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Bibliography |
Hans Jantzen, Das Niederländische Architekturbild, Braunschweig, Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1910 |
Maillet, Bernard G. (2012). La Peinture Architecturale des Ecoles du Nord : les Intérieurs d'Eglises 1580-1720. Pandora Publishers Wijnegem. ISBN 9789053253373. |
External links |
Works and literature on Pieter Saenredam |
Michele L. Frederick, “Interior of Saint Bavo, Haarlem by Pieter Jansz. Saenredam (cat. 599),” in The John G. Johnson Collection: A History and Selected Works, a Philadelphia Museum of Art free digital publication |
Pieter Meulener or Peter Meulenaer (Antwerp, baptised 18 February 1602 – Antwerp, 27 November 1654), Antwerp), was one of the leading Flemish painters of battle scenes in the mid-17th century. He also painted landscapes with genre scenes. |
Life |
Pieter Meulener was born in Antwerp as the son of genre painter Jan de Meuleneer and Elizabeth Floris. He was baptised on 18 February 1602 in Antwerp Cathedral. His grandfather was the Flemish Renaissance painter Cornelis Molenaer who was known for his landscapes. It is assumed that he was trained by his father Jan who had joined the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1598. Pieter joined the Guild in 1631 as a "wijnmeester" (literally: winemaster), which means he was the son or brother of a current member. He likely got married the same year to Maria Hendrickx. |
SInce no early dated works have been discovered, it is likely he initially assisted his father in his workshop. He started out on his own account in 1642. |
He was successful as he was able to rent a luxurious residence. When he died in 1654 he was recorded as having one daughter of 20 years old and a son of 15 years old. |
Work |
General |
He was able to establish a reputation as a leading battle painter of battles but was also known for his landscapes. His works are usually dated and signed with "P.MEVLENER". He occasionally used the monogram "PM" (in ligature; the P centrally on top of the M). The works signed with this monogram have long been considered as by Pieter de Molijn. |
His works can be found in leading museums including the Prado Museum, the Hermitage Museum, the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre. |
Battle scenes |
His battle scenes depict cavalry skirmishes, attacks on military convoys and on travellers, depicting those subjects from the Flemish side in the Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War. His preferred theme was cavalry engagements and his usual way of representing these was to place a dense cavalry skirmish in a certain area of the composition. Whereas some Flemish war artists such as Peter Snayers painted battle scenes which depicted real battles in a topographical and analytical manner, Meulener only aimed to represent the battles in a general form. |
His battle scenes show similarities with those of Sebastiaen Vrancx, the first Flemish artist to attempt this subject matter. Some historians believe Meulener may have studied under Vrancx. |
His palette is closer to that of Peter Snayers, who studied under Sebastiaen Vrancx. After 1645 his colour became clearer under the influence of Dutch battle scene painters, such as Pieter de Neyn, Jan Jacobsz. van der Stoffe and Abraham van der Hoef and in particular Palamedes Palamedesz. (I), to the extent that their battle scenes can be confused. |
Landscapes |
His landscapes typically include genre scenes. An interesting example is the Landscape with a Dancing Couple dated 1645. It is painted on the decorated lid of an Antwerp harpsichord. The landscape shows a landscape outside a village where a group of people are enjoying outdoor activities. On the left a couple is dancing to the music of a lute player and a violinist. On the right stands a man with a bag over his shoulder. |
If the work View of Hemiksem Castle sold at Sotheby's in its London sale of 9 June 1982 as Lot 110 is indeed by Peter Meulener, then it appears that he also painted topographical landscapes. |
Collaborations |
As was the custom in Antwerp in the 17th century, Meulener collaborated with other artists on compositions. An illustration of such collaboration is An extensive landscape with a cavalry skirmish on a ridge (Sold at Christie's on 6 July 2007 in London, Lot 147) in which he painted the staffage and David Teniers the Younger the landscape. |
References |
External links |
Media related to Pieter Meulener at Wikimedia Commons |
Peter Snayers or Pieter Snayers (1592–1667) was a Flemish painter known for his panoramic battle scenes, depictions of cavalry skirmishes, attacks on villages, coaches and convoys and hunting scenes. He established his reputation mainly through his topographic battle scenes providing a bird's eye view over the battlefield. He further painted large landscapes and portraits of the aristocracy. He was a regular collaborator of local landscape painters and also Rubens. |
After starting his career in Antwerp, he moved to Brussels where he worked for the court. He was the principal military iconographer of the court in Brussels and the appointed court painter with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. |
