From 17 September 2011 to 16 March 2012, the Hermitage Amsterdam presented a stunning selection from the Flemish art collection of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. With 75 paintings and about 20 drawings, this definitive survey will include numerous masterpieces by the three giants of the Antwerp School – Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens – accompanied by the work of well-known contemporaries.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) was a special focus of the exhibition, represented by 17 paintings and many drawings. Rubens was the most accomplished and influential Flemish painter of the seventeenth century. At the same time, he was known as a charming aristocrat, diplomat, and collector, and his workshop was a smoothly operating business. He was a legend in his day, a homo universalis. Both Rubens’s religious and his secular works illustrate his unequalled talent. One of his masterpieces is the famous
Descent from the Cross (c. 1618),
which depicts Christ’s suffering with compelling drama. This painting has never before been sent out on loan.
The exhibition also examined Rubens’s influence and followers in detail, devoting particular attention to the elegant and refined portraits of his greatest pupil, Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641). Around 1638, Van Dyck painted
King Charles I of England and his wife, the French princess Henrietta Maria.
By that time, he had been serving as the king’s court painter for several years and had been knighted Sir Anthony.
The third great master of the Flemish school, Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), did not study with Rubens but was influenced by him. His impressive paintings invite viewers to share in his exuberant Flemish joie de vivre. Even his history paintings have a Flemish ambiance.
Chirping birds, freshly killed game and floral bouquets grace the still lifes of Frans Snijders, while David Teniers the Younger was renowned for his genre pieces of everyday life. The exhibition also featured a touching family portrait of Cornelis de Vos and many other major paintings by Flemish masters, displayed in their full glory.
It was the first time that this superb collection was shown in the Netherlands. Many of these paintings were acquired by Catherine the Great in the eighteenth century. They belonged to world-class collectors such as Pierre Crozat and Heinrich von Brühl, whose collections Catherine purchased in their entirety. Most of them were commissioned by churches and secular patrons in Antwerp and other European cities, and were produced against the backdrop of the Eighty Years’ War and the Counter-Reformation. This Catholic movement, a reaction to the Reformation, encouraged both churches and private individuals to commission sacred art on a large scale. The epic Baroque style of Rubens and his contemporaries made an excellent propaganda tool for the Catholic church, the aristocracy and the wealthy bourgeoisie.
Antwerp, strategically located at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary, prospered and flourished as never before in the early sixteenth century. Within a few decades, the port had become a powerful commercial metropolis and the most important centre of the arts north of the Alps. The city's meteoric rise to prominence acted as a powerful magnet, not just for merchants, but also for painters and other highly skilled craftsmen. It was the leading place in the Netherlands for ambitious young artists to keep abreast of the latest trends in art. Many of the artists who lived and worked in Antwerp in the sixteenth century came from elsewhere. Some, such as Jan Gossaert (from Maubeuge) and Lucas van Leyden (from Leiden), were active in Antwerp for a limited period of time. Others, such as Anthonis Mor (also known as Antonio Moro, from Utrecht) and Hans Vredeman de Vries (from Friesland), travelled around Europe throughout their lives in search of new artistic challenges, but used Antwerp as their base.
The city's remarkable concentration of outstanding artists boosted the pace of innovation and accelerated the dissemination of new approaches. Inventive painters went in search of new possibilities, and studied Italian examples. Their compositions became more harmonious, and their figures acquired more natural anatomical features. Classical architectural elements and ornamental motifs inspired by Italian examples were introduced. The fierce rivalries among Antwerp's painters will undoubtedly have fostered specialisation. Many of what was later labelled ‘typically Dutch’ – realistic landscapes, still lifes, and scenes from everyday life – originated in Antwerp. The enormous demand led to a vast output of art of variable quality: paintings were produced in ever larger numbers, from the most expensive commissions to cheap bulk-produced items, both for the domestic market and for export to Italy, Spain, and South America. Copies of paintings by popular masters were also turned out in growing numbers.
Besides the great masters, Antwerp was home to a large number of minor or anonymous painters who were highly skilled in their craft.
