Michael Sweerts (1618-1664) and the Academic Tradition
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ABSTRACT Title of Document: MICHAEL SWEERTS (1618-1664) AND THE ACADEMIC TRADITION Lara Rebecca Yeager-Crasselt, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Directed By: Professor Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., Department of Art History and Archaeology This dissertation examines the career of Flemish artist Michael Sweerts (1618-1664) in Brussels and Rome, and his place in the development of an academic tradition in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Sweerts demonstrated a deep interest in artistic practice, theory and pedagogy over the course of his career, which found remarkable expression in a number of paintings that represent artists learning and practicing their profession. In studios and local neighborhoods, Sweerts depicts artists drawing or painting after antique sculpture and live models, reflecting the coalescence of Northern and Southern attitudes towards the education of artists and the function and meaning of the early modern academy. By shifting the emphasis on Sweerts away from the Bamboccianti – the contemporary group of Dutch and Flemish genre painters who depicted Rome’s everyday subject matter – to a different set of artistic traditions, this dissertation is able to approach the artist from new contextual and theoretical perspectives. It firmly situates Sweerts within the artistic and intellectual contexts of his native Brussels, examining the classicistic traditions and tapestry industry that he encountered as a young, aspiring artist. It positions him and his work in relation to the Italian academic culture he experienced in Rome, as well as investigating his engagement with the work of the Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy (1597-1643) and the French painter Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665). The breadth of Sweerts’ artistic and academic pursuits ultimately provide significant insight into the ways in which the Netherlandish artistic traditions of naturalism and working from life coalesced with the theoretical and practical aims of the academy. This dissertation thus seeks to broaden our understanding of the artistic exchanges between the North and South, and the evolving role of the artist and the academy in the changing artistic landscape of the Netherlands in the mid-seventeenth century. MICHAEL SWEERTS (1618-1664) AND THE ACADEMIC TRADITION By Lara Rebecca Yeager-Crasselt Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Advisory Committee: Professor Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., Chair Professor Meredith Gill Professor Anthony Colantuono J. R. Dorfman, Emeritus Professor Peter Schatborn, Former Head of the Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, Rijksmuseum © Copyright by Lara Rebecca Yeager-Crasselt 2013 Dedication For my parents, and my husband. ii Acknowledgements This dissertation has benefitted from the guidance and generosity of a number of scholars, colleagues, friends, and family, without whom, this project would not have been possible. I wish to first thank my advisor, Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., for his careful and critical reading of the text, and for challenging me in ways that strengthened my ideas about Sweerts. I am grateful for his continuing encouragement and enthusiasm, and for his support as an advisor and friend over the years. The members of my dissertation committee in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, Professors Meredith Gill and Anthony Colantuono, have seen this project grow from its very beginnings. I would like to express my gratitude for their insightful and careful attention to the text, and for bringing an important Italian perspective to a project that has sought to shed light on the complex artistic exchanges between the Netherlands and Italy. I wish to also thank J.R. Dorfman, with whom I have greatly enjoyed discussing Sweerts over our shared appreciation for Netherlandish art. A special thanks to Peter Schatborn for not only his willingness to join the committee, but above all for his careful reading and excellent suggestions for improving the text along the way. His enthusiasum for my project has been encouraging. This project has also benefited from the help of many individuals and institutions in Belgium, The Netherlands, Washington, DC, and across the country. I wish to thank in particular Koenraad Brosens, Jonathan Bikker, Quint Gregory, Jereon Giltay, Susan Kuretsky, Margriet Lacy, David Levine, Alison Luchs, Peter iii Lukehart, Anja Petz, Christine Sellin, Amy Walsh and Anne Woollett, and the private collectors who warmly welcomed me into their homes. The generous support of the Cosmos Club Foundation in Washington, DC, The Graduate School and the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland, enabled me to conduct research in Brussels and Amsterdam. I would like to thank the Algemeen Rijksarchief and the Stadsarchief in Brussels, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for their assistance. I also had the opportunity to present my research on Sweerts in different capacities along the way, at the University of Padua and KU Leuven, and the meetings of the American Association of Netherlandic Studies and the Renaissance Society of America. My sincere thanks go to those individuals who offered their ideas and comments. At home, I would like to thank my fellow graduate students and friends at the University of Maryland for their feedback and support throughout the entire process. Finally, this project would not have been possible in any way without the support of my parents and my husband. For believing in me every inch of the way, and sharing in this experience with me, I am grateful beyond words. For my husband, Jost, I thank him for his patience, understanding and ability to help me see the humor in things when I needed it most. iv The dissertation document that follows has had referenced material removed in respect for the owner’s copyright. A complete version of this document, which includes said reference material, resides in the University of Maryland, College Park’s library collection. v Table of Contents Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... vi List of Illustrations ..................................................................................................... viii Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Sweerts’ Life in Brussels and Rome and his Paintings of Artists at Work............... 5 The Tradition of the Academy in Italy and the Netherlands .................................. 21 Sweerts and the Academy in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century ........... 26 Chapters .................................................................................................................. 28 Sweerts in Art Historical Scholarship ..................................................................... 31 Sweerts in the Southern Netherlands ...................................................................... 35 Early Modern Academic Traditions and Classicism in the Netherlands ................ 36 Chapter 1: Sweerts’ Early Years and the Italian Tradition in Brussels ...................... 40 Brussels in Perspective: a Brief History ................................................................. 42 The Artistic Fabric of the Court and the Circle of Rubens in Brussels .................. 47 Wenzel Coebergher and the Italian Tradition ......................................................... 53 Manifestations of the Classical Tradition in the Sixteenth-Century Southern Netherlands ............................................................................................................. 58 Theodoor van Loon: a Brussels “Apelles” .............................................................. 66 The Tradition of Tapestry: its Artistic and Economic Importance in Brussels ...... 76 Sweerts, the Deutz Family and the Textile Trade in Brussels and Rome ............... 85 Chapter 2: Sweerts and the Italian Accademia ........................................................... 92 Sweerts’ Arrival in Rome ....................................................................................... 94 The Italian Academic Tradition and the First Academies of Art.......................... 100 The Carracci Academy and Fialetti’s Didactic Drawing Book ............................ 109 The Founding of the Accademia di San Luca and the Role of Federico Zuccaro 115 The Pedagogical Program at the Accademia di San Luca .................................... 124 Sweerts and the Accademia di San Luca .............................................................. 130 Karel van Mander and the Early Netherlandish Academic Tradition................... 134 Chapter 3: Sweerts, Duquesnoy, Poussin and the Patronage of the Pamphilj .......... 139 Duquesnoy’s Pursuit of the Antique and his Friendship with Poussin ................. 141 Sweerts’ Representation of Duquesnoy’s Sculpture in the Studio ....................... 152 Sweerts, Duquesnoy and the Circle of Artists around Camillo Pamphilj ............. 161 Images of Plague: The Dialogue between Sweerts’ and Poussin’s Paintings .....