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He was the first artist to depict game as a subject of hunting rather than as food displayed in a home or kitchen. He did not place fruit and vegetables in his game pieces but rather dogs forming part of the hunting scene in an outdoor landscape. As the game was no longer shown as food but as a trophy, these works have been referred to as trophy pieces. This new approach to the display of game as part of the hunt caused Fyt to include hunting equipment and tools in these works. Hounds play an important role in these pieces and together with the hunting equipment they point to the proximity of the master. Fyt occasionally included portraits of individuals and families in these game pieces. While hunting was at the time still a pastime reserved for the aristocracy, the well-off urban elite were eager to acquire Fyt's game pieces to decorate their houses with these tokens of a lifestyle only open to aristocrats. |
Some of his game pieces display the scene as if seen through the eyes of an animal witnessing the scene. An example is the Dead Game and Weasels (c. 1642, Detroit Institute of Arts). The adoption of the animal viewpoint has been interpreted as Fyt's reflection on new philosophical and scientific ideas on the differences and similarities between animal and human consciousness that were developed in 17th-century Europe. |
Fyt's innovative game pieces were influential on artists practicing the genre in France and the Dutch Republic. |
Flower pieces |
Fyt created flower pieces in the later part of his career from 1643 onwards. He depicted large flowers with drooping blooms, such as peonies, tulips with other flowers extending high above them. The pieces are typically arranged in a vase. In a few works the vase seems to have fallen over or is placed on an architectural element. Fyt uses fairly broad and fluid brushstrokes, in places with impasto. His choice of palette is careful and more tonal than that of his master Snyders. He also relies on chiaroscuro effects. |
Collaborations |
As was the custom in Antwerp at the time, Fyt collaborated regularly with other painters who were specialist in other areas such as figure, landscape or architectural painting. He thus relied on figure painters such as Cornelius Schut, Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert and possibly on occasion Jacob Jordaens and on figure and architectural painters such as Erasmus Quellinus II. |
Drawings |
Jan Fyt produced many drawings of animals based usually on studies from nature. The Hermitage holds a large gouache drawing of a Fox Hunt. It is rich in colour and carefully executed and was likely intended as a model for tapestry cartoon. |
Engravings |
Fyt was an accomplished etcher and he produced a series of etchings depicting mainly animals and dogs. These were published in his lifetime in two sets referred to respectively as the Set of the Dogs and the Set of the Animals. The set of 8 prints of the Dogs series was published in 1642. The title plate shows two hunting dogs in front of a pedestal with a dedication to the Spanish Don Carlo Guasco, Marquess of Soleno who was the patron of the publication. The other plates show dogs in the middle of various activities and situations. |
The Set of the Animals comprised 8 prints depicting respectively billy goats, an ox, a horse, a recumbent dog, a recumbent cow, a wagon near a tree, a recumbent cow and two foxes. |
References |
Further reading |
Keyes, G. 'Salerooms Discoveries: Still Life Drawings by Fyt and Snyders', The Burlington Magazine 119 (1977), pp. 310–312 |
Martin, Gregory, The Flemish School, 1600–1900, National Gallery Catalogues, 1970, National Gallery, London, ISBN 0-901791-02-4 |
External links |
Media related to Jan Fyt at Wikimedia Commons |
Jan Gossaert (c. 1478 – 1 October 1532) was a French-speaking painter from the Low Countries also known as Jan Mabuse (the name he adopted from his birthplace, Maubeuge) or Jennyn van Hennegouwe (Hainaut), as he called himself when he matriculated in the Guild of Saint Luke, at Antwerp, in 1503. He was one of the first painters of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting to visit Italy and Rome, which he did in 1508–09, and a leader of the style known as Romanism, which brought elements of Italian Renaissance painting to the north, sometimes with a rather awkward effect. He achieved fame across at least northern Europe, and painted religious subjects, including large altarpieces, but also portraits and mythological subjects, including some nudity. |
From at least 1508 he was apparently continuously employed, or at least retained, by quasi-royal patrons, mostly members of the extended Habsburg family, heirs to the Valois Duchy of Burgundy. These were Philip of Burgundy, Adolf of Burgundy, Christian II of Denmark when in exile, and Mencía de Mendoza, Countess of Nassau, third wife of Henry III of Nassau-Breda. |
He was a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer and the rather younger Lucas van Leyden, whom he knew, but he has tended to be less highly regarded in modern times than they were. Unlike them, he was not a printmaker, though his surviving drawings are very fine, and are preferred by some to his paintings. |
