Aert Mijtens (1556 – 1601) a Painter from Brussels in Naples and the Spanish Viceroyalty Between 1575-1600
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Aert Mijtens (1556 – 1601) a painter from Brussels in Naples and the Spanish Viceroyalty between 1575-1600 Master Thesis for the Research Master “Art History of the Low Countries in its European Context” at the University of Utrecht, Faculty of the Humanities, Research Institute for Culture and History (OGC) Written by Marije Geertruida Cornelia Osnabrugge Supervisor: Prof. Dr. B.W. Meijer University of Utrecht / Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut in Florence September 2007 – January 2008 Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2 Chapter One: The Life of Aert Mijtens (1556-1601).............................................. 6 Chapter Two: Neapolitan society and culture (1575-1601)............................. 12 2.1 Government and economy................................................................................. 12 2.2 Religion...................................................................................................................... 15 2.3 Culture ....................................................................................................................... 20 Chapter Three: Catalogue raisonnée of Aert Mijtens’ oeuvre........................ 28 Catalogue ......................................................................................................................... 34 A: Documented works................................................................................................. 35 B: Lost or unidentified documented works........................................................ 48 C: Attributed works...................................................................................................... 70 D: Rejected works ......................................................................................................... 73 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 78 Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................... 81 Bibliography........................................................................................................................ 82 Appendix 1: Documents................................................................................................. 88 Appendix 2: Aert Mijtens in Carel van Mander’s Schilder-boeck (1604) .... 98 Illustrations....................................................................................................................... 100 1 Introduction A few decades before Rubens and Van Dyck made a reputation as portraitists and history painters in Italy and before the Bentveugels found the niche of genre and landscape painting in Rome in the 1620s, a number of pioneering Netherlandish artists travelled to Italy. Most of them went there as a part of their artistic training, to study the antiquities and Italian masters of the Renaissance. According to Van Mander, they went to Venice to educate themselves in the art of painting and the use of colours and Rome was where artists learned how to draw.1 While most artists returned home after their Italian sojourn, some of them stayed in Italy and integrated into the local artistic scene. Aert Mijtens (Brussels 1556 – 1601 Rome) was one of the latter group. He undertook the journey to Italy at a very early age. First he studied in Rome and afterwards he went to Naples, where he started a family, a workshop and a successful career. Only a handful of other Netherlandish artists were active in Naples at the same time as Mijtens, whereas in Rome and Venice the number of Fiamminghi2 was much larger. Rome was the capital of the Catholic world, a wealthy city inhabited by rich patrons and with a flourishing cultural scene. Moreover, an artist could find an abundance of art to study such as the works of Michelangelo, Raphael and the Antiquities. The situation in Naples was very different. Since 1503 the city had been ruled by viceroys who answered to the Spanish king. According to the Florentine artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari, the Neapolitans were not interested in art at all and were incapable of understanding the value of good paintings. 3 Although the nationalistic Vasari might have been a bit prejudiced, it is undeniable that in Naples art was regarded in a different manner. The question is how the Fiamminghi, and Mijtens in particular, managed to survive in Naples. In other words, which factors in Neapolitan society between 1575-1601 made it possible for Aert Mijtens to work successfully as a foreign artist in Naples and the Spanish Viceroyalty? Motivation Research on the artistic exchange between Italy and the North and in particular on the sojourn of Netherlandish artists in Italy is of major importance to understand Art in the sixteenth and seventeenth century in both the Netherlands and Italy. For that reason the Fiamminghi in Italy are a well-researched phenomenon. When studying the phenomenon of Northern artists in Italy, the study of ‘Fiamminghi in Rome’ can arguably count as a pars pro 1 Van Mander 1604, fol. 7v 2 ‘Fiamminghi’ is the Italian term used to indicate the people living on the Northern side of the Alps. The term includes people from the Northern and Southern part of the Netherlands and occasionally from Germany. Apart from this term I will use the adjective ‘Netherlandish’ to indicate this group, because the adjectives Flemish and Dutch are incorrect. Hans Vlieghe elaborately discusses this subject in his article ‘Flemish art, does it really exist?’, in: Simiolus 26 (1998), pp. 187 – 200. 3 G. Vasari, Le vite…, ed. 1568, vol. 4, p. 476: “Avvenne che stando egli in Napoli, e veggendo poco stimata la sua virtù, deliberò partire da coloro che più conto tenevano d'un cavallo che saltasse che di chi facesse con le mani le figure dipinte parer vive.” Life of Polidoro da Caravaggio 2 toto as it has done in many studies on the subject. Most travelling artists seem to have equated the Iter Italicum with a journey to Rome. As stated before, Rome apparently had everything a Northern artist searched for in Italy. Why then should it be necessary to study those artists who did not reside in Rome, but who settled in Naples, which was in this context a city of secondary interest? It is the combination of two facts which makes the subject worth investigating. On the one hand that Naples seems to have been of secondary interest and on the other hand that a number of Fiamminghi chose to leave Rome behind and continue their journey to the South. Investigating the ‘odd ones out’ will help us to refine our notion of the Iter Italicum that many Netherlandish artists undertook from the sixteenth century onwards. The decision to single out Aert Mijtens from the Fiamminghi in Naples is based on a couple of reasons. Firstly, within the limited time and space a master thesis provides for it is impossible to thoroughly investigate and describe all Netherlandish artists active in Naples in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Of course we have to keep in mind that Art History is not an exact science and that we are dealing with individual artists. Explaining Mijtens’ success does not mean we can explain the survival of all Fiamminghi in Naples. However, it might give us an indication of the conditions all Fiamminghi had to deal with to achieve some success. Secondly, Aert Mijtens’ case is particularly interesting because of the fact that Carel van Mander singles him out in his Schilder-boeck (1604) as one of the few Netherlandish artists who was able to compete with the Italians on their own territory, i.e. the painting of figures. “…he was therefore an outstanding master who made the Italians say less often that Netherlanders have no proper approach to the painting of figures, or at least gave them enough reson and occasion to remain silent upon that matter, or to speak of us more moderately.”4 In Van Mander’s eyes Aert Mijtens’ success was an example for his compatriots on how to reach the same level in painting as the Italian artists. Not only does this mean that we have a contemporary biography providing us with information which cannot be found in archives, it also means we have a contemporary of Aert Mijtens trying to answer exactly the same question as is the subject of this thesis which is the question why Mijtens was successful in Naples. 4 Van Mander 1604, fol. 264r: “hy is gheweest een treflijck Meester, die den Italianen heeft spaerlijcker doen verhalen, dat Nederlanders geen handelinghe in beelden hebben, oft heeftse stoffe genoech gegheven en oorsaeck sulcx te swijghen, oft maetlijcker van ons te spreken.” 3 Outline To be able to explain Aert Mijtens’ success in Naples I will use the following outline. First I will present a biography of the artist based on the Life dedicated to him by Van Mander in his Schilder-boeck and on the archival information found so far. The second chapter will comprise a concise impression of Neapolitan culture and society during Mijtens’ stay in the city. The aspects of society that might have influenced the careers of the Fiamminghi or that might account for the attraction of Naples to Netherlandish artists will be elaborated on. These aspects are for example artistic patronage, religious developments and the reign of the Spanish viceroys. After these two introductory chapters, I will turn to the most important source of information: Mijtens’ oeuvre.