UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Netherlandish immigrant painters in Naples (1575-1654): Aert Mytens, Louis Finson, Abraham Vinck, Hendrick De Somer and Matthias Stom Osnabrugge, M.G.C. Publication date 2015 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Osnabrugge, M. G. C. (2015). Netherlandish immigrant painters in Naples (1575-1654): Aert Mytens, Louis Finson, Abraham Vinck, Hendrick De Somer and Matthias Stom. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:28 Sep 2021 INTRODUCTION ‘After that they completed their journey to Naples and saw the works of art there, and also the interesting phenomena at Pozzuoli. In Naples, I believe in the palace of the viceroy, Goltzius drew an excellent antique statue, a seated young Hercules; and he and his companions returned to Rome...’ (Carel van Mander, ‘Life of Hendrick Goltzius’ in: Schilder-boeck, 1604)1 Many sixteenth and seventeenth century artists from the Netherlands visited Naples.2 On his trip to the Southern Italian city in 1591, the engraver and painter Hendrick Goltzius from Haarlem studied the local art, the bizarre natural phenomena at Pozzuoli and an antique sculpture of a seated young Hercules in the palace of the Viceroy. The remarkable drawings that Gerard ter Borch made in 1610 of the spectacular volcanic landscape at Pozzuoli near Naples (Fig. 1), illustrate the fascination visitors had for these natural wonders. Upon approaching the city gates from the Via Appia – if they did not travel by sea – they caught sight of the cupolas of the numerous churches, the towers, the Castel Sant’Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino overseeing the city center from the Vomero hill (Fig. 2). Naples was the second-largest city of Europe, with over 250,000 inhabitants during the last quarter of the sixteenth century and close to half-a-million right before the plague struck in 1656. The narrow streets of the old city center were crowded with people from all over the world. The enchanting metropolis at the bay was admired for its natural and cultural marvels, but because of its complex social tissue – clashes between the government of the Spanish Viceroys, the Neapolitan elite, the Church and the population were frequent – it was characterized as ‘a paradise inhabited by devils’.3 A considerable number of painters from the Netherlands, including Aert Mytens, Abraham Vinck, Louis Finson, Hendrick De Somer and Matthias Stom (the five painters who are at the center of this dissertation) did not just visit the city; they lived and worked in Naples. 1 Van Mander 1604, fol. 283v: “Sy hebben voort hun reys tot Napels voleynt, de const aldaer ghesien, als oock te Puzziola de vremdicheden in der Natuere. Te Napels heeft Goltzius, ick meen in 't Paleys van den onder Coningh, gheconterfeyt een uytnemende Antijck, eenen sittenden en jeughdighen Hercules, en is met zijn gheselschap weder gekeert nae Room,…" (translation MIEDEMA 1994-1999). 2 From a quick survey, it is clear that several Northern artists made a stopover in Naples. Three seventeenth- century biographers (Van Mander, Sandrart and Houbraken) mention a visit to Naples of the following Northern artists: Jan Stephan van Calcar (Van Mander, Sandrart), Pieter Vlerick (Van Mander), Gilles Coignet (Van Mander), Hendrick Goltzius (Van Mander, Sandrart), Ter Brugghen (Houbraken), Otto Marseus van Schrieck (Houbraken), Leonart Bramer (Houbraken), Joachim von Sandrart (Sandrart, Houbraken), Johann Wilhem Baur (Sandrart, Houbraken), Govert van der Leeuw (Houbraken), Willem van Ingen (Houbraken), Jan van Bunnik (Houbraken). In some cases, the artists also produced work in Naples and stayed for a longer period, but they are excluded from the analysis as they fall chronologically outside the scope of this research. For the brief sojourn of Jan van der Straet (Giovanni Stradano) in Naples, see: GOLDENBERG STOPPATO 2005. 3 Benedetto Croce traced the origin of this characterization back to the early-sixteenth and possibly fourteenth century (CROCE 1927). 