Biography |
His name was in fact "Jan Gossart", and he was so known in his lifetime; the Dutch version "Gossaert" crept into later sources, despite Gossart's first language being French. Little is known of his early life. One of his earliest biographers, Karel van Mander, claimed he was from a small town in Artois or Henegouwen (County of Hainaut) called Maubeuge or Maubuse. Other scholars have determined he was the son of a bookbinder who received his training at Maubeuge Abbey, while the RKD mentions there is evidence to support a claim that he was born in Duurstede Castle. He is registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1503. |
In 1508-9 he travelled to Rome, either in the company of, or later sent by, Philip of Burgundy, an illegitimate son of Duke Philip the Good, who was sent as ambassador to Pope Julius II by Philip the Handsome. Philip's party, very likely including Gossaert, left the Netherlands in October 1508, arrived in Rome on 14 January 1509, and was back at The Hague by 28 June 1509. Although the details are unclear, it seems that Gossaert remained in Philip's employment until he died in 1524, by then Bishop of Utrecht. However, throughout this time he was able to work for other patrons, mostly friends of Philip. |
In 1509–17 Gossaert was registered as a resident of Middelburg. According to Van Mander he was one of the first Flemish artists to bring back the Italian manner of painting with much nudity in historical allegories. From 1517 to 1524 he is registered at Duurstede Castle where according to the RKD, he had Jan van Scorel as pupil. From 1524 onwards he returned to Middelburg as court painter to Adolf of Burgundy, another Habsburg relative. Jan Mertens the Younger was another pupil. |
He was a contemporary of Lucas van Leyden, and was influenced by artists who came before him, such as Rogier van der Weyden, the great master of Tournai and Brussels and, like him, his compositions were usually framed in architectural backgrounds. |
Works |
Gossaert shows Antwerp influence in the large altar-pieces previously located at Castle Howard and Scawby. At Scawby he illustrates the legend of the count of Toulouse, who parted with his worldly goods to assume the frock of a hermit. His altarpiece of the Descent from the Cross with heavy double doors in Middelburg was admired by Albrecht Dürer before the church itself was hit by lightning. This is possibly the work now in the Hermitage, though Van Mander stated the lightning destroyed it and describes another Descent of the Cross in the possession of Mr. Magnus of Delft in 1604. |
At Castle Howard, the Earl of Carlisle had obtained The Adoration of the Kings previously created for the Grandmontines, which throws together some thirty figures on an architectural background, varied in detail, massive in shape and fanciful in ornament. This painting is now on display at the National Gallery, which bought it in 1911. Gossaert surprises the viewer with pompous costume and flaring contrasts of tone. His figures, like pieces on a chess-board, are often rigid and conventional. The landscape which shows through the colonnades is adorned with towers and steeples in the minute fashion of Van der Weyden. After a residence of a few years at Antwerp, Gossaert took service with Philip of Burgundy, bastard of Philip the Good, at that time lord of Somerdyk and admiral of Zeeland. One of his pictures had already become celebrated: a Descent from the Cross (50 figures), on the high altar of Tongerlo Abbey. |
Philip of Burgundy ordered Gossaert to execute a replica for the church of Middelburg, and the value which was then set on the picture is apparent from the fact that Dürer came expressly to Middelburg (1521) to see it. In 1568 the altarpiece perished by fire. In 1508 Gossaert accompanied Philip of Burgundy on his Italian mission to the pope, and by this accident an important revolution was effected in the art of the Netherlands. Gossaert appears to have chiefly studied in Italy the cold and polished works of the Leonardesques. He not only brought home a new style, but he also introduced the fashion of travelling to Italy; and from that time until the age of Rubens and Van Dyck it was considered proper that all Flemish painters should visit the peninsula. The Flemings grafted Italian mannerisms on their own stock, and the cross turned out so unfortunately that for a century Flemish art lost all trace of originality. |
Gossaert undoubtedly made a large number of drawings in Rome after the innumerable ancient ruins and sculptures that the city had. Today only four surviving magazines are known; a sheet with the ruins of the Colosseum (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett), a study of the so-called Apollo Kitharoedos (Venice, Accademia), a study of the so-called Capitolean Hercules (Private collection, London), and a sheet with studies of, among others, the famous Spinario or "thorn extractor" (Leiden, Leiden University Library's Print Room). |
