RKD STUDIES

9.3 De Lairesse : from Amsterdam to the Art Academies in Berlin and Nuremberg

... 6 Both publications were translated into German, as well as French and English.27 In contrast to the initiatives to translate Goeree’s and Beurs’ publications, which originated in The Netherlands, the interest for a German translation of De Lairesse’s texts is directly related to artistic developments in the German states. In both cases, there was however again a direct ‘Dutch connection’....

... the artists in Berlin as motivation for undertaking the translation project.34 By providing a short biography in the foreword, Gericke makes an effort to introduce De Lairesse to the German readers.35 He also explains why he believes there is a need for the treatise (in the German-speaking lands): ‘And because up until now only the praise and perfection of the works of the masters was addressed with grandiloquent rhetoric in all Painters’ Books, but since the ground rules were never covered – even though this is the most necessary and useful part for a student – you will find this done here, as this is the author’s main objective’.36 Like the original text, Gericke’s translation includes some engravings. The shapes and figures depicted on these engravings, accompanying the lessons and propositions, are the same as in the original.37 However, it appears that they were re-done by the translator (or someone else) on the occasion of the translation [15-16].The fact that De Lairesse’s Grondlegginge ter Teekenkonst was selected by Samuel Theodor Gericke to be included in the corpus of texts that was made available to German artists may simply be related to the fact that it had recently been published. Gericke’s and Terwesten’s connections to Dutch artists may also have played a significant role. More importantly, however, the small treatise on the education of artists fitted in very well with the objectives of the new Berlin art academy....

... eed, this seems very probable, as he refers to his efforts to translate the two immense volumes in the foreword of the two editions of the Grundlegung/Anleitung.It is unclear why the Grosses Mahler-Buch was not published in Berlin, like the first German translation of the Grondlegginge. Conceivably, Gericke (or another translator) simply did not find (financial) support for this large project in Berlin. In any case, the fact that the publication of the two translations of De Lairesse’s books took place in Nuremberg cannot be a coincidence. With its well-established art academy and tradition of publishing art literature, Nuremberg was a more than appropriate place for this publication, and Johann Christoph Weigel was an experienced publisher with an indisputably strong interest in art literature. The extent to which the availability of the German translations of De Lairesse’s books within the context of the Nuremberg art academy contributed to the development of local artists is impossible to establish at this point. Nonetheless, their existence – and that of other translations of art literature – should be taken into account when considering the education of Nuremberg painters....

8.3 Utrecht and Tönning

... edikherenstraat). According to art historian Swillens, he made the decor...

... dian, the goldsmith Hans Lambrechts, who then lived in Copenhagen.28 It will come as no surprise that the Utrecht notary who was in charge was a member of the Nijendael family too.29...

... 1645, he is referred to in the archival documents as konstigh beeldhouwer en steenhouwer.32 In this period in Utrecht Cornelis van Mander also settled the heritage of his wife, whose mother, Anthonia Roeloffs, had recently passed away.33...

... he duke and from 1649-1652 he traveled in the area as a representative of the duke.35 It is quite likely that he had to make an inventory of the damage the war had caused to buil...

4.2 Netherlandish Sculptors in Mecklenburg

... 's Wismar workshop for his large-scale project of turning the choir of Güstrow cathedral into the sepulcral shrine for his branch of the family. On its northern wall in the choir were erected three giant monuments. The first one, built circa 1573-1575, is the Borwin epitaph (on the right) [19],11 commemorating the oldest forefather of the dynasty (died 1226) who is said to have been buried in the free-standing sarcophagus in the centre of the cathedral's choir [20]. Its covering stone is also a work by Brandin.12 The second wall monument is the smaller tomb of Dorothea of Denmark underneath the window [21].13 Dorothea, daughter of the Danish king Frederick I, had died in 1575, only two years after her wedding with Duke Christoph. Her sister Elisabeth was the reigning Duke Ulrich's wife and since 1572 their daughter Sophie was queen of Denmark by virtue of her marriage to King Frederick II. The dynastic connection to the kingdom of Denmark was of obvious importance to the duke. The tomb for Dorothea must have been built around 1576. Finally, the most ambitious part of the ensemble was the tomb for Ulrich himself and his first wife Elisabeth of Denmark [22].14 It was begun in 1583 and sports the life-size free-standing, or rather kneeling, statues of the couple which were completed in 1585, shortly before Elizabeth died. After remarrying in 1588, Ulrich had a statue of his second wife, Anna of Pommerania, added to the ensemble, making for a stately procession towards the high altar. The backdrops for the life-size statues in all three monuments by Philip Brandin is formed by extensive family trees that show the genealogy of the ducal family....

