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:02 Oct 2021 CHAPTER TWO TWO NETHERLANDISH PAINTERS IN NAPLES BETWEEN 1598 AND 1612: LOUIS FINSON AND ABRAHAM VINCK The previous chapter offered an account of an individual career, to nuance Van Mander’s ideas about the Italian journey. The expanding Neapolitan art market, the openness towards foreign art and artists and the formation of a small community of Netherlandish painters were also addressed. This is, however, only the starting point and Mytens’ career is by no means a transferable format for the careers of all other Netherlandish painters in Naples. One of the goals of this dissertation is to understand the complicated dynamics that play a role in the success of foreign painters in Naples; to gain insight in their position in the quickly developing city and art market and in the choices of individual immigrant- painters. In this chapter, I focus on two painters, Abraham Vinck and Louis Finson. They were of the same age, one came from Antwerp and the other from Bruges; they were friends and business partners. Despite the many similarities in their life stories, their actual social and artistic choices in Naples were very different. This case study presents an opportunity to see how the Neapolitan situation changed and how the two artists each chose to adapt to the changed circumstances in their own way. Introduction: Netherlandish painters in Naples 1598-1612 By the time that Louis Finson arrived in Naples, at the latest in March 1605, the lead players within the group of Flemish painters in Naples, those that formed the center of the social network during the last quarter of the sixteenth century, had left the scene. Cornelis Smet had already died in October 1591, Wenzel Cobergher and Aert Mytens had left Naples permanently in 1597 and 1598, respectively heading for l’Aquila and Rome. We have no news of Pieter Mennens nor of Pietro Torres after 1603. Dirck Hendricksz Centen was still present in Naples until 1610,1 even though he seems to have placed his workshop in the hands of his son Giovanni Luca d’Errico in 1606.2 Loise Croys, who is documented in Naples between 1591 and 1616, was another steady factor within the 3 Northern colony in Naples. 1 See previous chapter and VAN EEGHEN 1980; VARGAS 1988; VARGAS 1991; DUDOK VAN HEEL 2006. 2 Unpublished notarial acts: ASN, Notai '500, L. Capazzuto, scheda 437, prot. 21, ff. 137r-138r (Teodoro makes GioLuca his procurator). 3 M.R. NAPPI 1991, esp. 20-22; many new documents were published in NAPPI & NAPPI 2005. From the way Maria Rosaria Nappi describes Croys, it seems as if he took over Smet’s role as ‘primus inter pares’, within the Netherlandish colony in Naples. 31 CHAPTER TWO Twelve painters from the Northern and Southern Netherlands are documented in Naples during Finson’s presence:4 the just mentioned Dirck Hendricksz Centen and his Naples- born son Giovanni Luca d’Errico, Loise Croys, Abraham Vinck,5 Hector Cruzer,6 Cornelis Essen,7 Johannes Snijders, Cornelio Brusco,8 Bartholomeus Ghesenz, Louis Capparte,9 Martin Faber10 and Jacob Isaacz Van Swanenburg.11 Apart from these Fiamminghi, the presence of some other Northern artists is documented: François de Nommé from Metz and Ernst Thomann (von Hagelstein) from Lindau.12 At least two of these painters, Dirck Hendricksz Centen and Jacob Isaacksz van Swanenburg, originate from the Northern 4 Apart from the publications referred to in the individual footnotes, I rely on the archival documents published thus far. NAPPI 1992 provided an overview of the documents published up to that point, recent additional publications: IOANNOU 2002, 2003 and 2009; NAPPI 2005a, 2005b, 2007, 2009; NAPPI & NAPPI 2005, GROSSI 2011. Also see further ahead in this paragraph for an analysis of the artistic production of these artists. If the artists are not mentioned individually in any publications, the only source of information are the aforementioned publications of archival documents. I only mention the period of their documented presence in the footnote. Leone de Castris lists some other artists, but since it is unclear on which documents he bases his additions, I have decided to leave them out. (LEONE DE CASTRIS 2007 and LEONE DE CASTRIS 2010) 5 DE ROEVER 1888; KRETSCHMAR 1978; VAN EEGHEN 1980; CAUSA 1999; WOLLESWINKEL 2001; DUDOK VAN HEEL 2006, 80; LEONE DE CASTRIS 2007. For an analysis of his activity in Naples, see below. 