7.5 Conclusions
It is remarkable that of the twelve Dutch landscape painters who, according to Houbraken, travelled to Rome in the 1640s and early 1650s only few are mentioned in Roman archival sources, and that only works by Jan Baptist Weenix are mentioned in Roman inventories. These findings are in strong contrast to the much more frequent references to the professional activities and works of the previous generation of Dutch Italianate landscape painters. Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Herman van Swanevelt and Jan Both, in particular, received various commissions in Rome and had proper careers while living and working in Rome.
As far as we know, Jan Baptist Weenix is the only one who had a true patron. Since Weenix arrived in Rome shortly after Swanevelt had completed his work at the court of the Pamphilj, it is conceivable that he was seen – and saw himself – as a successor to Swanevelt. Nevertheless, as the manuscript with lists of Roman collections and exhibited paintings in the 17th and 18th century shows, Weenix did not work exclusively for the Pamphilj family while in Rome: he also had other clients who bought his work.
Overall, there is much uncertainty about the practice of Dutch landscape painters in Rome, in particular regarding the production of paintings for the free market. Lingelbach, for instance, lived in Rome for five or six years and (according to Francesco Oddi) also worked in Naples, but so far it has not been possible to trace any paintings from his Italian period, whereas there are signed and dated paintings from almost every year after his return to Amsterdam. Italian collectors in the 17th century may have bought landscapes by pittori fiamminghi such as Lingelbach, but it seems that they were not very careful in recording the authorship of these works, and their heirs presumably had difficulty labelling them. In 18th-century collections we find several references to works by Berchem, but Berchem never stayed in Rome, and it is likely that paintings by other Dutch masters were mistaken for works by the painter from Haarlem. Berchem’s notoriety in Italy was probably due to the large number of (reproductive) prints that bore his name.
From the lack of paintings of the Italian period, and the existence of many Italianate drawings, it seems reasonable to assume that the trip to Rome was primarily regarded as a study trip by most Dutch landscape painters of this generation. Sonnius, and especially Romeijn, are major examples that support this theory. The latter seems to have drawn inspiration from his Italian material until his death, which suggests that Roman subjects continued to be in great demand until the end of the 17th century.