Flemish Baroque painting

Flemish Baroque painting was a style of painting in the Southern Netherlands during Spanish control in the 16th and 17th centuries. The period roughly begins when the Dutch Republic was split from the Habsburg Spain regions to the south with the Spanish recapturing of Antwerp in 1585 and goes until about 1700, when Spanish Habsburg authority ended with the death of King Charles II.^[1] Antwerp, home to the prominent artists Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens, was the artistic nexus, while other notable cities include Brussels and Ghent.^[1]

Rubens, in particular, had a strong influence on seventeenth-century visual culture. His innovations helped define Antwerp as one of Europe's major artistic cities, especially for Counter-Reformation imagery, and his student Van Dyck was instrumental in establishing new directions in English portraiture. Other developments in Flemish Baroque painting are similar to those found in Dutch Golden Age painting,^[1] with artists specializing in such areas as history painting, portraiture, genre painting, landscape painting, and still life.

General characteristics

"Flemish", in the context of this and artistic periods such as the "Flemish Primitives" (in English now Early Netherlandish painting), often includes the regions not associated with modern Flanders, including the Duchy of Brabant and the autonomous Prince-Bishopric of Liège.^[1] By the seventeenth century, however, Antwerp was the main city for innovative artistic production, largely due to the presence of Rubens. Brussels was important as the location of the court, attracting David Teniers the Younger later in the century.

Northern Mannerist

and Baroque artists.

Late Mannerism

Although paintings produced at the end of the 16th century belong to general

mythological

and history subjects.

"The Age of Rubens"

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), a student of both Otto van Veen and Adam van Noort, spent eight years in Italy (1600–1608), during which time he studied examples of classical antiquity, the Italian Renaissance, and contemporaries Adam Elsheimer and Caravaggio. Following his return to Antwerp he set up an important studio, training students such as Anthony van Dyck, and generally exerting a strong influence on the direction of Flemish art. Most artists active in the city during the first half of the 17th century were directly influenced by Rubens.

Specializations and collaborations

Flemish art is notable for the large amount of collaboration that took place between independent masters, which was partly related to the local tendency to specialize in a particular area. Frans Snyders, for example, was an animal painter and Jan Brueghel the Elder was admired for his landscapes and paintings of plants. Both artists worked with Rubens, who often usually painted the figures, and other artists to create collaborative pieces.

Innovations

Flower

Catholic type of painting, the flower garland. Other types of paintings closely associated with Flemish Baroque include the monumental hunting scenes by Rubens and Snyders, and gallery paintings by artists such as Willem van Haecht and David Teniers the Younger

.

History painting

History painting, which includes biblical, mythological and historical subjects, was considered by seventeenth-century theoreticians as the most noble art.

Caravaggism was expressed by Theodoor Rombouts and Gerard Seghers

.

Religious painting

Rubens is closely associated with the development of the Baroque

St. Christopher and the Hermit—is an important reflection of Counter-Reformation ideas about art combined with Baroque naturalism, dynamism and monumentality.^[5] Roger de Piles explains that "the painter has entered so fully into the expression of his subject that the sight of this work has the power to touch a hardened soul and cause it to experience the sufferings endured by Jesus Christ in order to redeem it."^[6]

Portraiture

Although not predominately a portrait painter, Rubens's contributions include early works such as his Portrait of Brigida Spinola-Doria (1606,

Gillis van Tilborch

specialized in small-scale group portraiture.

Genre painting

Jan Vermeer, is not a significant subject in the south, although artists such as Jan Siberechts

explored these themes to some degree.

Bruegel tradition

Flemish genre painting is strongly tied to the traditions of

Roelandt Savery

Adriaen Brouwer and his followers

painterly manner. Upon his return to Antwerp around 1631 or 1632 he introduced a new, influential format in which the subjects were painted as interior, instead of exterior, scenes. He also painted expressive facial studies like The Bitter Drink (illustrated), a genre called tronies ("faces"). Brouwer's art was recognized in his own lifetime and had a powerful impact on Flemish art. Rubens owned more works by him at the time of his death than any other painter, and artists such as David Teniers the Younger, Jan van de Venne, Joos van Craesbeeck and David Ryckaert III

continued to work in a similar manner.