... of the convent of Clares in Ribnitz who had died in 1586 [23-24].15 Its design matches the Güstrow monuments. Brandin also profited from the familial ties of the ducal family. In 1590 he moved to Nykøbing in Denmark for building projects of Ulrich's daughter Sophie, then already widow of the King of Denmark. Duke Ulrich payed for these works. Brandin died in Nykøbing in 1594 before his tasks were completed....

3.3 Other Family Networks

... Friedrichsfeld where he lived with his daughter’s family until 1731.26Like the members of the Van der Borcht family, the descendants of Hendrick van Steenwijck I (c. 1550-1603) were painters who moved back and forth between Germany, England and the Netherlands for generations. Hendrick van Steenwijck was born in Kampen but settled in Antwerp even before the Dutch Revolt. During the religious troubles of the 1570s he moved to Aachen but returned when Antwerp was taken over by the rebels – only to leave again after the Habsburg victory in 1585. Van Steenwijck died in Frankfurt 1603 and his son, Hendrik van Steenwijck II (1580-1640) [3], moved back to the Netherlands and worked in London where he met his wife Susanna Gaspoel (after 1602-1664), born in England to refugees from Louvain. After their marriage in the Dutch Reformed Church of London, they settled in The Hague and later in Leiden where Hendrick died in 1649. After her husband’s death, Gaspoel, also a painter, lived in Amsterdam until 1662.27 Similar patterns were typical for members of the early modern Netherlandish diaspora and the merchant families Behaghel, Balde, Van de Walle, De Bary, Campoing, Bartels or Courten continued to relocate between the Rhine-Main area, Holland and England for decades, if not centuries.28...

2.2 Gerson and Geography of Art

... with Holland, he did not account for why it was that this interchange occurred. The quotation from Sir Joshua Reynolds (Painters should go to the Dutch school to learn the art of painting) that he simply set as an epigraph merely demonstrates what he seems to have regarded as a fact, without explaining why this should be so. In fairness, the Prijsvraag did not call on Gerson to answer the question of causality. Nor did it call for further interrogation of the assumption on which it was predicated, that there was a distinctive school of Dutch painting. Yet as we have seen, the issue of national schools is itself problematic.In any case it seems that Gerson may well have been ill disposed to take on such questions even if he had been free to do so. His orientation to documentary research and connoisseurship, admirably demonstrated in his two other important books, monographs on Philpis Koninck and Rembrandt,25 and his edition of Bredius’s Rembrandt,26 were well suited to his long association with the RKD, but they do not correspond to speculation about causes, or sustained research into cultural history or ventures into over-arching questions of historiography, it would seem. Gerson’s method of procedure by attention to individual artists and places is not only characteristic of his monographs but may reflect a point of view that in his Nachruf for Gerson Justus Müller Hofstede characterized as ‘nominalist’.27...

1.5 The Mobility of Artists from the Low Countries in the German Lands

... ame towns, they did so to a different degree. The many different courts attracted predominantly Dutch artists when there were strong political and religious connections with the Northern Netherlands; Flemish artists formed a vast majority at courts which were connected to the Southern Netherlands. The many courts in the region of the Holy Roman Empire generated a vast amount of commissions for artists; according to Brulez, most commissions in Europe (28.5% of all) came from Germany.78 This corresponds with the substantially higher than average percentage of court artists from the Low Countries active in Germany, as retrieved from RKDartists&, which is 25.07%, against the average of 15.3%.79 This percentage of court artists is a little higher in the whole region of Germany, Austria and Bohemia, that is 25.81%, of which artists from the Southern Netherlands have a slightly larger share.80In his ‘Ausbreitung’, Horst Gerson divided the region of Germany, Austria and Bohemia into six areas - Northern Germany, the Rhineland, Central Germany, the Main area, Southern Germany and Austria and Bohemia - each of which he discussed, so to speak, ‘clockwise’, from Northwest to Southeast. All the towns and courts in the illustrated chart bars are covered, including their specific circumstances and major actors and stakeholders. As in Gerson, in my research several artists on the move pop up in different places in the illustrated chart bars....