6 M.R. NAPPI 1991, 22. Cruzer is documented in Naples between 1598 and 1617 (cfr. note 4). 7 Cornelis (van) Essen is called Essens, Esens and Assento in the payments, dated between 1595 and 1607 (cfr. note 4). 8 There is mention of a Cornelio Brusco in Neapolitan payments from 1606, 1612, 1615, 1618, 1619, 1622, 1627, 1634 (NAPPI 1992). There are 47 paintings by Cornelio Brusco listed in the Neapolitan Inventories, published by Labrot (LABROT 1992, 497). From this data, it appears Brusco painted history paintings in which the landscape plays an important role. One inventory stands out with sixteen paintings (Carlo de Cardenas, LABROT 1992, n.42). In the Cardenas inventory, he is referred to as ‘Cornelio Bruscher’, ‘Cornelio Bouscher’ and ‘Cornelio Bruschel’. In the other inventories his last name varies as well: Brasso, Brusco, Brusca, Bruschè (LABROT 1992). 9 Thus far, the only reference to Louis Capparte is an unpublished processetto prematrimoniale of 20 November 1602, discovered by me in the course of this research, for the marriage between Louis Capparte and Geronima Mormile (ASDN, processetti prematrimoniali, 1602, lett. A, n. 32, see Appendix 105). The unknown painter Louis Capparte from Tournai (Doornik) - perhaps an Italianization of Louis Campaert - is an example of a painter who received commissions for ‘traditional’ religious subjects. From his processetto it is evinced that he worked in the service of Giambattista del Tufo, the bishop of Acerra. Capparte decorated the theatine basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli a Pizzofalcone and Del Tufo’s private residence. Del Tufo mentions that after the two years Capparte worked for him, he continued to practice his profession in Naples, whilst frequently visiting the bishop at his house. 10 Although we have no archival documents proving Faber’s stay in Naples, he signed two drawings ‘in neapoli’ in May 1611 and January 1612 (currently in Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett). We know he traveled with Finson to Marseille, since the two produced a set of pendant self-portraits in 1613. See below. 11 AMABILE 1890; SALERNO 1995; EKKART 1998; DE NILE & MACIOCE 2010; DE NILE 2013. In his processetto prematrimoniale of 28 November 1599, Jacob Isaacsz Van Swanenburg (Leiden 1571-1638) testifies to have been in Naples for three years. In 1615 he is back in Leiden (for document, see Appendix 106). 12 WEGNER 1969; WEGNER 1973; SEIFERT 2005. Ernst Thomann, who obtained his title ‘Von Hagelstein’ after 1634, was in Italy between 1605 and 1614 (see SEIFERT 2005). In June 1610, he acts as a witness for the processetto prematrimoniale of Tanzio da Varallo (D’ALESSANDRO & PORZIO 2009, 128-129). In May 1613, Thomann was a witness in the processetto prematrimoniale of François de Nommé (NAPPI 1991, 322-325). These two documents are the only proof of his presence in Naples. Sandrart and Houbraken describe Thomann’s acquaintance with Jan Pynas, Pieter Lastman and Adam Elsheimer in Rome (VON SANDRART 1675, II, book 3, 294; HOUBRAKEN 1718-1721, 132). 32 LOUIS FINSON AND ABRAHAM VINCK Netherlands, respectively Amsterdam and Leiden. Croys was from Mechelen, Vinck from Antwerp, the other artists are simply called ‘fiamengo’ in the documents. Martinus Faber was from Emden (Ostfriesland, Germany), which was flooded by Netherlandish fugitives in the period he was born. Very few paintings by these artists have been identified. From these numbers, it is clear that the total of Northern painters settling in Naples was undiminished during Finson’s Neapolitan sojourn. The same can be said about the strength of their social cohesion.13 In the first decade of the seventeenth century, the Fiamminghi shared houses, acted as witnesses for each other and married women from their home country, sometimes even the daughters of their colleagues.14 Of course, connected professions were included in the network. In Naples Jacob van Swanenburg was friends with German and Flemish goldsmiths (Danijel Bendel and Cornelis Vinck) and an ebonist from Munich (Mattheus de Micheli), and had been in contact with men of these professions in Hamburg and Florence.15 Capparte’s two witnesses for his marriage were a ‘scriptor’ and a sculptor, both from his home region.16 Cornelis, Abraham Vinck’s older brother, worked as a manufacturer of mathematical instruments and a goldsmith in Hamburg and Naples.