Dutch Townscape at Toronto / the Dutch Cityscape in the 17Th Century and Its Sources. an Exhibition Held at the Amsterdams Histo
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Document generated on 09/24/2021 5:26 p.m. RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne Canadian Art Review --> See the erratum for this article Dutch Townscape at Toronto The Dutch Cityscape in the 17th Century and its Sources. An exhibition held at the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, Amsterdam, 17 June–28 August 1977, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 27 September–13 November 1977 Leonard J. Slatkes Volume 5, Number 1, 1978 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1077321ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1077321ar See table of contents Publisher(s) UAAC-AAUC (University Art Association of Canada | Association d'art des universités du Canada) ISSN 0315-9906 (print) 1918-4778 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this review Slatkes, L. J. (1978). Review of [Dutch Townscape at Toronto / The Dutch Cityscape in the 17th Century and its Sources. An exhibition held at the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, Amsterdam, 17 June–28 August 1977, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 27 September–13 November 1977]. RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review, 5(1), 54–56. https://doi.org/10.7202/1077321ar Tous droits réservés © UAAC-AAUC (University Art Association of Canada | This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit Association d'art des universités du Canada), 1978 (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Dutch Townscape M Toronto The Dutch Cityscape in the i yth Century and its Sources. An nificant landscape pictures which altered the rôle of the exhibition held at the Amsterdams Historisch entire genre, townscape, with no single important Muséum, Amsterdam, 17 June —28 August 1977, and painter as its champion, languished and both literally the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 27 September—13 and figuratively remained in the background. What the November 1977. Toronto exhibition has been able to demonstrate for Catalogue: The Dutch Cityscape in the iyth Century and its the first time is the fact that townscape, while lacking a major artistic champion, allied itself with the more SourceslOpkomst en bloei van het Noordnederlandse technically and scientifically oriented arts of cartog- stadsgezicht in de iyde eeuw, Amsterdam and Toronto, raphy and topographical rendering. At about the same 1977. 272 PP-, x57 illus., $18.50 (cloth), $10.00 (paper). time, early in the sixteenth century, the graphie arts The crédit for recognizing the need for an exhibition also took up independent townscape and architectural dealing with the city as subject must go to Richard J. renderings: first, as illustrations for travel books and Wattenmaker, Chief Curator of the Art Gallery of the like, and then as the setting for independent Ontario, who helped to organize the exhibition with popular prints of contemporary events or even as the the Historical Muséum of Amsterdam. Wattenmaker carrier of seasonal imagery. In townscape, the graphie also contributed an excellent essay in the handsome arts not only helped to bridge the gap between the catalogue which underscored the rôle townscape has sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but also actively played in the history of art. Other important contribu contributed to the development of the genre. tions were made in the form of introductory essays to Although strongly Netherlandish in coloration, the the various sections of the catalogue, assuring that it townscape was not, strictly speaking, a monopoly of the will continue to be of scholarly significance long after Low Countries. In the Danube Valley, where landscape the exhibition has closed. Most valuable for their as an independent art form also developed early in the introductions to relatively inaccessible and little known sixteenth century, townscape and architectural subject material are Boudewijn Bakker’s essays ‘Maps, Books matter also became important thèmes. Augustin and Prints, The Topographical Tradition in the Hirschvogel, for example, was a mathematician and Northern Netherlands’ and ‘The Cityscape and its cartographer as well as an etcher, underscoring the Sources,’ as well as the individual catalogue entries in rôle scientific topography played in the development these sections. As these section titles indicate, the of townscape. In the Netherlands it is certainly sig- structure of the exhibition was developmental rather nificant that Pieter Bruegel was in contact with Ab than dealing with the style or personality of individual raham Ortelius and therefore was aware of the artists, or becoming bogged down in nagging questions contributions that this technical and scientific tradition of attribution. This is not to indicate that such had to offer in both town and landscape. problems are not important, or présent in the Indeed, an interest in cartography and topographi catalogue, but only to note