7. Dutch Italianate Landscape Painters in Rome around 1650: Primary Sources
Maartje Visser
After the groundbreaking exhibition of Italianate landscape paintings was held at the Centraal Museum Utrecht in 1965, the paintings of 17th-century Dutch Italianate landscape painters gained renewed interest among art historians. Blankert's catalogue presents the point of departure for additional studies on solely Italianate artists. He discerns three generations of Dutch landscape painters who travelled to Italy.1 So far, the generation of Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594/5–1667) and Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598–1657) has been studied most extensively.2
Poelenburch and Breenbergh lived and worked in Italy in the 1620s and 1630s (Poelenburch c. 1617–1625; Breenbergh probably left around 1629).3 After their departure, Herman van Swanevelt (1603–1655) and Jan Both (c. 1615/22–1652) started working in Rome, until 1641 and 1642.4 They contributed to the largest ensemble of landscape paintings of the 17th century – the works intended for the decoration of the Buen Retíro in Madrid (c. 1636–1640) [1-2]. By selecting Rome as the art market from which they would draw their supply of landscape paintings, Philip IV (1605–1665) and his court in Madrid were elevating the Italian capital city to a position it had not previously occupied.5 It became a profitable base for the careers of many Dutch and Flemish landscape painters.
Cover image
Hendrik Sonnius
Italianate landscape with two travellers and a small temple, dated 1647
Haarlem, Teylers Museum
1
Jan Both
Landscape with donkeyrider and cows, c. 1639-1641
Madrid (city, Spain), Museo Nacional del Prado, inv./cat.nr. P 2061
2
Herman van Swanevelt
Mountain landscape with Hut, c. 1639-1641
Madrid (city, Spain), Museo Nacional del Prado, inv./cat.nr. 1457
In the 1640s many other Dutch landscape painters moved to the South, including Jan Baptist Weenix (1621–1659, active in Rome 1642–1647), Jan Worst (?–1686, active in Rome 1644–1650), Jacob van der Does (1623–1673, active in Rome 1644–1650), Johannes Lingelbach (1622–1674, active in Rome 1644–1650), Thomas Wyck (1616/22–1677, active in Rome 1644–1653) , Hendrick Mommers (c. 1620–1693, active in Rome 1644–1646), Willem de Heusch (1612–1692, active in Rome in 1645), Johannes Collaert (c. 1622–c. 1678, active in Rome in 1646), Hendrick Sonnius (c. 1615–c. 1688, active in Rome 1647–1649), Hendrick Verschuring (1627–1690 active in Rome 1647–1653), Willem van Bemmel (1630–1708, active in Rome 1649–1653), and Willem Romeijn (c. 1624–c. 1695, active in Rome 1650–1651).6 Relatively little research has been done on this group of landscape painters. In this study I aim to get a better understanding of their journeys, networks and Italianate works by scrutinising the primary sources.
The information on the Roman careers of these artists is rather scattered. Only four of the twelve artists are mentioned in the Roman archives – Jan Baptist Weenix, Johannes Lingelbach, Hendrick Sonnius and Willem Romeijn. The stay in Rome of Van der Does, Collaert, Verschuring and some other artists is only documented through drawings with an inscription that includes the date and place of execution.7 In this study I will discuss my findings concerning the careers in Rome of Jan Baptist Weenix, Johannes Lingelbach, Hendrick Sonnius and Willem Romeijn.
Notes
1 Blankert 1965.
2 Duparc 1982; Sluijter 2016; Schatborn 2001.
3 Amendola 2019, p. 213–214, with reference to Archivio Storico Capitolino, Archivio Orsini, iii serie, 1627, unnumbered.
4 Van der Sman 2021, p. 87–118; Lavin 1975, p. 8, doc. 61. This document is often overlooked in the literature on Jan Both. It shows that he was still in Rome in late April 1642.
5 Capitelli 2005, p. 247, 248.
6 The principal printed source for the Roman sojourns of these painters is Houbraken 1718–1721.
7 Collaert: RKDimages 292634, lower right: Jan Collaert f Tivo…/ 1646 at the lower right; Van der Does: RKDimages 292624, lower left: JVDoes. Romae /1646. The earliest dated painting of Verschuring, RKDimages 62932, is of 1650 and was probably made in Italy. Salerno 1977–1978, p. 794, mentions a drawing in Leipzig with a View of the Aracoeli is signed and dated ‘Roma 1653’; however, he probably refers to the painting in Leipizg of the same subject (RKDimages 307733), which originated in his hometown Gorinchem.