Joachim Wtewael
Joachim Wtewael | |
---|---|
Utrecht, Habsburg Netherlands 1566 | |
Died | 1 August 1638 (aged 71–72) |
Nationality | Dutch |
Known for | Oil painting |
Notable work | Perseus and Andromeda, Louvre, small paintings on copper |
Movement | Northern Mannerism |
Joachim Anthoniszoon Wtewael (Dutch pronunciation:
Altogether he has left about a hundred paintings,
He was very prosperous as a merchant of flax (for the manufacture of
Reflecting an increase of interest in Wtewael's art in recent decades,[9] in 2015–16 Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638), the first major exhibition devoted solely to his work, showed in Utrecht, Washington DC and Houston, Texas.[10]
Life
Wtewael was born and spent almost all of his life in
Returning to Utrecht in about 1590 (by 1592 at the latest),[13] Wtewael established a workshop and joined the saddlemakers' guild (which in Utrecht then covered painters as well) as a painter and began producing paintings, drawings, engravings, and stained glass.[14][15] Later he was a founder member of the new Utrecht Guild of Saint Luke for the painters of Utrecht. He never lived elsewhere, and seems never to have travelled outside the Netherlands again.[16] A gentlemanly contemporary in Utrecht, who might be thought in a good position to know the artist and his work, also praised very highly Wtewael's skill in sculpture, but no clear examples of this are known.[17]
He married Christina Wtewael van Halen (1568–1629), whose portrait of 1601 makes a pair with the self-portrait illustrated. In 1596 they had a son Peter Wtewael, who became a painter;[14] their other son, Jan (1598–1652), may also have been a painter as, unlike Peter, he registered with the guild, in 1639 after his father's death. Joachim von Sandrart, visiting Utrecht in 1626, complained that Peter and his father neglected painting for the flax business. In the portraits by Joachim of his two sons, Peter is shown as a painter and Jan as a "humanist", carrying a book. Peter died a wealthy man in 1660, having remodelled the family house in 1639, the year after his father died.[18]
In the late 1620s Joachim painted portraits of both his sons, dated 1628, his daughter Eva (1607–1635, see gallery) and a pair of his other daughter and her husband Johan Pater, dated 1626. All of these are in Utrecht. Burial records suggest several other children died young, but their birthdates are unknown. Wtewael's dated paintings stretch from 1592 to 1628, taking him from the age of 26 to 62.[19]
He was on the town council in 1610 and was later awarded a seat for life by the Stadtholder Maurice, Prince of Orange for his loyalty against the Remonstrants. However his brother was also rewarded in this way and Utrecht had a rule against more than one brother being on the council at any time. So he did not take up his seat until 1632, after his brother had died.[20] Despite a reasonable amount of documentary records, the leading scholar of his work has written that "Wtewael the man is essentially inscrutable".[21]
Style and reception
Development
He trained with the Haarlem Mannerist
Wtewael's style remained largely unchanged, although his colours shifted from the acidic pastels of his earlier work to stronger shades after about 1615, and some influence from the style of Caravaggio can be detected in later works.[22] The shift in his style can be seen in his largest painting, The Raising of Lazarus (158 x 208 cm) in Lille (illustrated in the gallery below), which though bought as a Spranger in 1900, shows a movement away from the more extreme poses and colours of the 1590s, and even from the drawing which may have been its modello. In the painting he have moved away from the small heads and over-long legs typical of Mannerism in both its Italian and Northern manifestations.[24]
Portraits, religious subjects, and economics
In contrast, his few portraits are almost all of his family and are in a conventional and more realist style comparable to that of the leading Utrecht portraitist of his day, Paulus Moreelse (1571–1638), whose works must have been very familiar to Wtewael. The appearance of the whole family is only recorded in single formal portraits by Wtewael.[25] He also painted a few half-length imaginary paintings of saints or gods, singly or in small groups, such as a set of the Four Evangelists that are now dispersed in various collections. The Bacchus in the gallery section was paired with a Ceres, and perhaps a now lost Venus; these may have been his last works, and show some influence from the Caravaggisti in the single large figures placed as though very close to the viewer.[7]
His biography by Carel van Mander says regretfully that his flax business occupied much of his time, and records examples of his pictures in the collections of two wealthy Dutch collectors.