Quinten Massijs (1456 or 1466-1530) – who was born in Leuven, where he may have been trained by Dirk Bouts − was the city's first famous artist. Together with his contemporary Joos van Cleve (c. 1485-c. 1540) he forged a bridge between the late mediaeval tradition and the sixteenth-century Renaissance. In many respects, Massijs exemplified the new artistic age. Although he mainly painted religious works, he also ventured into moralistic genre scenes and animated portraits, which testify to a new view of human nature. Massijs introduced natural movements into his portraits through his portrayal of hands, which often speak a humanist, rhetorical sign language, and he was also one of the first to pay attention to characterisation in his sitters. In 1517 he produced the oldest known portrait of Erasmus.
Quinten Massijs (1466-1530), Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus, 1517
Royal Collection, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
In addition, a number of grotesque tronies by Massijs have been preserved. These reflect familiarity with the character sketches of Leonardo da Vinci, with whom he evidently shared the Renaissance interest in human physiognomy. A telling indication of Massijs’s fame is the fact that copies were soon being made after his work, by artists including Rubens.
Besides Massijs and Van Cleve, two other history painters determined the appearance of Antwerp’s art in the first half of the sixteenth century: Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502-1550) and Jan van Hemessen (c. 1500-after 1575.
The Aalst-born Coecke was a homo universalis: painter, architect and designer of prints, stained glass and tapestries, but best known, perhaps, as the translator of the architecture books by the Italian architect Sebastiano Serlio. With this work, Coecke did much to promote the dissemination of the Renaissance in northern Europe.
In the 1520s, Jan van Hemessen, who was born in Hemiksem near Antwerp, travelled to Italy, where he became acquainted with the art of the Italian Renaissance. The most innovative part of his oeuvre consists of genre-like biblical scenes, such as
The Prodigal Son
Van Hemessen’s unconventional compositions, with vigorously modelled figures filling the entire picture, were extremely bold for their time.
Jacob Jordaens also produced genre paintings. Particularly popular were his scenes of the
Feast of the Epiphany (‘The king drinks’)
and of
‘As the old sing, so pipe the young’,
a proverb he took from the work of Jacob Cats, and which Jan Steen would interpret in his own way over two decades.
In some genres, like marine and architectural painting, Antwerp never attained the heights achieved in the Northern Netherlands. The oblique ‘momentary’ glimpses of church interiors that Gerard Houckgeest and Emanuel de Witte had introduced to Delft around 1650, with immense feeling for light and space, appear to have escaped the attention of Antwerp’s architecture painters. Other genres did not develop in Antwerp at all. For instance, local painting had nothing equivalent to the simple interiors with one or more figures, such as those painted in Delft by Pieter de Hooch and Johannes Vermeer. But there was also a genre that was exclusive to Antwerp: art cabinet or kunstkamer scenes. In one of the most beautiful examples, the owner displays the pièce de resistance of his collection –
Quinten Massijs’s Madonna and Child
– to prominent guests, while Rubens explains the work of his illustrious predecessor. Among those present we recognize Anthonie van Dyck and Frans Snijders: Antwerp knew its star painters. At the same time, this work gives a superb picture of the wealth and extraordinary versatility of the Antwerp school of painting in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Credits and additional images:
1. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and workshop, The Descent from the Cross, c. 1618, Oil on canvas. 297 x 200 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
2. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and workshop, Venus and Adonis, c. 1614, Oil on panel. 83 x 90.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
3. Abraham Janssens (1575–1632), Cephalus and Procris, 1610–20, Oil on canvas. 112 x 165 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
4. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Christ Wearing the Crown of Thorns (Ecce Homo), c. 1612, Oil on panel. 125.7 x 96 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
5. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and Frans Snyders (1579–1657), The Union of Earth and Water (Scheldt and Antwerp), c. 1618–21, Oil on canvas. 222.5 x 180.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
6. Frans Snyders (1579–1657) and Jan Boeckhorst (1604–1668), Cook in the Larder, 1635–37, Oil on canvas. 171 x 173 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
7. Pauwel (Paul) de Vos (1591/92 or 1595–1678), Dogs Fighting, 1620–40, Oil on canvas. 115.5 x 172.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
8. Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Portrait of Sir Thomas Wharton, 1639, Oil on canvas. 217 x 128.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
9. Michiel Sweerts (1618–1664), Portrait of a Young Man (Self-portrait?), 1656, Oil on canvas. 114 x 92 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
10. Cornelis de Vos (1584–1651), Self-portrait with his Wife, Susanna Cock, and Children, 1634, Oil on canvas. 185.5 x 221 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
11. Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), Saints Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, c. 1616, Oil on canvas. 149 x 253 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
12. Gerard Zeghers (1591–1651), Peter's Denial, c. 1620–24, Oil on canvas. 122.5 x 160.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
13. Hendrick van Balen (1575–1632) and Jan Brueghel I (Velvet Brueghel, 1568–1625), Venus and Cupid, 1600, Oil on canvas. 190 x 148 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
14. Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678) and Andries Daniels (?) (c. 1580 – after 1602), The Virgin and Child in a Garland of Flowers, c. 1618, Oil on panel. 104 x 73.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
15. Alexander Adriaenssen (1587–1661), Fish, 1643, Oil on canvas. 59.5 x 85 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
16. Jan Fyt (1611–1661), Dead Game and Hunting Dog, 1655–60, Oil on canvas. 93.5 x 120 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
17. Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1620, Oil on canvas. 235 x 277.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
18. Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), Allegorical Family Portrait, 1650–55, Oil on canvas. 178.4 x 152.3 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
19. Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), Self-portrait with Parents, Brothers and Sisters, c. 1615 (partially repainted 1635–45), Oil on canvas. 175 x 137.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
20. Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Family Portrait, c. 1619, Oil on canvas. 113.5 x 93.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
21. Theodoor Rombouts (1597–1637), A Game of Cards, 1625–30, Oil on canvas. 143 x 223. 5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
22. David Teniers II (1610–1690), Duet, 1640–45, Oil on canvas (transferred from panel in 1825). 24.7 х 19.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
23. Pauwel (Paul) de Vos (1591/92 or 1595–1678), Still Life with Dead Birds and a Lobster, 1640–60, Oil on canvas. 121 x 181 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
24. Frans Snyders (1579–1657), Concert of Birds, 1630–50, Oil on canvas. 136.5 x 240 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
25. Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Portrait of Nicolaas Rockox, 1621, Oil on canvas. 122.5 x 117 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
26. Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), Cleopatra's Feast, 1653, Oil on canvas. 156.4 x 149.3 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
27. Jan Brueghel I (Velvet Brueghel, 1568–1625), Wooded Landscape (The Rest on the Flight into Egypt), 1607, Oil on panel. 51.5 x 91.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
28. Jan Wildens (1586–1653) and Hans Jordaens III (c. 1595 – c. 1643), Christ on the Road to Emmaus, c. 1640, Oil on canvas. 123 x 168 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
29. David Teniers II (1610–1690), Group Portrait of the Oude Voetboog Guild on the Grote Markt, Antwerp, 1643, Oil on canvas (transferred from canvas in 1871). 133 х 184.5 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
30. Frans Snyders (1579–1657), Fruit in a Bowl on a Red Cloth, 1640–50, Oil on canvas (transferred from panel). 59.8 x 90.8 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
31. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Mercurius Abituriens, 1634, Oil on panel. 76 x 79 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
32. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Portrait of Charles de Longueval, 1621, Oil on panel. 62 x 50 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
33. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Study of the Head of a Youth Looking Up, 1615–16, Charcoal and black chalk on grey paper; laid down. 34 x 27 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
34. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Landscape with a Dam, c. 1635, Black chalk, gouache and tempera; laid down. 43.5 x 59 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
35. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), The Rubens Vase, before 1626, Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over black chalk; laid down. 20.1 x 14.8 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
36. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Bust of 'Seneca' in Profile, c. 1605, Black and white chalk on brownish-grey paper; laid down. 26.5 x 21.3 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
37. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), The Descent from the Cross, before 1612, Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over a black chalk sketch; laid down. 43.5 x 38 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
38. Anthonie van Dyck (1599–1641), Portrait of the Painter Cornelis Schut, 1628–36, Black chalk, brown wash; incised along the contours. 23 x 18 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
39. Jacobs Jordaens, Study of the Head of a Young Woman, c. 1640. Black and red chalk, 16 x 14.1 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
40. Peter Paul Rubens, The Damned at the Last Judgment (after Michelangelo), 1601–2. Black and red chalk on paper, 47 x 72 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
41. Peter Paul Rubens, Study of the Head of a Young Girl, 1635–40. Black, white and red chalk, laid down, 21 x 18 cm
© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
More images here