RKD STUDIES

Lievens was in Antwerp from 1635 to 1644. Here too, a number of the very best Venetian paintings could be seen. Unlike in London, the art milieu in Antwerp was not dominated by royalty and aristocrats, but by the wealthy middle class. The Twelve Years’ Truce (1609–1621) brought prosperity which enabled the cultivated bourgeois to buy paintings, thus contributing to the resurgence of the arts in Antwerp in the 17th century. In the 16th century, most collections in Antwerp exclusively consisted of Netherlandish paintings.¹ Peter Paul Rubens’ (1577–1640) varied collection was therefore a novelty and served as a catalyst for the change in preference among Antwerp connoisseurs towards ancient and Italian art. Rubens’ ardour for Italian pictures was initially exclusively shared by other artists such as van Dyck² and when Lievens moved to Antwerp in 1635, the collections of these two revered painters were by far the most extensive source on Italian art.³

Rubens’ collection consisted of a variety of tastes, eras and regions.⁴ Of his group of Italian paintings, all but two were by 16th-century Venetian masters, 11 of which were paintings and oil sketches by Titian.⁵ Rubens owned Titian’s marvellous Self-Portrait [11], additionally he also had four portraits by Tintoretto, such as the Young Man from the Renialme Family [12] and three by Veronese, one of which was Livia Colonna with a little dog [13]. This group was supplemented by Rubens’ own copies of Titian [14] and other Venetians.⁶ Rubens’ collection of paintings was a remarkable store of knowledge and information, from which he drew inspiration for his own work. Rubens is known to have opened his collection to learned men, because he believed that discussing its contents with like-minded people was an integral part of collecting.⁷ Rubens’ approach to further the art historical debate along with open access makes it hard to imagine that Lievens would not have had the opportunity to view these great works.

11
Tiziano
Self-portrait of Tiziano (c. 1488-1576), c. 1562
Madrid (city, Spain), Museo Nacional del Prado

It is well known that Anthony van Dyck found great inspiration in Titian’s work, and his collection, referred to as ‘Cabinet de Titien’, is indicative of this fact.⁸ Van Dyck had no fewer than 19 original Titians, which he hung in one room together as a remarkable annexe to his studio. Most of these were portraits, followed by four of van Dyck’s copies after Titian, and he also owned works by Tintoretto and Jacopo Palma Vecchio (1480–1528).⁹ Van Dyck purchased many of these paintings in Italy, brought his collection to Antwerp in 1627 and only shipped his paintings to London late in 1635, several months after Lievens’ arrival in Antwerp.¹⁰ Considering that van Dyck and Lievens were well acquainted — with van Dyck’s move to the Southern Netherlands in 1634 likely inspiring Lievens to do the same — the two artists probably engaged socially when they were in the same city.¹¹ Reconstructing the full scope of van Dyck’s collection is particularly difficult since a major part of his cabinet was smuggled from London to Flanders in 1645. As a result, only a handful of paintings can be identified with certainty,¹² one of which was the impressive Perseus and Andromeda [15] from Titian’s Poesie series, the famous group of mythological scenes and allegories with strong erotic elements that were groundbreaking in the depiction of the female nude.¹³

In addition to these two major collections, Antwerp was home to many other ‘konstkabinetten’ of wealthy individuals, who imitated princely collectors, yet these collections are often lacking in documentation and are under-researched. Two such Antwerp merchants were Johannes and Jacob Van Veerle, who traded in both their home town and Venice. Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658) described their collection in his Le Maraviglie dell’ Arte (1648) and a number of their paintings were etched by Wenzel Hollar (1607–1677).¹⁴ Ridolfi also writes of Jacomo de Cachiopin (1578–1642), a scion of an old Spanish family who lived and collected in Venice. He was an important patron of Anthony van Dyck and amassed an impressive collection of old and contemporary Netherlandish artists, comprising six paintings attributed to Titian, eight by Tintoretto and others by Andrea Schiavone (1500/15–1563) and Veronese.¹⁵ Rubens and van Dyck were certainly interested in such a collection and are known to have conversed with the owner.¹⁶ It is not certain whether Lievens would have seen any of these ‘konstcabinetten’, yet since they were less exclusive than many of the collections in London, it is safe to assume that Lievens would have been granted access if he requested to do so. Around 1650, the dissolution of Charles I’s great collection made Italian painting and ancient sculpture more accessible to the Antwerp market,¹⁷ and given the presence of a few exceptional collections and the general culture of debating art amongst collectors, artists, and art lovers alike, Lievens had the opportunity to view Venetian masterworks during his time in Antwerp.

14
Peter Paul Rubens after Tiziano
Portrait of Marchesa Isabella d' Este (1474-1539), c. 1605
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1534

15
Tiziano
Perseus and Andromeda, 1554-1556
London (England), Wallace Collection, inv./cat.nr. P11