In the summer of 1509 Philip returned to the Netherlands, and, retiring to his seat of Suytburg in Zeeland, surrendered himself to the pleasures of planning decorations for his castle and ordering pictures of Gossaert and Jacopo de' Barbari. Being in constant communication with the court of Margaret of Austria at Mechelen, he gave the artists in his employ fair chances of promotion. Barbari was made court painter to the regent, while Gossaert received less important commissions. Records prove that Gossaert painted a (posthumous) portrait of Eleanor of Portugal, and other small pieces, for Charles V in 1516. |
But his only signed pictures of this period are the Neptune and Amphitrite of 1516 at Berlin, and the Madonna, with a portrait of Jean Carondelet of 1517, at the Louvre, both of which suggest that Vasari only spoke by hearsay of the progress made by Gossaert in the true method of producing pictures full of mythological nude figures and poesies. It is difficult to find anything more coarse or misshapen than the Amphitrite, unless it is the grotesque and ungainly drayman who figures for Neptune. In later forms of the same subject—the Adam and Eve at Hampton Court, or its feebler replica at Berlin and Venus and Amor (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels)—there is more nudity, combined with realism of the commonest type. |
Happily, Gossaert was capable of higher efforts. His St Luke painting the portrait of the Virgin in Sanct Veit at Prague, a variety of the same subject in the Belvedere at Vienna, the Madonna of the Baring collection in London, or the numerous repetitions of Christ and the scoffers (Ghent and Antwerp), all prove that travel had left many of Gossaert's fundamental peculiarities unaltered. His figures still retain the character of stone; his architecture is as rich and varied, his tones are as strong as ever. But bright contrasts of gaudy tints are replaced by soberer greys; and a cold haze, the sfumato of the Milanese, pervades the surfaces. It is but seldom that these features fail to obtrude. When they least show, the master displays a brilliant palette combined with smooth surface and incisive outlines. In this form the Madonnas of Munich and Vienna (1527), the likeness of a girl weighing gold pieces (Berlin), and the portraits of the children of the king of Denmark at Hampton Court, are fair specimens of his skill. |
As early as 1523, when Christian II of Denmark came to the Netherlands, he asked Gossaert to paint the likenesses of his dwarfs. In 1528 he requested the artist to furnish to Jean de Hare the design for his queen Isabellas tomb in the abbey of St Pierre near Ghent. It was no doubt at this time that Gossaert completed the portraits of John, Dorothy and Christine, children of Christian II, which came into the collection of Henry VIII. No doubt, also, these portraits are identical with those of three children at Hampton Court, which were long known and often copied as likenesses of Prince Arthur, Prince Henry and Princess Margaret of England. One of the copies at Wilton, inscribed with the forged name of Hans Holbein, ye father, and the false date of 1495, has often been cited as a proof that Gossaert came to England in the reign of Henry VII; but the statement rests on no foundation whatever. |
At the period when these portraits were executed Gossaert lived at Middelburg. But he dwelt at intervals elsewhere. When Philip of Burgundy became bishop of Utrecht, and settled at Duurstede Castle, in 1517, he was accompanied by Gossaert, who helped to decorate the new palace of his master. At Philip's death, in 1524, Gossaert designed and erected his tomb in the church of Wijk bij Duurstede. He finally retired to Middelburg, where he took service with Philip's brother, Adolph, lord of Veeren. |
Carel van Mander's biography accuses Gossaert of an unruly life; yet it describes the solid education he must have had to learn his trade so well. It also describes the splendid appearance of Gossaert, dressed in gold brocade, as he accompanied Lucas van Leyden on a pleasure trip to Ghent, Mechelen and Antwerp in 1527. |
The works of Gossaert are those of a hardworking and patient artist; the number of his still extant pictures practically demonstrates that he was not a debauchee. The marriage of his daughter with the painter Henry van der Heyden of Leuven suggests that he had a home, and did not live habitually in taverns. His death at Antwerp is recorded in the portrait engraved by Jerome Cock. |
Notes |
References |
Campbell, Lorne, "Biography – Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)" Archived 16 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, National Gallery, London |
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Crowe, Joseph Archer (1911). "Mabuse, Jan". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 189. |
Further reading |
Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn, Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance : the Complete Works, 2010, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 1588393984 9781588393982, fully online |
Snyder, James. Northern Renaissance Art, 1985, Harry N. Abrams, ISBN 0136235964 |
Nadine M. Orenstein, 'Jan Gossaert's Mocking of Christ: A Reversal of States', Print Quarterly, XXVIII, 2011, 249–55 |
Bass, M. A. (2016). Jan Gossart and the invention of Netherlandish antiquity. Princeton University Press. |
External links |
Media related to Jan Gossaert at Wikimedia Commons |
