The Design Practices of the Dutch Architectural Painter Bartholomeus Van Bassen
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National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 26, 2005 National Gallery Company London Distributed by Yale University Press Series editor Ashok Roy © National Gallery Company Limited 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. First published in Great Britain in 2005 by National Gallery Company Limited St Vincent House, 30 Orange Street London wc2h 7hh www.nationalgallery.co.uk British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this journal is available from the British Library isbn 1 85709 341 0 issn 0140 7430 525046 Publisher Kate Bell Project manager Jan Green Editor Diana Davies Designer Tim Harvey Picture research Xenia Corcoran and Kim Klehmet Production Jane Hyne and Penny Le Tissier Printed in Italy by Conti Tipocolor front cover Rubens, The Judgement of Paris (NG 194), detail of plate 1, page 4. title page Joachim Beuckelaer, The Four Elements: Air (NG 6587), detail of serving girl. The Design Practices of the Dutch Architectural Painter Bartholomeus van Bassen axel rüger and rachel billinge artholomeus van bassen (c.1590–1652) was Cunerakerk, Rhenen (plate 1) is the only painting Bthe first Dutch painter to specialise in the genre in the National Gallery that can be reliably attrib- of architectural painting. He is now principally uted to the artist.3 remembered for the pivotal role he played in the Van Bassen’s beginnings are obscure. Neither the development of painting in this field, but he also precise date nor the place of his birth is known.4 It worked as an architect and received commissions is generally assumed that he was born some time from the courts of Orange and Bohemia, and the between 1590 and 1595.5 Carla Scheffer was the first city of The Hague.1 Given these prominent appoint- to discover documentary information that suggests ments, as well as his sizeable oeuvre as a painter, it a possible association with a family of the same is somewhat surprising that his name is not name from the Dutch town of Arnhem.6 mentioned by any of the contemporary writers on Regrettably, nothing is known about van Bassen’s art and only appears in the literature in the early training either.7 The first document that mentions nineteenth century.2 The Interior of the St Bartholomeus himself is his registration as a fully plate 1 Bartholomeus van Bassen, Interior of the St Cunerakerk, Rhenen (NG 3164), 1638. Oak, 61.1 × 80.5 cm. NATIONAL GALLERY TECHNICAL BULLETIN VOLUME 26 | 23 Axel Rüger and Rachel Billinge plate 2 Bartholomeus van Bassen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c.1618–20. Oak, 61.6 × 99.7 cm. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Julius Weitzner, inv. no. 37.59. © The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan. trained master with the Guild of St Luke in Delft on survived and this, together with the insights 21 October 1613.8 By 1622 he had moved to The provided by infrared reflectography, has greatly Hague where he became a member of the local enhanced our understanding of Saenredam’s work- guild.9 Besides his continuous activity as a painter, ing methods.15 Several studies and exhibitions have from 1629 until 1634 he received architectural been devoted to other architectural painters, partic- commissions from the stadholder Frederik Hendrik ularly those from Delft, and much attention has for the palaces at Honselaersdijk and Ter been paid to their use of perspective, yet to date Nieuwburgh as well as work for the court of the their works have hardly ever been the subject of any Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, Frederik V.10 technical research.16 The examination of the Detroit Possibly as a result of these commissions, van painting provided a first indication that IRR could Bassen was appointed official architect to the city of supply us with helpful clues about the working The Hague in 1639.11 The artist died in 1652.12 methods of an architectural painter by whom no Only Gerard Houckgeest (1600?–1661) can be iden- preparatory drawings on paper are known. The tified with some degree of certainty as van Bassen’s subsequent examination of the Interior of the St pupil.13 Cunerakerk, Rhenen at the National Gallery The recent investigation of the Interior of the St confirmed many of the first insights we had drawn Cunerakerk, Rhenen with infrared reflectography from the findings in Detroit. We felt, however, that it (IRR) at the National Gallery was prompted by the was desirable to look at a greater number of works interesting results that had been gained from the by van Bassen before we could come to more reli- earlier examination of van Bassen’s Return of the able conclusions. In 2001 we were able to examine Prodigal Son in Detroit in 1996 (plate 2).14 Until two further works that were included in the then technical research in the field of Dutch archi- Gallery’s exhibition Vermeer and the Delft School, tectural painting had almost exclusively focused on and in 2003 the Royal Collection made their Palace the most prominent representative of this genre, the Interior with The King and Queen of Bohemia Haarlem painter Pieter Saenredam (1597–1665). In dining in Public available to us. Colleagues in other his case a large quantity of sketches and prepara- institutions have also kindly shared their findings. tory and construction drawings on paper have As a result, in this article we are able to sketch a 24 | NATIONAL GALLERY TECHNICAL BULLETIN VOLUME 26 The Design Practices of the Dutch Architectural Painter Bartholomeus van Bassen clearer and more reliable picture of van Bassen’s design process and working methods than has previ- ously been possible. While architectural painting has its roots in the interior and exterior settings depicted in the works of fifteenth-century Netherlandish painters such as Jan van Eyck, Geertgen tot Sint Jans and Bernaert van Orley (1491/2–1541), it only developed into an independent genre in the sixteenth century.17 In 1539 the Netherlandish painter, sculptor and architect Pieter Coecke van Aalst began to publish a Dutch edition of Sebastiano Serlio’s treatise on architec- ture, the Regole generali di Architettura, a key plate 3 Hendrick van Steenwyck the Younger, Interior of a publication that helped to introduce Renaissance Gothic Church looking East (NG 1443), c.1604–15. architecture and perspectival principles to northern Copper, 36.7 × 55 cm. Europe.18 In 1560 the architect, engineer and designer Hans Vredeman de Vries (1526–1607), after having studied the work of classical and and rich detail, these images remained influential for Renaissance architects such as Vitruvius and Serlio, many decades and are reflected in the work of produced a number of books with model illustra- Steenwyck’s son Hendrick the Younger tions of perspectival constructions and architectural (c.1580–1649, plate 3), as well as Pieter Neefs the settings. These volumes, published simultaneously Elder (c.1578–1656/61) and his son Pieter the in Dutch, Latin, French and German, became enor- Younger (1620–after 1675). mously popular and were used by artists well into As has been mentioned, very little is known the seventeenth century.19 An immediate follower of about van Bassen’s early life and training. His earli- Vredeman de Vries whose publications were equally est surviving work, the Interior of Antwerp influential was Hendrik Hondius (1573–c.1649). He Cathedral, signed and dated 1614 – one year after not only printed Vredeman de Vries’s Perspectiva of his admission to the Guild of St Luke as a fully 1604–5, but in 1622 also published his own treatise, fledged master – must therefore be considered as the the Institutio artis perspectivae, a book that became starting point of his career.24 In this painting van very popular and was widely used by artists.20 Bassen depicts a Gothic church interior with a view Drawing on these influences and traditions, down the central nave towards the choir, decorated architectural painting developed as an independent with altarpieces and small staffage figures. genre first in Flanders. Hans Vredeman de Vries, Accomplished in its perspectival construction, the besides being an influential theoretician, architect treatment of light and the carefully rendered details, and engineer, was one of the first artists to paint the picture adheres closely to the Antwerp tradition views of buildings in which the architectural struc- of architectural painting.25 ture began to take precedence. The settings he The ties to the Flemish predecessors, however, depicts are mostly richly decorated mannerist while still visible, seem to lessen in van Bassen’s palaces, but he also painted Gothic and Renaissance works from around 1620, for example the church interiors. His son Paul (1567–c.1630) contin- Imaginary Church Interior with the Tomb of ued this tradition, yet focused more emphatically on William the Silent in Budapest (see p. 38, plate 8).26 the rendering of elegant palace interiors.21 A close Although he retained the single-point perspective, follower of the style of the two Vredeman de Vries after 1620 van Bassen started to emphasise light and was Hendrick Aerts who also favoured imaginary atmospheric effects to articulate architectural space. mannerist palaces and church interiors.22 Another A short while later he began to make more use of important pupil of Hans Vredeman de Vries, classically inspired architectural elements, turning Hendrick van Steenwyck the Elder (c.1550–1603), is his church interiors into monumental Renaissance usually credited with having established the tradi- structures.