amongst all those Greek men,And among the soldiers that came to defend TroyFrom the East, and saw here Agamemnon, the Ethiopian,With all his standards.Spurred on by these praiseworthy examples, we have in the service of art practitioners introduced the opposite print depiction with heads of old philosophers and numismatic portraits of world rulers (treated in the best known way).*--------* Best known. The printed medals that one stil...

... ow; and the French, too, have now approached correct depiction much more closely than before, but no one (nor I, intentionally) has depicted them as they ought to be depicted. But what constitutes the correct illustration, and what manner of treatment needs be used with respect to them, will remain unspoken until I have the opportunity to manage a large publication, when I shall be able to argue clearly that no one has ever considered what should be observed for the correct depiction of medals.A bird catcher (says Baltasar Gracián) tosses no more seed than is needed to catch his bird....

... ut of a window, looking up and with his own features, by which he is known amongst numismatists.Or does he desire tragic material and wish, for example,--------* Forbearance. It consisted of his only saying to her in return, without any anger or cursing: I had expected that a shower would follow on a storm of abuse. And if anyone, surprised by this, asked him how he could possibly bear this? He answered: can you prevent the cackling of the fowl that cross the yard?...

... aim and play the part of instructor of reason, let him depict Reason¶ in the guise of a woman in Amazon’s dress and have her make the youth view the world attentively in a mirror of caution to learn truly to under...

... o water.The double coin portraits of Marc Anthony and Cleopatra can serve a painter when he wants to depict her sitting under a splendid ship’s pavilion, stitched with slik and gold, anchored off the coast of Sicily, where Anthony welcomes her in the evening hour, or when sitting at the table, she drinks down that precious pearl (an example of drunken waste) in honour of he...

... ear 1627. The products of his inclination showed early on that he was born to become a painter. Jacob van Campen, architect of the city hall of Amsterdam, who was a friend of his father and associated with him, often went to visit him when he was in his home at Randenbroek near Amersfoort and on those occasions saw the products of Matthias’ intellect. He offered his service to the youth out of his fondness for art, taught him the fundaments of art and brought him so far by his teaching in a time of six years that he could proceed on his own wings. Some young lads who got wanderlust in their heads, of which Otto Marseus van Schrieck was one, encouraged others, including our Matthias and Hendrik Graauw,...

... recht and surroundings) he and his household left for Hoorn in North Holland, all the more because he had four daughters and did not want to expose them to danger. He was a man tempered in his passion and good natured, and his daughter, who told me this story, declared that she often cried over his chilled bones when she recalled with what tender love he adored his children. He rarely went to an inn or into company but, when healthy, was busy and diligent at his profession day and night, for the gout plagued him so tremendously that he was often unable to do anything in the way of art for two, three, or more months per year when, as Jan Pietersz. Zomer, broker in art in Amsterdam, who knew him to the last of hi...

... h reed grass, grain stalks, cornflowers, poppies, with the ground decorated with creepers, mushrooms, plantain and other small plants. Here is a frog, there a brightly coloured lizard, yonder a snake hiding in the shadows of the foliage, or possibly a mouse which is gnawing away at some herb or another, in such detail that one would have been a...

... ad done in his day. They were, each individually on a sheet, gathered into a book which is still esteemed and saved in the hands of ...