Life |
Snayers was born in Antwerp, where he was baptized on 24 November 1592. His father Lodewijk was the city messenger of Antwerp for Brussels. He was enrolled as a pupil of Sebastiaen Vrancx in Antwerp's Guild of St. Luke in 1612. Sebastiaen Vrancx was a prominent battle and genre painter. In 1613, Snayers became a master in the Guild. |
In 1618, Snayers married Anna Schut, a cousin of the painter Cornelis Schut. Their first child Cornelis was baptized on 8 September 1620. Snayers achieved success as an artist. In Antwerp, the family lived in luxury and Snayers participated annually in the lavish banquet of the chamber of rhetoric Violieren. |
Snayers joined the painters' guild in Brussels on 16 June 1628. He became a citizen of Brussels at the same time. It is believed he had been working for the Archduke Albert (died in 1621) while living in Antwerp. He had been appointed court painter and 'domesticq van 't Hof" (domestic of the court) by the Archduke. Snayers likely moved to Brussels in order to pursue opportunities at the court of the Archduchess Isabella, the widow of the Archduke and the governess of the Southern Netherlands. |
After Isabella's death in 1633, Snayers became court painter to the next two governors, the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria (1634–1641) and the Archduke Leopold (Wilhelm) (1647–1656). For them he painted scenes of victorious battles in the tradition of sixteenth-century tapestries. He painted portraits of the aristocracy in Brussels and large landscapes. He also worked for other eminent patrons and the open market. A highlight in his career was a commission for 22 battle paintings by general Ottavio Piccolomini. |
While working in Brussels he regularly visited his hometown Antwerp but never returned to live there. He collaborated with painters in Antwerp such as Peter Paul Rubens on several occasions, including on the never-finished Life of Henry IV cycle (1628–30) and the Torre de la Parada series (c. 1637–1640). Both during his Antwerp and his Brussels periods, He mingled with the elite of his time. He climbed the social ladder and aspired to live a lifestyle similar to that of the aristocrats of his day. He was thus an example of the 17th century 'aristocratization' of successful citizens. |
His pupils included Guilliam van Schoor and Adam Frans van der Meulen. The latter became a leading battle painter and court painter to Louis XIV of France. |
There is no record of when Snayers died but it is believed he died in Brussels in 1667. |
Work |
General |
Peter Snayers is mainly known as a painter of battles, military engagements, raids on villages and attacks on, or robberies of, convoys. He painted portraits of the aristocracy in Brussels and large landscapes. In addition, he created various hunting scenes and a few religious compositions. Finally, he completed a few compositions showing public processions of the guilds and civil militia. |
Stylistically, his coloring was more subdued than that of his teacher Vrancx and reflects contemporary trends in Flemish and Dutch painting. |
War artist |
Peter Snayers created large-scale historical battle scenes as well as smaller works depicting cavalry skirmishes and scenes of soldiers at rest. His historical battle scenes demonstrate a close attention to topographic accuracy. Frequently, these show a shallow foreground that recedes sharply to show a besieged town from a bird's-eye perspective. Snayers paid particular attention to rendering the battle scenes as accurately, completely and true-to-life as possible. He was not present at any of the battles which he depicted. To arrive at his realistic and accurate composition Snayers relied on official military maps, reliable war reports and artistic inventions by other artists. His artistic sources included prints by Georg Braun, Frans Hogenberg, Jacques Callot and works by Peter Paul Rubens. |
Snayers generally did not include in his compositions any explanatory signs, symbols or legends that would help the viewer in identifying which battle was depicted. The absence of such explanatory elements preserved the realism of the picture but also required the viewer to have prior information to understand the subject. As most of his works were commissioned by the highest military leaders in the Habsburg (Spanish and Imperial) army they would have known the scenes depicted. |
His large canvases clearly played a dual role: they documented the historical event and at the same time they glorified the military men who participated in the action. The compositions were painted from the point of the patron who commissioned them. Equestrian portraits of the patrons and their coats of arms were included so that their military feats were immortalized. The compositions thus justified the patrons' eminent status in society as well as their loyalty to the Habsburg court. The heroic images were also intended to serve as a model for later generations. As his works' distribution remained limited to the Spanish side, the decay of the Habsburg dynasty in the second half of the 17th century affected the artist's international reputation. |