... 51.It was the Dutch artists who were predominant at the courts in Berlin and Düsseldorf, thanks to the Dutch connections of a few electors. Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg (1620-1688), who had studied in Leiden and married Louise Henriette van Nassau (1627–1667), daughter of Frederik Hendrik van Oranje-Nassau and Amalia van Solms, attracted a series of Dutch artists to his court in Berlin.87 This tradition was continued by his son and successor Friedrich III, the future King Friedrich I von Preußen (1657-1713), who also founded an art academy in 1696 with the deployment of mainly Dutch artists. The Düsseldorf court, especially the one of Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz (1658-1716) was highly popular amongst Dutch artists.88 Some of them were even allowed to work largely in the Netherlands and only visit occasionally; among them was Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), who travelled several times up and down from Amsterdam to Düsseldorf.89 Also the painting gallery the elector assembled during his lifetime was an important attraction for later generations of artists from the Netherlands in the 18th century.The Catholic courts in Prague – especially the court of Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612) – and Munich, on the other hand, employed mainly artists from the Southern Netherlands, more than twice as much artists as from the Northern Netherlands; in the top ten of places to go for Flemish artists in the Holy Roman Empire, Prague and Munich score respectively as number four and five.90...

1.4 Reasons to be Mobile

... #x27;t lack cash.52 Southern Netherlandish travelling artists were even in 64% of the cases motivated by ‘commission’ and in 21.4% by ‘education’ in the findings of Brulez.53 This desire for education could be stimulated by a paying parent, as was the case, for exemple, of the brothers Gilles and Hans van Hemessen, who were sent to Italy by their father Jan van Hemessen (c. 1500-1556/7) in 1551 ‘to learn, to hear and to see’.54 In contrast to Germany, France and England, for example, wandering years – domestic or abroad – were not an obligation in the Netherlands, but a matter of choice, and, in some periods more than in others, of fashion.55Again according to Brulez’s survey, Italian (87.8%), Austrian (71.2%) and artists from the Low Countries were the most often motivated to travel for commissions, while countries like England, Spain and Germany scored highly on the motive of education. These numbers indicate that, generally speaking, Italian artists and, to a lesser extent, the Austrian and Netherlandish ones, were educated in their own country and were attracted abroad by commissions. For English, Spanish and German artists, foreign travel was considered to constitute the completion of their education. Brulez claimed that the Netherlands were an export country of court artists as a result of the attraction of commissions abroad, in combination with a high density of artists at home.56...

... o. This train of thought seems to be in line with traditional art-historical notions. Also Gerson reported many times that long-term employment at some isolated court was not very desirable, as it could be a bit boring and involved other, less creative activities, such as refurbishing the castle, buying artworks for the collection and teaching the monarch’s offspring.59 Many rulers may have had a great interest in art, patronage and collecting, but the larger part of them cared more for hunting and warfare than anything else....

... it was also quite possible that it was the artists’ own initiative to try his luck at another court when it suited him.65 Annual salaries and other arrangements of payments occur in many archives of the financial administration of court households. In addition, it was also quite usual for a monarch to reward an artist with a golden chain and medal with his (or her) portrait, or other precious mementos, not only to honour the artist, but also to advance his own reputation [15-16].66 It is clear that praise and rewards of princes looked good on an artist’s CV, so to speak, and was something to brag about. Plenty of anecdotes about these gifts occur in Van Mander, De Bie and Houbraken and artists who had such a golden chain proudly show it as an attribute in their self-portraits [17-20]. David Beck (1621-1656) [14] even boasted on having received as much as nine of these golden chains!67 The above also indicates that commissions from foreign princes were sought after, not only to earn a living or to enjoy a protected status, but also to gain fame and glory....

