May 2024: A joint collaboration between Frans Hals and Gerrit Bleker

New issue: Oud Holland 137 (2024) 1/2

30 May 2024

The editors of Oud Holland are excited to present a new double issue with four thought-provoking articles on art from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries.

Firstly, Jan Verheyen delves into the world of the fifteenth-century painter Pieter Cristus, explaining in the process why that spelling is preferable to as the more familiar 'Petrus Christus'. Thanks to new archival finds, the author is able to reconstruct several key aspects of the artist's life in and around his hometown of Baarle, as well as his career as portrait painter in Bruges.

Secondly, the ongoing debate on potential collaborations with Frans Hals is furthered with a close stylistic analysis of one of his quintessential works. Its author, Claus Grimm, convincingly argues that fellow Haarlem landscape painter Gerrit Bleker was actively involved in the production of the monumental family portrait of Gijsbert van Campen and Maria Palesteyn with their thirteen children, here dated between 1623-1625.

In the third article Susan Russell explains how a special series of etched views on Rome by Herman van Swanevelt has come to life. By thoroughly analysing the world of the commissioner, the French writer Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux, Russell provides clues that shed light on the realisation of the series in 1650 and its role in the printmaking scene in Paris.

Lastly, a newly found design drawing for a triptych commemorating the life of Maria Snyders offers insight into the artistic process, from detailed design to balanced composition. The author, Catherine Phillips, also proves that both design and triptych were realised by Jan Boeckhorst approximately five years before Snyders' death in 1659.

In 2018 Oud Holland introduced a double-blind peer review system to continually guarantee the highest standard of academic publishing. Since then, all externally consulted specialists have naturally remained anonymous to the authors and readers. We take this opportunity to thank them explicitly for their indispensable discernment.

We wish you an inspiring reading time.

Jan Verheyen – From fields of rye to Eyckian grandeur: New biographical data on Pieter Cristus (c. 1420-1475) – pp. 1-33

SUMMARY

Recent archival finds fill some gaps in the biography of Pieter Cristus (c. 1420-1475), the painter who succeeded Jan van Eyck and who is considered the flagbearer of the highly esteemed Eyckian style in Bruges. Several spellings of his name occur but most often authors have chosen the Latinised version, Petrus Christus. Nonetheless, consistency demands to name him by his Middle Dutch name Pieter Cristus, just like all other fifteenth-century early Netherlandish painters. Two important aspects of Pieter Cristus' life have now been uncovered, regarding his origins and regarding his Bruges residence.
The painter's odd family name Cristus is strongly related to his native town Baarle in the duchy of Brabant (now on the Belgian-Dutch border). The synthesis of numerous documents, including charters, aldermen's deeds, notarial deeds, tax registers and fief enumerations – many of which were previously unpublished – enabled the construction of a comprehensive understanding of Pieter Cristus' origins in Baarle. His relatives were clearly part of the local elites, taking up roles as a notary, financial expert, administrator, burgomaster or a village priest. One member of the family, probably a cousin of Pieter Cristus, was closely related to the Burgundian court. Even his presumed father, an expert in finance whose name was Peter Cristus, was found.
The second part of the article deals with Pieter Cristus' residence in Bruges. Just recently the location of his house was discovered in a forgotten and overlooked annuity register. The house, formerly owned by a mayor of Bruges and located in the middle of the international business quarter, testifies to the painter's high social position, quite appropriate for a man with his background. The various finds, both in Baarle and in Bruges, substantiate a consistent picture of a painter who moved comfortably in high social circles.

Claus Grimm – Frans Hals and Gerrit Bleker: A joint collaboration on a fragmented family portrait (1623-1625) – pp. 34-48