Mythological paintings
The eroticism of his mythological works was daring for the time, and some of the small paintings were probably not displayed publicly, by their original collectors as much as later by museums. Two of the preparatory drawings for different painted versions of Mars and Venus Surprised were mutilated by later owners to remove parts of the lovers' bodies,
The Getty version was itself kept in private collections in ways that meant it was not normally visible, which may partly explain its immaculate condition. Other works by Wtewael have also been changed by overpainting to hide erotic anatomical details.[30] Wtewael had other means of creating a sensuous atmosphere, such as the suggestive pink mouths of large shells that often lie on the ground below nude females, as in the Louvre Andromeda or the National Gallery Judgement of Paris.[29]
His depiction of erotic subjects are not simply titillating, but like many such Dutch paintings, depicted subjects that allowed for moralistic interpretations. Anne Lowenthal, the most dedicated scholar of Wtewael, has analysed his several depictions of Lot and his Daughters, dating from several periods of his career, and proposes that his treatments are designed to allude to various different possible interpretations of the biblical story, and to pose a "moral dilemma" for the viewer.[31] His favourite subjects had all been used previously, especially in Mannerism, but his choices seem to show a deliberate avoidance of the most familiar, as in his preference for the Adoration of the Shepherds over the more common Adoration of the Magi.[12]
About 30% of his paintings are of mythological subjects, historically an unusually large proportion even within Northern Mannerism, perhaps not exceeded before
Among his favourite subjects, the
Mars and Venus Surprised came from Ovid, and was usually one of the scenes shown in illustrated editions.[37] Wtewael's approach to this subject too can be traced back to Spranger and Goltzius, and a drawing of 1585 by the latter (now in the Getty Museum) is close to Wtewael's several compositions, with a scrum of figures hovering over an elaborate bed. Drawings by Bloemaert may also have had an influence.[38]
Collections
The largest collection of his work, which includes a self-portrait (1601), and several other family portraits, is in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht,[39] who were given works that had remained in the family until recent decades.[40] Several other Dutch, German, British and American museums have works, but many also remain in private collections.
Some large zoomable images:
- Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, about 1606 – 1610, 20.3 x 15.5 cm (8 × 6 1/8 in.). Getty Museum, Malibu
- The Holy Family with Saints and Angels, c. 1606–1610, oil on copper, 19.8 x 15.5 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
- The Judgement of Paris, 1615, National Gallery, London
Gallery
Large paintings
-
The Deluge, 1595, 148 x 184.6 cm
-
Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, 1600, 169 x 125 cm (66.6 x 49.3 in)
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His wife, Christina Wtewael van Halen (1568-1629), 1601
-
A Kitchenmaid, in the background Jesus in the house of Mary and Martha, 1620–25. Close to works by Pieter Aertsen, 103 x 72 cm
-
His daughter Eva Wtewael (1607-1635), 1628, shown needleworking, not typical for a portrait of a wealthy woman
-
Cephalus and Procris (The Death of Procris)
-
Bacchus, about 1628, one of his last works
Smaller paintings
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Adoration of the Shepherds, 1598, 8.67 x 10.7 cm (3.41 x 4.21 in)
-
Mars and Venus Surprised by the Gods, Mauritshuis version, 1601
-
Annunciation to the Shepherds, 1606, on canvas, unusually for such a small work. 16.83 x 13.59 cm (6.63 x 5.35 in)
-
Judgment of Paris, c. 1605
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The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis, 1612
-
Moses Striking the Rock, 1624, 44.6 × 66.7 cm (17.6 × 26.3 in)
-
Lot and His Daughters, a late work
See also
- City of Gotha and Federal Republic of Germany v. Sotheby's and Cobert Finance S.A.
Notes
- ^ Lowenthal (1995), p. 13 on other versions
- ^ a b Beckett (1994), p. 165
- ^ a b c Slive, 13
- ^ Slive, 13–14; Lowenthal (1995), 26–46
- ^ Liedtke (2005), 93, and n. 3 at 102. In 1986 Lowenthal catalogued 98 paintings, with a further 9 "problemmatical attributions". Since then a number of newly attributed works, including the Metropolitan's Golden Age, have surfaced.
- ^ Slive, 13; Grove
- ^ a b Clifton, Helmus, & Wheelock, Introduction
- ^ a b Liedtke (2005), 93
- ^ Lowenthal (1995), 72
- ^ Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638), NGA Washington
- ^ MacLaren, 501
- ^ a b Grove
- ^ The timetable of his travels varies somewhat between different sources.
