Commercial Lotteries in the Spanish Netherlands: Actors, Networks, Risks, and Profits

Chapter 5 Commercial Lotteries in the Spanish Netherlands: Actors, Networks, Risks, and Profits 1 Painter Claude Dorizi’s Lottery in Mechelen (1559–1560) Two different kinds of lottery were common in the former Low Countries dur- ing the sixteenth century. The oldest type, used by all institutional lotteries in the public interest, consisted of setting the hoped-for returns in advance and only proceeding to the final draw when all, or at least enough, tickets had been sold. The advantage to the organizer was the ability to control the returns on his investment and to defer, or even cancel, the draw if too few people took part.1 For the participant, the system offered a guarantee that all the prizes announced in advance would be drawn and distributed. This type of lottery required a complex organization, the burden and cost of which depended on the amount of capital involved. For these reasons, it had limited appeal for in- dividual entrepreneurs, particularly when, since the imperial order of 1526, the law had officially banned lotteries for commercial ends. These constraints did not, however, deter painter-dealer Claude Dorizi, who held a lottery of works of art in Mechelen between 1559 and 1560, for which he secured local authority approval and, as an exception, the consent of the governor of the Netherlands. Dorizi’s initiative is particularly interesting in two respects. Firstly, it is the only documented example of an ambitious lottery of paintings and sculptures that used the deferred-draw public-utility model in the Spanish Netherlands in the sixteenth century. Secondly, it enables an understanding of how Dorizi exploited the commercial rationale of the public-utility lotteries to boost his own sales and facilitate the disposal of his stock. 1.1 An Exceptional Lottery Permitted as an Exception Claude Dorizi was a painter and art dealer, probably of Italian origin, who was born somewhere around 1517 and died in Mechelen in 1565.2 His name ap- pears in the registers of the Mechelen Guild of Saint Luke from 1536 onwards. In the 1550s, he ran a prosperous studio and shop at the sign of the “Sheep,” 1 De Marchi, “The Role of Dutch Auctions,” 203–221. 2 Adolf Monballieu, in Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek (Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1966), 2:182–183. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004358812_007 176 Chapter 5 near Horenbrugge on Katelijnestraat. This artery was the epicenter of the city’s commercial and administrative activities as well as the means of access to the Antwerp road. It was also the district preferred by many artists who had set- tled in the city.3 Mechelen at the time was a very busy hub for the production and export of images (whether painted, sculpted, or engraved) and had close commercial ties with Antwerp only twenty-five kilometers away.4 The pres- ence in the city of the sumptuous court of Margaret of Austria, governor of the Netherlands from 1507 to 1530, had given a huge boost to the development of the arts and luxury industries. In 1566, the city still had at least 150 painters’ and sculptures’ workshops, some of them very famous, such as those of the Cocxie family. Since the beginning of the century, the cloister of the Monastery of the Recollects had opened its galleries to these artists, probably taking the Antwerp panden as a model.5 Dorizi’s renown had drawn several young painters in training to his work- shop, including Hans Vredeman de Vries (c. 1526–1609),6 Pieter Baltens (c. 1527–1584) and Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526–1569).7 Dorizi’s custom- ers were not limited to the city of Mechelen: he is known to have exported paintings, particularly to the Northern Netherlands.8 It was then a very high- profile painter-dealer who embarked on the lottery project a few weeks before Mechelen became an archbishopric (Papal Bull of May 12, 1559) and a few months before Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle was appointed archbishop pri- mate, which would make the city the ecclesiastical capital of the Netherlands. The way in which the lottery came to be held was not typical. Dorizi had initially secured the agreement of the Écoutète of Mechelen before spring 1559 and set about working on his lottery without bothering to seek the consent of the central authorities, the sole body able to grant the kind of permis- sion required. Apart from this “oversight,” everything was carefully planned. 3 On artists settling in Katelijnstraat, see Georges Onclincx, “À propos d’un dessin-message du Louvre, Un peintre devant son chevalet: Pierre Bruegel l’Ancien, ses enfants et son oncle (par alliance) Merten Verhuist de Mechelen,” Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 67 (1989): 272–282. 4 De Marchi and Van Miegroet, “The Antwerp-Mechelen Production,” 133–148. 5 Neeffs, Histoire de la peinture, 18. 6 Van Mander, Schilder-boeck, 1:322, fol. 266 r°. 7 Adolf Monballieu, “P. Bruegel en het altaar van de Mechelse Handschoenmakers (1551),” Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen (1969): 92–110. 8 In 1558, Dorizi had shipped to Dordrecht “two square crates, containing ‘tableaux’ and two small paintings tied to one another;” Neeffs, Histoire de la peinture, 18. The word “tableau” may refer to paintings or to sculpted bas-reliefs..

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