7.1 ‘Gio Batta Weenix’
Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1659) prepared a will in 1642 that confirms his trip to Italy.1 According to Hoogewerff he travelled with Nicolaes Berchem (c. 1621/2–1683), but this is unlikely because Berchem probably never undertook a trip to Italy.2 Weenix lived in Rome until 1647.3 He is the only one of this group of landscape painters who is known to have had an Italian patron: he worked at the court of the nephew of Pope Innocent X, Cardinal Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphilj (1622–1666). From the time he was in Italy he was known as Giovanni Battista Weenix, and he signed his works 'Gio Batta Weenix'.4 Wagenberg's in-depth study of Weenix father and son tells us much about his life and works in the Netherlands, bit few works of his Italian period are known. The earliest mention of one of his Italian works is in the year 1645, when a payment is recorded.5
Four paintings are known to have been produced by Weenix in collaboration with Pasquale Chiesa, an artist who is still rather obscure.6 During a visit to the Galleria Doria Pamphilj it became clear to me that two more landscape paintings by Weenix exist that were not included in Wagenberg’s monograph [3-4]. These two paintings, Landscape with the Temptation of Christ and Landscape with Rest on the Flight into Egypt, only mentioned in the 2016 catalogue of the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, were also created in collaboration with Chiesa.7
In addition, based on a document from the Pamphilj archive of 1652, an unsigned work in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj is attributed to Weenix.8 As Salerno notes, works by Weenix are also recorded in inventories of other Roman families. He refers to a manuscript by Giuseppe Ghezzi (1634–1721), Quadri delle case de principi in Roma [5-6].9 The first part of this manuscript contains information about the exhibitions of paintings organised to celebrate the anniversaries of the translation of the Holy House of Nazareth to Loreto, which were held in the cloister of San Salvatore in Lauro. The second part consists of multiple lists of Roman collections and some pages with notes on various artistic objects. Finally, there are inserted sheets that include some lists of exhibited paintings without dates. In total, nine paintings and one drawing by Jan Baptist Weenix and five paintings attributed to Berchem are mentioned. It also contains references to 'Gio Olandese', Adriaen van der Kabel, Poelenburch, Swanevelt, Jan Both and Helmbreecker. This source is not mentioned in Dutch literature, but it provides us with important evidence that there was a market for Dutch Italianate landscape painters in Rome, and that Weenix did not work only for the Pamphilj family. It is also important to consider the possibility that paintings by other Dutch masters were mistaken for works by Berchem. Italian art collectors were probably not always familiar with the names of the aforementioned Dutch Italianate landscape painters.
3
and Pasquale Chiesa Jan Baptist Weenix
Landscape with Christ tempted by Satan, 1645-1646
Rome, private collection Galleria Doria Pamphilj, inv./cat.nr. GFC 46
4
and Pasquale Chiesa Jan Baptist Weenix
Landscape with the rest on the flight to Egypt, 1645-1646
Rome, private collection Galleria Doria Pamphilj, inv./cat.nr. FC 48
5
Due quadri, in tela d’imperatore, in uno la Fuga in Egitto, nell’altro una Marina con soldati, con loro due cornicioni intagliati noce et oro, mani di Giovanni Venix olandese.
6
Del S.r Giuseppe San Germano
Due Paesi, da 4 palmi, di Berchem
Due altri Paesini con figure bellissime di Monsù Buth
Notes
1 Bredius 1928, p. 177: ‘30 oktober 1642. Heden enz. compareerde d’eersame Jan Weenincx, Schilder, burger deser Stede, voorgenomen hebbende te trecken na Italien om syn konst te exprementeren, gesont van lighame […]'. According to Houbraken, Weenix did not travel until he had been married for four years, so he did not go to Italy until 1643: ‘De reislust die hem van jongs af aan in 't hoofd gemaalt had, en waar van hy eerst door zyn Moeder, naderhand door 't trouwen belet werd, groeide zoo sterk aan, dat hy (niettegenstaande hy vier jaren getrouwt was geweest, en een Zoon had van 14 Maanden, die nog leeft) voornemens wierd, om in der stilte, en zonder daar iemant, ook niet zyn eigen Vrouw, kennisse van te geven, door te gaan. Gelyk hy ook vervolgens deed’; in translation: ‘The urge to travel, which had preoccupied his thoughts since his boyhood and from which he had been prevented first by his mother and then by marriage, grew so strong that (despite having been married for four years and having a son of 14 months, who still lives) he decided to leave in complete silence, without informing anyone, not even his own wife. Which he proceeded to do’. Houbraken 1718-1721, vol. 2 (1719), p. 78; Horn/van Leeuwen 2021, vol. 2, p. 78.
2 In the secondary literature it is believed that Berchem had been to Italy. There are three periods when his presence in the Netherlands is not documented: 1) September 1642–13 January 1645, 2) late 1650–late 1651, 3) 6 September 1652–22 December 1655. These periods have been associated with a possible stay in Italy. Van Thiel-Stroman 2005, p. 103; Biesboer et al. 2006, p. 21. According to Biesboer, the first period can be ruled out: Berchem had concluded a number of apprentice contracts in September 1642, so it is unlikely that he would have travelled from that year onward. A departure in the 1650s is also unlikely because in that case he would have left his wife and children behind, and there are no known documents in which he appoints a guardian. Moreover, no topographical sketches by him are known. Additional arguments are 1) the assumption that a painted landscape dated 1651 is on Italian linen is unfounded: Biesboer et al. 2006, p. 23, and 2) Berchem produced a series of drawings and etchings between 1652 and 1657, making a trip to Italy very unlikely: Schatborn 2001, p. 187–195.
3 Wagenberg-Ter Hoeven 2018, p. 22; Kramm 1863, p. 1836.
4 Wagenberg-Ter Hoeven 2018, p. 24; Schatborn 2001, p. 111.
5 He is first mentioned in the Pamphili archive on 12 January 1645, and last on 28 July 1646, see Grams 1972, p. 86: ‘363: 1646 Januar 2 und Februar 26. S. 20 und s. 50 an Giov. Vaninx (Vuninz) fiamengo Pittore … A conto di Pitture; idem, p. 2006: ‘1003: 1645 Januar 12 und März 7. S. 14, 70 an Venunzo (Weenix?) pittore [footnote: Als unzusammenhängende Notiz, nicht in der ordentlichen Verrechnung]‘.
6 Safarik 1996, p. 32–34, images 5–8. For a recent study on Pasquale Chiesa: Calenne 2017.
7 De Marchi 2016.
8 RKDimages 296112; De Marchi 1999, p. 146, 147; Capitelli 1996, p. 78, ad N. 281: ‘Un quadro in tela, alto p[al]mi nove ½., e largo tredici ½. dipintovi dentro una marina grande, con porto arricchito di fabriche, Vascelli varij, e figure diverse, fra’ q[ua]li è un Turco a’ cavallo, con turbante, e pennachiera […] di mano di Gio(vanni) Weenix Olandese, seg(na)to col N. 281’; Safarik 1996, p. 203–210; Van Wagenberg-Ter Hoeven 2018, p. 26: ‘It probably dates to 1645–1646, when prince Camillo Pamphilj paid the painter “a conto di pitture fatto e da farsi”, or “for paintings made and to do”’.
9 Ghezzi/Marchi 1987.