- ^ a b National Gallery biography. Retrieved 16 November 2015
- ^ "gettyguide/Joachim Anthonisz. Wtewael". getty.edu. Archived from the original on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
- ^ NG; Woodall, 54
- ^ Woodall, 48
- ISBN 1588392732, 9781588392732, google books
- ^ Clifton, Helmus, & Wheelock, p. 2; see RKD database
- ^ Clifton, Helmus, & Wheelock, Introduction; MacLaren, 501
- ^ Lowenthal (1995), 26
- ^ a b MacLaren, 502; Slive, 13–15; Clifton, Helmus, & Wheelock, Introduction
- ^ Slive, 18–26
- ^ Liedtke (2005), 92–95
- ^ He was commissioned to paint a portrait of the long-dead commander Steven de Witt (d. 1571) by the subject's son, now Utrecht
- ^ Lowenthal (1995), 24–25
- ^ Liedtke (2005), 95
- ^ Lowenthal (1995), 21
- ^ a b Woodall, 41, 45–48, 52
- ^ Lowenthal (1995), 21–25; 66–67
- ^ Lowenthal (1988), throughout; Lowenthal (1995), 33–34 summarizes
- ^ Bull, 83
- ^ Lowenthal (1995), 2–14
- ^ Woodall, 45
- ^ The engraving at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; at the British Museum, in sections; Bull, 342–343
- ^ Slive, 12–13
- ^ Bull, 183–186; Lowenthal (1995), 50–65 gives an account of the subject through Western art
- ^ Lowenthal (1995), 27–32; 35–36; Liedtke (2005), 93
- ^ Liedtke (2005)
- ^ Constant Martens, who died in 1972, was the last member of the main line of Wtewael's heirs
- ^ lot notes Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Sotheby's, New York. Sale "Important Old Master Paintings Including European Works of Art", 24 Jan 2008, Lot 3
References
- Bull, Malcolm, The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods, Oxford UP, 2005, ISBN 978-0195219234
- Clifton, J.; Helmus, L. & Wheelock Jr. A. (2015) Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael, ISBN 9780691166063
- Beckett, Wendy (1994), The Story of Painting, The Essential Guide to the History of Western Art, Dorling Kidersley, ISBN 978-0751301335
- "Grove": Lowenthal, Anne W. (1988), "Wtewael, Joachim (1566-1638)" in The Oxford Dictionary of Art, Chilvers, Ian and Osborne, Harold (editors), online ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. (ISBN 0198661339), online edition. Retrieved 20 April 2015
- Liedtke, Walter (1992), entry in "Masterworks from the Musée Des Beaux-arts, Lille", 1992, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ISBN 0870996495, 9780870996498, google books
- Liedtke, Walter (2005). ""The Golden Age" by Joachim Wtewael". Metropolitan Museum Journal. Essays in Memory of John M. Brealey. 40. S2CID 194210961.
- Lowenthal, Anne W. (1988), "Lot and His daughters as Moral Dilemma", in The Age of Rembrandt: Studies in Seventeenth-century Dutch Painting, Volume 3 of Papers in Art History from the Pennsylvania State University, eds. Roland E. Fleischer, Susan Scott Munshower, 1988, Penn State Press, ISBN 0915773023, 9780915773022, google books
- Lowenthal, Anne W. (1995) Joachom Wtewal: Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California.
- ISBN 0947645-99-3
- ISBN 0300074514
- ISBN 0719055229, 9780719055225, google books
Further reading
- Lindeman, Catharinus Marius Anne Alettus (1929) Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael. Oosthoek, Utrecht. OCLC 560609176
- Lowenthal, Anne W. (1986) Joachim Wtewael and Dutch Mannerism. Davaco, Doornspijk, The Netherlands. ISBN 90-70288-24-9
- McGrath, Elizabeth. "A Netherlandish History by Joachim Wtewael." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 38 (1975), 182–217
External links
- [1] RKD database, with most of Wtewael's paintings
- Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael, "The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis," 1612 Video from the Clark Art Institute, 2.29 minutes
- Video Liefde & Lust | De kunst van Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638) from the Centraal Museum Utrecht, on the exhibition, 3.38 minutes (in Dutch, but video useful)
- 10 paintings in the Uk from BBC's "Your Paintings" site
- Joachim Wtewael on Artcyclopedia
- Dutch and Flemish paintings from the Hermitage, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (PDF), with material on Wtewael (cat. no. 34)
- Joachim Wtewael at The National Gallery
- Joachim Wtewael at PubHist