2.2 The Artist and his Family in Venice
De Vries was registered in the Guild of St Luke in Venice as ‘Todaro Fiamengo’ [Theodore the Fleming] between 1587 and 1617, but the dates of his membership are based on a later transcription of now lost lists, and we will see that the last date is incorrect.1 A portrait of De Vries was drawn by Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) when Goltzius stayed with him in Venice in 1590 on his way to Rome [3].2 Goltzius visited him again on his return to the north.3
Also of 1590 there is a signed and dated sketch by De Vries showing his family [4]. Above the scene is a dedication to Lodewijk Toeput (c. 1550–1604) known in Italian as Ludovico Pozzoserrato (in translation): ‘Now, my good friend Signor Lodewijk, see, I have no more patience in the world’.4 I discovered the identities of the subjects in the Status Animarum of the years 1592–1593, kept in the Historical Archives of the Venetian Patriarchate. This is a kind of census of residents taken by parish priests from door to door, noting whether the members of a family, in order of importance or age, had received holy communion and confirmation or not. In the Status Animarum of the parish of Santi Apostoli the family of ‘Todaro Pitor’ is recorded: his wife Ugenia, his children Isabeta, Julia, Elena, Fedrigo, Perina and Pierantonio, and his wife's sister, Veronicha [5].5
In the baptismal registers of the Santi Apostoli parish I initially found only three of the six children: Julia (1584), Perina (1590) and Pierantonio (1592) [6-8].6 These dates enabled me to conclude that the persons in the sketch could not be Ugenia with her two sons and maid-servants, as was thought, but are Ugenia with baby Perina in her lap, Fedrigo standing by her side, and behind her chair from left to right Elena, Giulia and Isabeta.7 Pierantonio was not yet born in 1590. The year of birth of Giulia, 1584, confirms the presence in Venice of our painter three years before his registration in 1587 in the Guild of St Luke.
If we assume intervals of about two years between the births of the children, this would suggest years of birth of 1582 for Isabeta, 1586 for Elena, 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].8 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].9 The nine-year-old boy was then living with him in Haarlem as his pupil.10 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?
3
Hendrick Goltzius
Portrait of the artist Dirck de Vries, 1590 (dated)
Haarlem, Teylers Museum, inv./cat.nr. N 073
4
Dirck de Vries
Mother with five children, dated 6 October 1590
Amsterdam, Stichting P. en N. de Boer, inv./cat.nr. 578
5
Archivio Storico del Patriarcato di Venezia (ASPVe), Status Animarum 1592-1593, Cannaregio, Santi Apostoli
6
ASPVe, Parrocchia Santi Apostoli, Registro Battesimi 2, gennaio 1577-1587, p. 117, Baptism 1584, June 11, ‘Giulia Altadona fia di messer Todaro depentor’
7
ASPVe, Parrocchia Santi Apostoli, Registro Battesimi 3, agosto 1588-maggio 1600, p. 211 and p. 388, March 4, 1590, Baptism ‘Perina Andriana fiola de messer Todaro depentor’
8
ASPVe, Parrocchia Santi Apostoli, Registro Battesimi 3, agosto 1588-maggio 1600, p. 214, July 19, 1592,’ Piero Antonio fiol messer Todero Pitor’
9
ASPVe, Parrocchia Santi Apostoli, Registro Battesimi 3, p. 345, August 13, 1588, Baptism ‘Fedrigo’
10
Hendrick Goltzius
Portrait of Frederick de Vries (c. 1590-1614), dated 1597
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
His mother was certainly in Venice in 1596, where she gave birth to another child: Giustina Vittoria, baptised on 13 October [11].11 Goltzius's stepson, Jacob Matham (1571–1631), travelled to Italy in 1593, visited Venice and Rome, and returned to the Netherlands in 1597. Did he and his companion Frans Badens II (1571–1618) take Frederick along?
Pierantonio also stayed with Goltzius, at least in the year 1606.12 How did he get to Haarlem? And when did he return to Venice? Was it after Goltzius's death in 1617? ‘Pierantonio Fris’ was registered in the Venetian Guild of St Luke from 1619 to 1627.13
Frederick made his last will in Haarlem on 21 December 1613, and died shortly afterwards at the age of 25.14 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 days’ [12].15 This implies that Dirck de Vries must have been born around 1554.