... eye while they were travelling, were used for multiple purposes. They could be sold during the trip to cover costs,69 they could be used as sketches for more elaborate drawings to sell during or after the trip, they could be engraved back home and also be used as models for motifs or backgrounds in their paintings.70 In the Dutch Republic, ‘motif collecting’ became a reason for the wanderings of landscapists who were trying to conquer a part of the diversifying art market with new types of remarkable views. By coining such motifs in their paintings, they could create a niche market. In some cases it was enough to have a short look just across the border, for example in the Cleves area, like Bad Bentheim [21].71...

Bibliography A-B

... ische Forschungen 7 (1861), p. 110-127...

... issance in Norddeutschland und Dänemark’, in: A. Unbehaun et al., Die Künste und das Schloß in der frühen Neuzeit, Munich...

... is, Heidelberg 1663...

... rchitecture of the Renaissance in Denmark: Essays published in honour of Hugo Johannsen, Copenhagen 2010...

... nsch sich selbst erkenne / sterbe / und zur Aufferstehung in Christo geführet werde / Dazu uns beydes das Alte und Neue Testament gegeben ist, Frankfurt am Main (Le Blon) 1664...

... oph zu Mecklenburg und seiner Gemahlin Elisabeth von Schweden im Dom zu Schwerin’,...

... ister des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts und ihre Werke in Sachsen, Böhmen und Brandenburg, Vienna etc. 1961...

... r Hering (ed.), Die Ordnung der Natur. Vorträge zu historischen Gärten und Parks in Schleswig-Holstein (=Veröffent...

... isch verval van de schilderkunst in Leiden na 1660’, De Zeventiende Eeuw 27 (2011), no. 2, p. 232-269...

... isegno da Cimabve in qva : per le quali si dimostra come, e per chi le bell' arti di pittura, scultura, e archit...

... iss. University of Hamburg) 1984...

... nseits der Grenzen: französische und deutsche Kunst vom Ancien Regime bis zur Gegenwart, Thomas W. Gaehtgens zum 60. Geburtstag, Cologne 2000,...

... ischen Dynasten’, in: G. Heinrich (ed.), Ein sonderbares Licht in Teutschland. Beiträge zur Geschichte des Großen Kurfürsten v...

... storisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 35 (1984), p. 227-326...

... ches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, and Kulturhistorisches Museum) Osnabrück (Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche) 1998-1999,...

... ll-life painter (unpublished PhD thesis), Pittsburgh 1998...

... istinctie en detaillering, De receptuur van Rachel Ruysch', Kunstschrift 44 (2000), no. 1, p. 4-15...

... issen – Sprache – Literatur, Tübingen 2008...

... Jahrhunderts; oder geographisch-historisch-statistische Beschreibung der Provinz Brandenburg II, Bran...

... de zigtbare natuire. Leersaamelijk den liefhebbers en leerlingen der Ed. Schilderkonst, Amsterdam (Johannes en Gillis Janssonius van Waesberge) 1692...

... ch abgehandelt werden ; Aus dem Holländischen ins Teutsch übergesetzet, Amsterdam (Johannes en Gillis Janssonius van Waesberge) 1693...

... hie Lehmann, Arie Wallert, Erma Hermens and Lisa Wiersma, The big world painted small, Los...

... isender 1400-1800, Groningen 1967...

... Mittheilungen des Vereins für Hamburgische Geschichte 4 (1888), p. 195-196...

... ede van Dijkveld (27 maart 1671 - 28 juli 1672) (Nederlandse Historische Bronnen IX), The Hague1991...

... ischen Königsschlosses, Berlin 1938...

... isches Jahrbuch 14/15 (1939), p. 7-19...

... ises Angermünde 4), 1979...

... Kaufmann, M. North (ed.), Mediating Nederlandish Art and Material Culture in Asia, Amsterda...

... nd die Renaissance im Norden, Lemgo (Weserrenaissance-Museum Schloss Brake) Antwerpen (Konin...

... Geschichte von der Renaissance bis zum Biedermeier dargestellt a...

... und Deutschland. Aspekte der Beziehungen zweier europäischer Länder im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Dessau 2000,...