1 INTRODUCTION Early modern artists were remarkably mobile. Apart from traveling within their region of origin, many left their home country for months or years on end to visit faraway places. Travel was an important element in the life and artistic development of the early modern artist. Italy was by far the most popular destination for artists from the Netherlands, although they also traveled to England, France, Spain, Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe and distant lands like India.4 The objective of the Italian journey was to study antique sculpture and architecture, the works of the great Italian masters of the past and present and for some the unfamiliar landscape on the way. These treasures were not available in the North and studying them was considered an important enrichment of the painter’s visual repertoire. In the Grondt der Edel-vry Schilderconst, the artist and biographer Carel van Mander urged young artists to undertake this journey, while warning them for the many perils they would encounter on the road.5 Throughout the biographies of Netherlandish artists in the rest of the Schilder-boeck, Van Mander refers to the travel experiences of various artists. He mentions the people they met along the way, the art works they studied and sometimes tells an entertaining anecdote to give the reader a taste of the life of the traveling artist. In the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, over six hundred Netherlandish artists are documented to have undertaken the journey to Italy, and their experience plays an important role in the development of painting in the Northern Netherlands.6 Most journeys to Italy consisted of a round trip: after a certain period the artists returned to their home country. Only a few of them stayed and settled in a new city. It is to these artists that this study is dedicated. The difference between an itinerant and immigrant artist is in part related to the duration of the artist’s stay in one place. The five artists whose Neapolitan stay constitute the case studies in this dissertation lived in Naples for seven years or longer. Their social, professional and artistic perspectives changed once they decided to settle, although the initial encounter with Italy was likely quite similar to that of their colleagues who would return home.7 The choice to stop traveling and settle down is often a temporary decision and seldom final. An immigrant has to negotiate between his native background and the culture and conditions of the new environment, whereas itinerant artists are focused on moving-on without truly considering the local circumstances. An adjustment in behavior is implied, although some artists lingered in their itinerant status instead of fully turning into an immigrant. The ambiguous condition of the immigrant was described pointedly in 1908 by the sociologist Georg Simmel in an essay on the status of the stranger in society, called ‘Exkurs über den Fremden’. In his 4 cfr. note 40. 5 ‘Den Grondt der Edel vry Schilder-const: Waer in haer ghestalt, aerdt ende wesen, de leer-lustighe Jeught in verscheyden Deelen in Rijm-dicht wort voor ghedraghen’, forms the introduction to the Schilder-boeck (VAN MANDER 1604, fol. 1r-57v). 6 This number is based on the ECARTICO database. The number was probably much higher, as the emphasis of the database is on the seventeenth century and on artists from the Northern Netherlands. 7 In fact, it is often impossible to reconstruct whether they went to Italy with the intention to settle or that they made the decision along the way. 2 INTRODUCTION influential essay, Simmel described the stranger, in this case in the guise of a traveling merchant, as someone ‘‘…who comes today and stays tomorrow – so to speak the potential wanderer, who, although he did not move on, did not quite outgrow the freedom of coming and going’,8 thus underlining the flexibility of strangers. Despite this implicit continual state of movement, immigrant artists had to position themselves as inhabitants and artists within the new city. The process of integration started when the painters turned from itinerant into immigrant artists. This process will form the focal point of my dissertation. In the four case studies that follow, I will examine the lives and careers of five pittori fiamminghi who settled in Naples. The central question of this research is: What were the different ways in which the five Netherlandish painters integrated socially as well as artistically in Naples? I shall define the social and professional interaction with both compatriots and Neapolitans, the role of local institutions in their integration, their artistic production in Naples and the way in which they positioned themselves as artists on the Neapolitan art scene. The process of integration includes explicit decisions, for example to seek contact with certain people or work in a specific manner. I am reluctant to use the term ‘strategy’, as it implies rigorous planning and the subsequent execution of these plans.