Elegant company scenes

Paintings of elegant couples in the latest fashions, often with underlying themes of love or the

Prado Museum

) belongs to these traditions.

Monumental genre scenes

Whereas elegant company scenes and works by Brouwer and his followers were often small in scale, other artists looked to

Gerrit van Honthorst. Rombouts was also influenced by his teacher Abraham Janssens

, who began incorporating Caravaggesque influences into his history paintings from first decade of the 17th century .

Epiphany

feast.

Jacob Jordaens

Jacob Jordaens, who became Antwerp's most important artist after Rubens's death in 1640, is well known for his monumental genre paintings of subjects such as The King Drinks and As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young. Many of these paintings use compositional and lighting influences similar to those of the Caravaggisti, while the treatment of the subjects inspired Dutch artists like Jan Steen.

Battle scenes

Another popular type of painting invented in the

Adam-Frans van der Meulen continued painting them in Antwerp, Brussels and Paris

until the end of the century.

Bamboccianti

Following a time-honoured tradition, many northern artists travelled to Italy in the 17th century. Flemish artists such as

Academy of St. Luke. Many of the painters were also members of the Bentvueghels, the society of mainly Flemish and Dutch artists working in Rome. It acted as a support network for Netherlandish artists in Rome who were in need but is better known for the "bohemian" lifestyle of its members and drunken festivities.^[9]

Landscape and seascape

Early landscape painting

Joachim Patiner. He left a strong influence on northern landscape painting in general through his period in Amsterdam and as a founding member of the Frankenthal School. Forest and mountain landscapes were painted by Abraham Govaerts, Alexander Keirincx, Gijsbrecht Leytens, Tobias Verhaecht and Joos de Momper. Paul Bril settled in Rome, where he specialized as a landscape painter decorating Roman villas and creating small cabinet paintings

.

Rubens and later painters

National Gallery of London

).

Marine painting

Small seascapes (zeekens) were another popular theme. Artists such as

marine painting

in the Dutch Republic.

Architectural painting

Interior architectural views, usually of churches, developed out of the late sixteenth-century works of

Pieter Jansz Saenredam or Emanuel de Witte.^[10]

Gallery and art collection painting

Gallery paintings appeared in Antwerp around 1610, and developed—like architectural interiors—from the compositions of

Prado Museum, Madrid). Willem van Haecht

(1593–1637) developed another variation in which illustrations of actual artworks are displayed in a fantasy art gallery, while connoisseurs and art lovers admire them.

Later in the century,

Giovanni Paolo Pannini

.

Still life and animal painting

Flower painting

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder.^[13]

Garland painting

Closely related to the flower still life is the flower garland genre of painting that was invented by Jan Brueghel in collaboration with

Jesuit painter Daniel Seghers, also painted many of these types of works for an international clientele.^[16]

In later versions, the fleshy Madonna and Child gave way to sculptural niches and even pagan themes.

Breakfast and banquet still life

The ontbijtje, or "little breakfast", is a type of still life that was popular in both the northern and southern Netherlands showing a variety of eating and drinking vessels and foods such as cheese and bread against a neutral background.

Jan Davidsz de Heem. They show, on a larger scale than earlier works, complex compositions of expensive items, rare foods, and fleshy, peeling fruit. These paintings are related to vanitas

and transience motifs.

Animal still life

Frans Snyders (1579–1657) painted large still lifes focusing on dead game and animals. His compositions, along with those of his follower Adriaen van Utrecht (1599–1652). look back to the sixteenth-century paintings of Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer, but instill that tradition with a High Baroque monumentality.^[17] Subsequent artists, Jan Fyt and Pieter Boel further elaborated on this type by including a noticeable mixture of living animals and dead game. These latter paintings are closely related to images of the hunt, which came into fashion in Flemish painting during the 17th century.

The Tiger, Leopard and Lion Hunt

, c. 1617–1618. Musée des Beaux Arts, Rennes. This painting is typical of Rubens's "exotic" hunts painted between about 1615 and 1625.