11
ASPVe, Parrocchia Santi Apostoli, Registro Battesimi 3, agosto 1588-maggio 1600, p. 109, Baptism ‘Giustina Vittoria fia di Teodoro fiamengo pittor’, October 13, 1596
12
ASPVe, Parrocchia San Giovanni Crisostomo, Registro dei Morti dal 1584 fino al 1736, p. 35 v., April 3, 1612
Notes
1 Favaro 1975, p. 152.
2 Teylers Museum, Haarlem, inv. no. N 073. Nichols et al. 2003, p.
3 Van Mander 1604, fol. 282v, 283r, 283v.
4 P. & N. De Boer Foundation, inv. no. B 578. ‘Nu mijnē guden Vrunt Sig.or Lodouick siet / Meerder patientie ter werelt en heb ick niet’. At the bottom of the page are the signature and date: ‘Dirck de Vrijes. Venetiæ / adi 6 ottobrij 1590’. Meijer 1991, p. 91; Nonner in Buijs/Luijten 2014, p. 92-93; Meijer 2017, p. 398.
5 Archivio Storico del Patriarcato di Venezia (ASPVe), Status Animarum, Cannaregio, Santi Apostoli, fol. *.
6 ASPVe, Parrocchia Santi Apostoli, Registro Battesimi 2, gennaio 1577–febbraio 1587, fol. 117: ‘1584 adi 11 zugno Giulia Altadona fia di messer Todaro depentor la madre donna Ugenia di [non?] legitimo, compare Nicolo petener’ (Giulia Altadona daughter of ‘messer Todaro depentor’ [painter/decorator] and donna Ugenia, legal [the word 'marriage' is omitted, and it is not clear whether the sign before 'legittimo' means 'di', from, or 'non', not], godfather Nicolo ‘petener’ [combmaker]); ASPVe, Parrocchia Santi Apostoli, Registro Battesimi 3, agosto 1588–maggio 1600, fol. 211: ‘Adi 4 marzo 1590, Perina Andriana fiola de messer Todaro depentor et de Mad.a Ugenia de legitt.o matr.o’ (Perina Andriana daughter of ‘messer Todaro depentor’ [painter/decorator] and Madam Ugenia, from legal marriage [godfather Messer Zaneto Binelli who lives in the parish]); ibid., fol. 214: ‘Adi 19 luglio 1592 Piero Antonio fiol messer Todero Pitor & Mad.a Ugenia de legitt.o matr.o’ (Piero Antonio son of Todero painter and Madam Ugenia from legal marriage [godfather ‘messer Zorzi Tedescho’ who lives in the parish of S. Aponal (Sant'Apollinare)]).
7 Dodgson 1931, p. 276–77; Pariset/Van Gelder 1950, p. 64–65; Faggin 1963, p. 54–64.
8 ASPVe, Parrocchia Santi Apostoli, Registro Battesimi 3, 13 August 1588.
9 Dodgson 1931; Hirschmann 1919, vol. 7, p. 162, 176; Meijer 1991, p. 87; Nichols et al. 2003, p. 165-166.
10 The fact that Fedrigo was sent to Haarlem at a young age might surprise us, but it is known that the second generation of merchants from the south of Germany residing in Venice used to send their sons at the age of seven to Germany to learn the language and the customs. On the Fondaco dei Tedeschi: Backmann 2018, p. 71.
11 ASPVe, Parrocchia Santi Apostoli, Registro Battesimi 3, agosto 1588–maggio 1600. ‘Giustina Vittoria fia di Teodoro fiamengo pittor et de mad.a Eugenia compare Zambattista Cocardo fiam. Sta a St. Apollinare, Adi 13 ott. 1596’ (Giustina Vittoria daughter of Teodoro Fleming painter and Madam Eugenia, godfather Zambattista Cocardo Fleming who lives in the parish of Sant’Apollinare, 13 October 1596).
12 Nichols et al. 2003, p. 103; Meijer 1991, p. 91.
13 Favaro 1975, p. 151.
14 Nichols et al. 2003, p. 103–107; Nichols 2013, p. 307–308.
15 ASPVe, Parrocchia San Giovanni Crisostomo, Registro dei Morti, 1584–1736; Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Provveditori alla Sanità, Necrologi, 845, 1612.