Snayers often painted scenes of assaults by robbers on travelers and of soldiers plundering villages, a subject matter closely related to his military scenes. An example is the Flemish landscape with travellers attacked by robbers (Koller Zürich auction of 23 March 2018, lot 3026). The picture narrates a scene of travellers in a stage coach attempting to ward off an attack of robbers. The scene is full of action and depicts various stages of the attack including the robbers on horse back exchanging fire with the victims, one man already down flat on the ground being robbed and a woman pleading with a robber who is pointing at her. |
Collaborations |
As was common in 17th century artistic practice in Antwerp, Snayers often collaborated with other artists. He was a regular collaborator with landscape painters Joos de Momper, Jan Brueghel the Younger and Alexander Keirincx. He also collaborated with Rubens. |
In his collaborations with landscape painters, Snayers was responsible for the figures and his collaborators for the landscapes and cityscapes. He collaborated with Joos de Momper principally between 1613 and 1620. The collaborations with Jan Brueghel the Younger date from after 1634. An example of a collaboration with Joos de Momper is the View of a city canal in winter with figures, presumably in Antwerp (at Artcurial, Paris, 19 June 2012, lot 14). The composition shows a city street and canal covered in snow. The scene is animated by many characters going about their daily activities, children enjoying the joys of winter and merchants busy at their stalls. Rather than a topographical view, the painting provides an entertaining testimony of life in a 17th-century city in Flanders. The city depicted is possibly Antwerp. |
Snayers' collaborations with Peter Paul Rubens included the never-finished cycle on the Life of Henry IV (1628–30) and the Torre de la Parada series (c. 1637–1640). The Life of Henry series was commissioned from Rubens by Marie de' Medici in February 1622 together with a series of paintings about her own life. The two series were intended to decorate the Luxembourg Palace, her new dwellings in Paris that were then under construction. Marie de' Medici had been the Queen of France as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. Following the assassination of her husband in 1610, she acted as regent for her son, King Louis XIII of France, until he came of age. The series on the life of the Queen was finished in 1625 and exhibited in the western gallery of the Luxembourg Palace. The series on the life of Henry IV was intended to be displayed in the eastern gallery of the Luxembourg Palace. Rubens worked on the Life of Henry IV from 1628 to 1630. Of the planned 24 pictures, 16 would depict the key battles in which the king himself had participated. Rubens had commenced work on six when the Queen lost her power in 1630 and was forced into exile in 1631. With the loss of his buyer, Rubens was forced to stop work. Five of the paintings have survived and one is missing. The surviving pictures depicted the military feats of the King. The upper portion of the paintings showing prospects of battle scenes were completed by Peter Snayers. These scenes consist of many painstakingly detailed small figures. They contrast with Rubens' contribution in the lower part of the compositions, which consist of significantly larger figures, including King Henry IV on horseback, which fill the foreground. The figures by Rubens are rather sketchy and some art historians believe that they are unfinished. The landscape specialist Lodewijk de Vadder was probably responsible for the large trees that appear in some of the canvases. Despite the contrast between the top half painted by Snayers and the bottom half painted by Rubens, the compositions offer a feeling of unity. |
The Torre de la Parada was a hunting lodge of the Spanish king near Madrid. Rubens had received a commission from the Spanish king Philip IV of Spain to create a series of paintings to decorate the hunting lodge. A majority of the paintings depicted mythological scenes largely based on the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Rubens realized this important commission with the assistance of a large number of Antwerp painters such as Jacob Jordaens, Cornelis de Vos, Jan Cossiers, Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, Theodoor van Thulden, Jan Boeckhorst, Jan Baptist Borrekens, Peeter Symons, and Jacob Peter Gowy and others, who worked after Rubens' designs. Snayers was also involved in this project as a collaborator. Two large canvases showing King Philip IV at the hunt are attributed to him. |
Notes |
External links |
Media related to Peter Snayers at Wikimedia Commons |
Pietro Alemanno (c. 1430 – 1497 or 1498) was an Italian-Austrian painter of the Renaissance period. |
He was born in Göttweig (Austria) and died in Ascoli Piceno. He trained with Carlo Crivelli. |
In 1484, Alemanno painted a fresco of the Annunciation for the Palazzo Communale in Ascoli, in which he shows the figures in front of an elaborate architectural setting. In 1489 he painted an altarpiece of Virgin and Child between SS. Michael, Biaise, Jerome, and Nicholas for the church of Santa Maria della Carita. There are a number of his works in the Pinacoteca Civica Fortunato Duranti. |