that they are, at our présent cal rendering appears to be one of the preconditions stage of knowledge, less important than understanding for the early development of sixteenth-century how townscape developed. townscape. Thus, it is difficult to understand, especially It is difficult for art historians to explain exactly why given the emphasis placed upon this tradition in the landscape developed into an important and indepen- Toronto exhibition, why one of the most important dent genre involving ail artistic media, while the closely topographical specialists of the entire sixteenth century related area of townscape was, for the most part, was passed over so summarily. Only one work by relegated to a secondary position. Thus, while Joachim Antoon van den Wyngaerde was shown (cat. no. 23), Patinir and Pieter Bruegel the Elder produced sig- and the authors appear unaware of the important 54 RACAR / V / 1 article dealing with Wyngaerde’s activity by E. section and raised important questions concerning the Haverkamp-Begemann (‘The Spanish Views of Anton chronology of the development of seventeenth-century van den Wyngaerde,’ Master Drawings, vu [1969], townscape as an independent genre. Nevertheless, only 375-99) which called attention to his importance in the Wattenmaker in his introduction called attention to development of the topographie and panoramic Saenredam’s paintings, while the artist was completely townscape. As the most accomplished practitioner in ignored by Bob Haak in his introductory essay to the the art of townscape, the peripatetic Wyngaerde was section. commissioned by no less a patron than Philip 11 to The townscape situation was not to change sig- produce drawings of those cities ruled by Spain. Most nificantly until about the middle of the seventeenth unusual for the period is the fact that many of these century, when the innovations of Saenredam in both large drawings were mounted on canvas and hung like architectural interiors and townscape were taken up by paintings in the Escorial. Thus, Wyngaerde’s works numerous other specialists, such as Abraham and Jan were afforded an early public showing not usually Beerstraaten (cat. nos. 97 and 98; 53, 54, 99-101), accorded works in the topographie tradition at this Bartholomeus van Bassen (cat. no. 17), and Daniel time. It is also not surprising to discover that Wyn Vosmaer (cat. nos. 128-30), as well as non-specialists gaerde made several paintings of townscapes. These, such as Carel Fabritius and Johannes Vermeer. Clear- unfortunately, like the large finished drawings for the ly, a number of historical, political, and économie Escorial, seem not to hâve survived. Nevertheless, it is events must hâve contributed to this rather dramatic clear that Wyngaerde was the first to attempt to bridge artistic shift. Unfortunately, Dedalo Carasso’s curious the gap between the more technical orientation of pure essay ‘The Town behind the Picture’ allows the spécial topographie rendering and the aesthetic needs of rôle that Dutch cities played during the third quarter painting. Indeed, it seems quite possible that it is of the seventeenth century to become lost in the mass Wyngaerde who provided a bridge between the style of of his économie and démographie information. The Patinir and that of Bruegel. For example, the lone situation certainly calls for greater historical clarifica Wyngaerde exhibited at Toronto, the Bird’s-eye View of tion. It is no accident, for example, that the rapid rise Amsterdam (1547-50) can be seen as predicting of townscape painting in Holland coïncides with what is Bruegel’s only surviving painting of a townscape, the known as the stadholderless period of Dutch history. It View of Naples in the Galleria Doria in Rome. It is even is during this exact period, 1653 to 1672, that possible that the two artists met in Italy. Bruegel was townscape developed as a major artistic genre which there in 1552-53, exactly the time that Haverkamp- attracted both greater and lesser painters. Unfortu Begemann places Wyngaerde in Italy. nately, not enough work has been done on the Another significant Netherlandish draughtsman commissioning of townscape pictures by the various who produced topographical townscapes during the municipalities. Certainly one would also like to know sixteenth century was also active on the Iberian more about where these pictures were displayed as well peninsula, indicating that Spain, as the ultimate ruling as who paid for them. Interestingly enough, authority of the Netherlands, may hâve served as a townscapes were used in Italy as symbols of municipal catalyst in the development of the new genre. The virtue and économie strength. An early and well known artist in question was Joris Hoefnagel and the drawings example of this is Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco oïThe he made in Spain and elsewhere during 1563 and 1564 Effects of Good Govemment (1340) in the Palazzo were later taken over by Braun and Hoegenberg and engraved as part of the most important book of townscapes and maps of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Civitates orbis terrarum (cat.