... -G. Haupt (ed.), Das Ende der Zünfte. Ein europäischer Vergleich, Göttingen 2002, p. 127-153...

... ish art from 1500 to 1800. Essays in honor of Eric Jan Sluijter, Zwolle 2011....

... nd Architektur nach 1800’, Brandenburgische Denkmalpflege 1 (1992), no. 1, p...

... G. de Werd (ed.), So weit der Erdkreis reicht. Johann Moritz von Nassau-...

... l., The Sky is the Limit, Antwerp (Rockoxhuis) 2017, p. 57-71...

... ls.), Hamburg (Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte) 1989...

... isions of Persia. Mapping the Travels of Adam Olearius, Cambridge (Mass.)/London 2003...

... ition of the paintings (3rd revised edition), London 1968...

... Haarlem omstreeks 1572-1630 (diss. Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht)...

... demografische en cultuurhistorische studie, Sint-Niklaas 198...

... ist der Nationen. Italiener-Franzosen-Deutsche, Hamburg 1938...

... is 26 (1972), p. 76-96...

... n: idem, Rembrandt en zijn voorbeelden/Rembrandt and his Sources, Amsterdam (The Rembrandt House Museum) 198...

... eventeenth-century Flemish Creative Communities’, Visuals Resources 2019...

... gital Art History and Formal Art Historical Social Network Research’...

... is, ‘De schilder Gerrit de Buck’, Oud Holland 33 (1915), p. 64...

... mself, London (The National Gallery) The Hague (Mauritshuis) 1999-2000, p. 84-230...

... istory of translators and translating in early modern Europe, Wassenaar (NIAS) 2005...

... nd W. von Koppenfels (eds.), Renaissance go-betweens. Cultural exc...

... isen in Zeiten des Krieges: Wilhelm Pinder als Kulturbotschafter des deutschen Reiches’, in: Bushart/Gasior/J...

... nxloo und zur Geschichte der flämischen Waldlandschaft aus Anlaß e...

... ischer Kunst- und Künstleraustausch, Marburg 2011...

... ischer Maler und die Burg Bentheim im 17. Jahrhundert, Bielefeld 1993...

3.2 Dutch Art and Artists in Florence

... this respect. The first artist we encounter is Jan Bijlevelt or Giovanni Biliverti (1585-1644) [2]6 from Maastricht who, as a pupil of Lodovico Cigoli, became completely Italianised and formed a stylistic community together with Cristoforo Allori and Matteo Rosselli. His father, Jaques Bijlevelt or Jacopo Biliverti (1550-1603) [3] was a respected goldsmith at the Medici court and recognised in his own right.7...

... and Caravaggio. Be that as it may, Caravaggio’s vigorous style has been toned down in the mild light and gentle modelling of his ‘pupil’, thereby making it more palatable to the taste of an aristocratic collector. Even after the artist returned to the north there was no lack of interest in his works at the Florentine court. When Ferdinand II heard in 1628 that six paintings by Honthorst were on offer in Rome, he immediately dispatched an emissary to enquire about the price and other conditions of purchase.12...

... him von Sandrart that Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594/5-1667) was in the employ of the Grand Duke of Florence.14 That must have been just after his departure from Rome, for Poelenburch mentions the etching skills of Jacques Callot who had himself left Florence that same year, 1622, after ...

... ned his works ‘Guill mo van Aelst’.22 The Pitti Gallery has two of his paintings, which Cosimo may have commissioned in Holland in 1668 [14-15].23 Cosimo certainly brought back with him from his travels the two still lifes by Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684) and Maria van Oosterwijck (1630-1693) (now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) [16-17], whose works were also offered to him.24 Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) still worked for the Florentine court in 1711. When Uffenbach visited her in Amsterdam, she was working on two pictures for the Grand Duke [18-19].25...

... he artist [24] (paintings in Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi Gallery). After the death of Elector Johann Wilhelm he painted his widow with her deceased husband on his deathbed at the back of the room [25]. Anna Maria Luisa took the picture back with her to Florence, where she spent the rest of her days.30 Among the other portraitists we can record in Florence were Jacobus de Baen (1673-1700), whose father had already served Cosimo from Amsterdam,31 and Jan van Mieris (1660-1690) [26], who died in Rome when still a young man.32...

