BRILL_NKJ63_BW_NKJ_63 08-07-14 10:15 Pagina 136

136 Aleksandra Lipińska BRILL_NKJ63_BW_NKJ_63 08-07-14 10:15 Pagina 137

137

Eastern outpost The sculptors Herman van Hutte and Hendrik Horst in c. 1560-1610

Aleksandra Lipińska

In April 1567 the city council of Lviv (Львів, now ; Pl. Lwów; Ger. Lemberg), the capital of the Ruthenian , one of the eastern regions of the Kingdom of , acquiesced to the request of one ‘Hermann Fanhute, statuarius’ to prolong a deadline for submission of a legitimate birth certificate and confirmation of his education.1 The sculptor’s petition appears to have been unnecessary, however, since in the same month, in the register of Municipal Acts of the same city, another document was inscribed that relieved him of these requirements. This was a privilege issued on 1 April by the Polish king, Sigismund Augustus (1520 – 1572), in which the ruler granted ‘Hermann von Hutt Aquisgran[ensis]’ the title of royal servant and sculptor, together with the freedom to practise his craft throughout the Kingdom of Poland. Moreover, he advised the council of Lviv to grant the sculptor full burgher rights without submitting the previously required documents.2 Some six years later, on 14 November 1573, another newcomer called ‘Henricus Hoßth’, presenting himself as a sculptor and master builder, applied to the same authority with a similar request.3 He was given three years to complete his records. There is no way of knowing if the artist, who originated from Groningen, fulfilled these requirements.4 Yet as we find him listed in 1582 in the register of the stonemasons’ guild, and other documents testify to his extensive professional activity in Lviv and other cities in Poland (especially Poznań, the capital of Greater Poland), it is to be assumed that the problem was solved satisfactorily for both parties. These documents suggest that Hermann van Hutte and Hendrik Horst were welcomed with open arms in Lviv, one of the most remote outposts of the Netherlandish artistic diaspora in the sixteenth century (fig. 1). Although unknown in the Netherlands, these two immigrant artists have been the subjects of many studies by Polish and Ukrainian art historians.6 Consequently, a considerable number of works seemingly demonstrating the features of the so-called Northern Renaissance current have been attributed to them.7 These studies, however, though based on rich archival material, lacked a broader perspective that could place these artists and define their roles within two relevant fields of reference. Firstly, within the phenomenon of the Netherlandish artistic migration of the sixteenth century; and secondly, within the multi-ethnic group of artists active in Poland at that time. Before I investigate in detail some aspects of the activity of Van Hutte and Horst in Poland, let us focus on the pull and push factors that prompted their migration. Firstly, what caused them to leave their homelands? Detail fig 18