Gallery |
References |
Sources |
Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves (ed.). Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. Vol. I A-K. London: George Bell and Sons. p. 17. |
Pietro Lorenzetti (Italian: [ˈpjɛːtro lorenˈtsetti]; c. 1280 – 1348) or Pietro Laurati was an Italian painter, active between c. 1306 and 1345. Together with his younger brother Ambrogio, he introduced naturalism into Sienese art. In their artistry and experiments with three-dimensional and spatial arrangements, the brothers foreshadowed the art of the Renaissance. |
Overview |
Little is known of Lorenzetti's life other than that he was (putatively) born in Siena in the late 13th century (c. 1280/90), died there (possibly) in 1348 a victim of the first Black Death pandemic then devastating Europe, and had a younger brother, Ambrogio, also an artist. That the men were brothers was unknown to Vasari because he misread Pietro's surname on a painting in Pistoia's church of San Francesco as "Laurati". Thus the kinship between the artists was missed. Pietro was known to have been a young man in 1306 as he was still being referred to as Petruccio di Lorenzo. However, he was at least 25 at the time because he was paid directly. |
Pietro worked in Assisi, Florence, Pistoia, Cortona, and Siena, although the precise chronology is unknown. His work suggests the influence of Duccio (in whose studio he may have worked, possibly alongside Simone Martini), Giotto, and Giovanni Pisano. |
According to Vasari, it was Pietro's frescoes which adorned the façade of Siena's Ospedale della Scala that first bought him to the attention of his contemporaries. The frescoes – now believed to be the work of both Lorenzetti brothers – were destroyed in 1720 and subsequently whitewashed over. |
Many of his religious works may still be seen in churches and museums in the Tuscan towns of Arezzo, Assisi, and Siena (e.g., his last documented work, the Nativity of the Virgin (c. 1335–1342), is displayed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo). |
Although Lorenzetti's integration of frame and painted architecture in the Nativity of the Virgin is usually thought to be unique, it is evident in the frescoes of Assisi some decades earlier. One probable conclusion can be made that he did not read Latin, as there was documentation of a translator being paid in association with his work on the Birth of the Virgin. |
His masterwork is a fresco decoration of the lower church of the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, where he painted a series of large scenes depicting the Crucifixion, the Deposition from the Cross, and the Entombment. The massed figures in these pieces display emotional interactions, unlike many prior depictions which appear to be iconic agglomerations, as if independent figures had been glued onto a surface, with no compelling relationship to one another. The narrative influence of Giotto's frescoes in the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels in Santa Croce (Florence) and the Arena Chapel (Padua) can be seen in these and other works of the lower church. The Lorenzetti brothers and their contemporary competitor from Florence, Giotto (but also his followers Bernardo Daddi and Maso di Banco) seeded the Italian pictorial revolution that extracted figures from the gilded ether of Byzantine iconography into pictorial worlds of towns, land, and air. Sienese iconography, generally more mystical and fantastic than that of the more naturalistic Florentines, sometimes resembles a modern surrealist landscape. |
Works |
Castiglione d'Orcia Madonna |
The Madonna of Castiglione d'Orcia was painted prior to 1300 and is as such Lorenzetti's earliest extant work. In it, the figures are restrained, the mood reflective. The Child's dress is contemporary and elegant; the Virgin wears a deep blue cloak boarded by a Byzantine gold-striated band. |
Much about the piece is traditional: the Virgin's head sits along the vertical axis which crosses her right eye, itself gazing at the viewer (the same arrangement is found in Duccio's Rucellai Madonna), the tilts of the Virgin's and Child's faces (the Child gazes up at his mother whose head tilts toward her son but whose eyes remain steadfastly fixed toward the viewer) echo Duccio's earlier Madonnas such as his Madonna and Child in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
And yet there is something new in Lorenzetti's Madonna, for it has a realism largely absent in Duccio. Here, the Virgin's body responds 'realistically' to the weight of the Child. In earlier depictions of the Virgin and Child by Duccio the Virgin's posture remains unaffected by the realistic influences of weight and poise. The type of secure holding that Lorenzetti depicts in this painting is unprecedented in a painting, but it can be found in previous sculptures of Virgin and Child, from where Lorenzetti could have adapted it. |
Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi |
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