Hunting scenes

Rubens introduced the monumental hunt to Flemish art, depicting on a large scale a close battle inspired by his study of classical antiquity and

Battle of Anghiari. These works show both noble hunts, such as the Wolf and Fox Hunt (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and exotic hunts, such as the Lion Hunt (Alte Pinakothek, Munich). Frans Snyders and Paul de Vos

Cabinet painting

Small, intricate paintings, usually depicting history and biblical subjects, were produced in great numbers in the Southern Netherlands throughout the 17th century. Many were created by anonymous artists, however artists such as

Hendrik de Clerck were all successful cabinet painters during the first half of the 17th century. These artists, as well as followers of Adam Elsheimer like David Teniers the Elder, remained partly shaped by continued mannerist stylistic tendencies. However, Rubens influenced a number of later artists who incorporated his Baroque style into the small context of these works. Among them are Frans Wouters, Jan Thomas van Ieperen, Simon de Vos, Pieter van Lint, and Willem van Herp. These small paintings were traded widely throughout Europe, and by way of Spain to Latin America.^[18]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Vleighe, p. 1.
^ ^a ^b ^c Vlieghe, pp. 207–212.
^ Slive, p. 279.
^ Vlieghe, pp. 98–104.
^ Belkin, pp. 113–121.
^ Martin, Baroque, pp. 20–21.
^ Levine, David A. (December 1988). "The Roman Limekilns of the Bamboccianti". The Art Bulletin. College Art Association. 70 (4), p. 570
^ Haskell, Francis (1993). "Chapter 8". Patrons and Painters: Art and Society in Baroque Italy. Yale University Press, pp. 132–134.
^ Levine, David A., "The Bentvueghels: 'Bande Académique"," in IL60: Essays Honoring Irving Lavin on his Sixtieth Birthday, ed. Marilyn Aronberg Lavin. New York: Italica Press, 1990, p. 216
^ Vlieghe, pp. 200–202.
^ Vlieghe, p. 202.
^ Vlieghe, pp. 202–206.
^ ^a ^b Vlieghe, p. 208.
^ David Freedberg, "The Origins and Rise of the Flemish Madonnas in Flower Garlands, Decoration and Devotion", Münchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, xxxii, 1981, pp. 115–150.
^ Freedberg (1981), op. cit.
^ Vlieghe, p. 209.
^ Vlieghe, pp. 211–216.
^ Vlieghe, pp. 105–114.

Sources

Belkin, Kristin Lohse (1998). Rubens. London:
ISBN 0-7148-3412-2

Martin, J. R. (1977). Baroque. New York:
ISBN 0-06-435332-X

Slive, S. (1995). Dutch painting 1600-1800. Yale University Press Pelican history of art. New Haven, Conn:
ISBN 0-300-06418-7

Sutton, P. C., & Wieseman, M. E. (1993). The Age of Rubens. Boston:
ISBN 0-8109-1935-4

Vlieghe, Hans (1998). Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585-1700. Yale University Press Pelican history of art. New Haven: Yale University Press.
ISBN 0-300-07038-1

External links

[vlieghe1-1] Vleighe, p. 1.

[vlieghe207-2] Vlieghe, pp. 207–212.

[3] Slive, p. 279.

[4] Vlieghe, pp. 98–104.

[5] Belkin, pp. 113–121.

[6] Martin, Baroque, pp. 20–21.

[lev-7] Levine, David A. (December 1988). "The Roman Limekilns of the Bamboccianti". The Art Bulletin. College Art Association. 70 (4), p. 570

[haskell-8] Haskell, Francis (1993). "Chapter 8". Patrons and Painters: Art and Society in Baroque Italy. Yale University Press, pp. 132–134.

[9] Levine, David A., "The Bentvueghels: 'Bande Académique"," in IL60: Essays Honoring Irving Lavin on his Sixtieth Birthday, ed. Marilyn Aronberg Lavin. New York: Italica Press, 1990, p. 216

[vlieghe200-10] Vlieghe, pp. 200–202.

[11] Vlieghe, p. 202.

[12] Vlieghe, pp. 202–206.

[vlieghe208-13] Vlieghe, p. 208.

[14] David Freedberg, "The Origins and Rise of the Flemish Madonnas in Flower Garlands, Decoration and Devotion", Münchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, xxxii, 1981, pp. 115–150.

[15] Freedberg (1981), op. cit.

[vlieghe209-16] Vlieghe, p. 209.

[vlieghe211-17] Vlieghe, pp. 211–216.

[18] Vlieghe, pp. 105–114.

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