... ten to twelve years in Florence (working as a miniaturist?),35 as did the engraver Theodor Vercruys (1671-1739), who was called Teodoro della Croce in Italy.36 He worked in the Grand Duke’s gallery and made engravings not only of Flemish and Italian paintings but also of Rembrandt’s Man with His Hands Folded (Palazzo Pitti) [28].During his sojourn in the Netherlands Cosimo III had endeavoured to acquire portraits of famous men, military commanders and naval heroes such as De Ruyter, Maerten Tromp [29],37 Prince Willem III, Johan Maurits and outstanding scholars like Johann Graevius – works which even today are still scattered in the many corridors and portals of the Uff...

... II will undoubtedly have acquired some of them during his stay in Holland, such as the self-portraits of van der Helst and Koninck, which are dated 1667. It is evident from an exchange of letters that Cosimo preferred a certain type of portrayal: the artist holding a little painting in his hand, as is clear from the portraits of Adriaen van der Werff, Eglon van der Neer, Frans van Mieris and Bartholomeus van der Helst, for example. Other consignments from the Prince of Orange will have enlarged the collection between 1677 and 1684.43...

... A third, late painting by Rembrandt Old Man with His Hands Folded (Hofstede de Groot no. 380) [41] must have been sent to Florence shortly after its completion. It was in the possession of Cosimo’s father, Ferdinand II, and was first listed in an inventory in 1698.46 This splendid collection does not seem to have been accessible to many people. Even Filippo Baldinucci from Florence knew only one of the Rembrandt paintings it contained....

... de de Groot nos. 126, 150, 257) [43-45], all of them works with candlelight illumination which had been popular in Florence since Honthorst’s day. Cosimo was so interested in the artist that he visited Dou’s studio in Leiden.48 Here Cosimo may well have acquired Pieter van Slingelandt’s Soap Bubbles painted in 1661 (Hofstede de Groot no. 123).49...

... is travels. He possessed two superb paintings by Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667) (Hofstede de Groot nos. 147, 181) [46-47], as many as ...

... orth between the Grand Ducal Court and Guasconi, the resident agent in Amsterdam. After repeated admonitions and warnings and a few advances the painting was finally finished in 1675 and dispatched to Florence. All told, Mieris received 2,600 guilders for his efforts! The self-portraits were finished more rapidly. The small one arrived in 1675/6 (Hofstede de Groot no. 242 or 243) [64] and the large one a year later [see above]. Its composition, size and material had been specified in advance so that it would fit into the portrait gallery (Hofstede de Groot no. 241). But when the Grand Duke asked Mieris for a painting of the miraculous deeds performed by St. Francis Xavier in Asia, for which the artist was permitted to use engravings as models, the artist declined the honourable commission because, as he said, he could only paint what he had seen in reality and that did not include any Japanese, Moluccans, etc.54...

... y first paintings van der Werff delivered to Düsseldorf (for the modest sum of 3,000 guilders!). The self-portrait of the artist will have arrived some time later, since it is described in the oldest catalogue of the Düsseldorf Gallery compiled by Karsch (Hofstede de Groot no. 174) [37]. Apart from these works a number of other paintings made t...

... illem van de Velde the Elder and Willem van de Velde the Younger] moved to London it proved more difficult to obtain paintings from them. By a fortunate coincidence Blaeu was able to acquire a painting for Florence in 1674.59 Ludolf Bakhuizen’s (1630-1708) name is also mentioned in the correspondence: Leopold had seen a painting in Florence which cost 900 guilders. This was probably the picture of 1667 which Houbraken also mentions and is now in the Pitti Gallery [72].60...

... r Florentine collections.64 Less information is available on other Dutchmen working in Florence. Nothing is known of the works Cornelis de Man (1621-1706)65 produced here between 1652 and 1655 or of the endeavours of Salomon Rombouts (1655-1700/2), who was in the city in 1690.66 Hendrick Verschuring (1627-1690) is also said to have travelled to Rome via Florence and there will no doubt have been other artists who passed through without leaving any visible traces of their activity....