SUMMARY

Frans Hals (1582-1666) is renowned for his vivid family portraits, usually set outdoors. A debate has long taken place as to whether Hals ran a workshop with assistants and specialists who helped him with the production of particular motifs and genres, such as the landscapes in the background of these often-extensive group portraits. In seeking answers, the monumental family portrait of Gijsbert Claesz van Campen (1585-1645) and Maria Jorisdr Palesteyn (1582-1666) with their thirteen children is particularly illuminating. Based on the meticulous stylistic analysis of the three remaining fragments of this painting – Hals' earliest-known family group portrait – it can now be determined that the landscape was painted by his contemporary, Gerrit Claesz Bleker (1592-1656).
As a celebrated landscape painter of the time, Bleker must have shared a social and professional network with Hals and his commissioners. The manner in which the trees and foliage in the background and the large goat at its centre have been depicted in the family portrait shares a striking resemblance to Bleker's other work. The painting can therefore be identified as a joint collaboration between the two Haarlem specialists – possibly the only known occurrence.
The dating of the group portrait to circa 1623-1625 also has important implications for another painting by Frans Hals: the double portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laan. Formerly dated around 1622, the year the two were married, the work reveals such an advanced style and technique that it should instead be placed among Hals' later works from circa 1627. It also explains why Hals asked another landscape specialist to collaborate; Pieter de Molijn's skills were more in line with Hals' new approach to vivid portraits in outdoor settings. Therefore, rather than a usual wedding portrait, as is commonly accepted in literature, this much beloved painting was likely a commission on the occasion of the featured couple's anniversary in 1627.

Susan Russell – 'Diverses veues deseignees en la Ville de Rome': Herman van Swanevelt's 1650 print series for Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux – pp. 49-71

SUMMARY

Herman van Swanevelt (c. 1603-1655) was born in Woerden in the Netherlands but lived for an unknown period in Paris before travelling to Rome c. 1629, where he became a successful landscape painter and printmaker with an elite clientele. He returned to Paris c. 1643 and was equally prosperous, his success due to his pastoral landscape paintings and etched views of Rome. The focus of this article is the sequence of thirteen etchings of Roman landscapes entitled 'Diverses veues deseignees en la Ville de Rome', that Swanevelt executed for a French patron, the Sieur Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux (1619-1692) in 1650. Tallemant was renowned for his 'Historiettes', short, sometimes scurrilous biographies of elite members of the 'Ancien Regime', and had a prestigious position as councillor to the French High Court.
To provide a context for the commission, a fresh view is offered of Tallemant and the relevance of the prints to his character and experience, in particular the journey he made to Rome in 1638. Despite his Protestant background, the patron's activities included visiting the Palazzo Barberini, family residence of pope Urban VIII Barberini (reigned 1623-1644). The major resident was Cardinal Antonio Barberini (1607-1671), who was responsible for diplomatic relations with France and, during Tallemant's visit, a key figure in celebrations marking the birth of a Dauphin to the French crown.
At this time the cardinal was also taking possession of a large number of mythological landscapes in pastoral settings, commissioned from Herman van Swanevelt. It is suggested that artist and patron may have already met in this milieu in Rome. This, and other aspects of Swanevelt's and Tallemant's careers are examined to make points of connection. The nature of the commission, the undated prints' conception, style, content, execution and publication are analysed to establish their novelty in the French printmaking environment, as well as the role they played in establishing Swanevelt's status as an independent designer, printmaker and publisher in Paris.

Catherine Phillips – The symbols of the four evangelists: A newly discovered modello for Jan Boeckhorst's Snyders triptych (c. 1654) – pp. 72-83

SUMMARY

Masquerading for many years under the name of Federico Zuccaro, the newly identified modello for the outer wings of the triptych commemorating Maria Snyders (1588-1659) is an important addition to the drawn oeuvre of the Flemish artist Jan Boeckhorst (1604-1668). Its discovery adds to our understanding of his process of work, moving from the depiction of the symbols of the four evangelists proposed in the preliminary drawing towards a more compact and balanced composition. It also provides an opportunity to revisit the dating of the Snyders triptych itself and to reconsider a drawing traditionally associated with it.
More than the finished panel painting, the fluid depiction of the four evangelists' symbols in brown wash and white body colour over black chalk, with delicate touches of oil, accentuates links with Boeckhorst's designs for prints for the Plantin publishing house in Antwerp. The author argues that there is reason to believe that not only was the triptych conceived some time before the death of Maria Snyders in 1659, but that the drawing at least was executed around 1654.
The author also argues that another drawing by Boeckhorst, kept in the Teylers Museum and known under the title Epitaph for Maria Snyders, should be disassociated from the triptych and viewed separately. Not only are there clear indications that it was intended for a print and not as the basis of a painting, but it conveys a different message. If the Snyders triptych speaks of salvation, the drawing in Haarlem promotes veneration of the Virgin Mary as the surest path to Christ, not least through quotations from the works of the ardent Marian Jesuit Petrus Canisius (1521-1597).