7 full catalogue entries from the National Gallery, London Archived 12 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine, by Lorne Campbell |
Works and literature at PubHist |
Jan Harmensz. Muller (1571–1628) was a Dutch engraver and painter. |
Muller was born in Amsterdam. His father was a book printer, engraver and publisher. He learned the engraving trade while working at the family business. He traveled and lived in Italy for a time. Muller returned home, inherited his father's business, and died in 1628. |
Works |
Rape of Sabine, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago |
Couple embracing, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Two studies of Atlas, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK |
Masked Ball, Le Louvre, Paris |
Head, Le Louvre, Paris |
Agar in the desert, Le Louvre, Paris |
The Prodigal son being seduced, Le Louvre, Paris |
Raising of Lazarus', National Gallery of Ottawa, Canada |
== References == |
Jan Lievens (24 October 1607 – 4 June 1674) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who was associated with his close contemporary Rembrandt, a year older, in the early parts of their careers. They shared a birthplace in Leiden, training with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, where they shared a studio for about five years until 1631. Like Rembrandt he painted both portraits and history paintings, but unlike him Lievens' career took him away from Amsterdam to London, Antwerp, The Hague and Berlin. |
Biography |
According to Arnold Houbraken, Jan was the son of Lieven Hendriksze, an embroiderer (borduurwerker), and was trained by Joris Verschoten. He was sent to Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam at about the age of 10 for two full years. After that he began his career as an independent artist, at about the age of 12 in Leiden. He became something of a celebrity because of his talent at such a young age. Specifically, his copy of Democriet & Herakliet by Cornelis van Haarlem (illustration), and a portrait of his mother Machtelt Jans van Noortzant, were admired. This attracted the attention of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, around 1620, who bought a life-size painting of a young man reading by the light of a turf-fire. He gave this painting in turn to the English Ambassador, who presented it to James I. This was the reason why in 1631, when Lievens was 24, he was invited to the British court. Houbraken appears to have taken this account directly from Jan Orlers' Beschrijvinge der Stad Leyden (1641) which gives a life of Jan Lievens in pages 375-7 including these details. However a painting by Lievens in the Getty Museum of Prince Charles Louis and his Tutor which must have been painted in Leiden is clearly signed and dated 1631, so the exact timing of his trip to England is open to doubt. |
When he returned from England via Calais, he settled in Antwerp, where he married Suzanna Colyn de Nole, the daughter of the sculptor Michiel Colyns, on 23 December 1638. In this period he won many commissions from royalty, mayors, and city halls. According to Houbraken, a Continence of Scipio was painted for the Leiden city hall. A poem by Joost van den Vondel was written in honor of a painting (a schoorsteenstuk, or over the mantel piece) he made for the mayor's office of the Amsterdam city hall (now the Royal Palace of Amsterdam) in 1661. According to the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, this piece survives and depicts Brinno raised on a shield with the Cananefates, after a similar painting by Otto van Veen in 1613. |
Lievens collaborated and shared a studio with Rembrandt van Rijn from about 1626 to 1631. Their competitive collaboration, represented in some two dozen paintings, drawings and etchings, was intimate enough to cause difficulties in the attribution of works from this period. Lievens showed talent for painting in a life-size scale, and his dramatic compositions suggest the influence of the Caravaggisti. In Constantijn Huygens' assessment, Lievens was more inventive, yet less expressive than Rembrandt. The two men split in 1631, when Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam and Lievens to England. In 1656 Rembrandt still owned paintings by his former friend. |
During his time in England Lievens painted a portrait for Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and became influenced by the works of Anthony van Dyck. Lievens worked in Antwerp, and cooperated with Adriaen Brouwer. After being a court painter in The Hague and Berlin, he returned to Amsterdam in 1655. After his first wife died he married a sister of Jan de Bray in 1648. After 1672, the "Rampjaar," Lievens had increasing financial difficulties and his family voided all claims of inheritance on his death due to his debts. |
Posthumous |
In 2022, a long-lost missing drawing by Lievens (last seen at auction in Frankfurt in 1888) was rediscovered and auctioned by Christopher Bishop Fine Art for €1.35 million at TEFAF Maastricht. |
Public collections |
Agnes Etherington Art Centre |
Amsterdam Museum |
Mauritshuis, The Hague |
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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