3.1 The Influence of Dutch Artists in Naples and Sicily

... e Spaniard, Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), this tendency seems to have found a distinctly Romantic, painterly form of expression with strong light-and-dark contrasts which involuntarily give it an Rembrandtesque feel [1].6 ‘Rembrandt-like half-length portraits’ were also a feature of Luca Giordano’s (1634-1705) work, although he clearly had a closer affinity to Rubens, who was well known in Naples [2-4].7 Giovanni Battista Caracciolo (1578-1635) [5],8 on the other hand, was more restrained and reserved in his interpretation of Caravaggism, which underwent further refinement at the hands of Bernardo Cavallino (1616-1656) [6].9 But even from the direction in which these artists moved tenuous links can be established with the Dutch followers of Caravaggio....

... ptly arrested. But why should he not have painted vedute of Naples at that time, the realism of which undoubtedly made a major impression a hundred years before the advent of Van Wittel? From an inventory note we learn that a portraitist by the name of David Baudringien (c. 1581-1650) worked for a while in Naples around 1630,13 but overall portrait painting in Naples appears to have been more Flemish- than Dutch-influenced.14...

... works of his we are familiar with are two mezzotints by Verkolje after two Apostles’ heads in the style of Jusepe de Ribera [13-14]. He cannot possibly have seen the battle scenes by Cornelis Verhuyck, which were sent from Rome to Naples and other places....

... settled in Naples.20 Most were quite happy to go on an outing there from Rome in the company of others. Among the few to spend more time in the city were Willem van Bemmel (1630-1708),21 Gaspar van Wittel [15-16],22 the maritime artists Abraham and Jacobus Storck, and Abraham Willaerts (1603/13-1669) [17], all of whom have already crossed our path.23 They were joined by the little-known Paolo Ganses who is said to have painted moonlit seascapes in Naples around 1700.24 The animal painter Giuseppe Tassoni (1653-1737) [18] may have become acquainted with Berchem’s style, which can be detected in his paintings, through van Bemmel or via some other source....

... meantime the two brothers Giovan Battista (1629-1693)27 and Giuseppe Ruoppolo (died 1710) [20] had developed their own style, drawing on Luca Giordano [21] and the Flemish models....

... eapolitan school, seems to have worked in the same way [25].31As for the poultry scenes by Nicola Maria Recco (active c. 1686-1715) [26] and Domenico Brandi (1684-1736) [27], reference must again be made to Flemish examples for purposes of comparison. Francesco della Cuosta (c. 1639-1723) [28], an artist of whom we know very little, allegedly painted in the style of van Aelst, Weenix and Pieter Boel.32...

... an idea of his style [34-35].38 His paintings and those of his pupil, Giovanni van den Broecke [= Jan-Baptist van den Broeck (died 1665), ed.],39 of whom we know nothing, were included in the collection of Count Ruffo in Messina as early as 1648.40 A large number of drawings from the sketchbook of a trip through Sicily, now in the Berliner Kabinett, have been attributed to Adriaen van der Cabel [36].41 However, since none of the sketches are signed, it is still uncertain whether he did in fact travel to the south....

... was painted on two pieces of canvas sown together. Rembrandt apparently remedied the defects to the satisfaction of his client, though, otherwise he would not have received a final commission. Within the space of just a few years, then, Ruffo had in his possession three of Rembrandt’s most eminent late works. Regrettably, the Homer was severely damaged by fire, although the central figure remained unscathed (Dr. A. Bredius Collection, on loan to the Mauritshuis in The Hague) [38], and the Alexander has been lost, unless he can be deemed the subject of a work by Rembrandt dating to 1655 (sic!) which is now in Glasgow [39].46 From a letter written by Mattia Preti in 1665 we learn that Rembrandt’s works were greatly admired by Roman and Neapolitan artists such as Ciro Ferri, Carlo Maratti, Salvator Rosa and Giacinto Brandi.47 In Messina there was an opportunity to study Rembrandt’s late works in detail, but Ruffo’s collection does not appear to have been well known in Italy. The Florentine art writer, Filippo Baldinucci, who wrote at length about Rembrandt in 1685, knew nothing of the Rembrandt collection in Messina....