Saturday, July 15, 2017

Portraits from Baroque Times, Etched and Engraved

Lucas Vorsterman after Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Charles I
before 1675
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Lucas Vorsterman after Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and Aletheia Talbot, Lady Arundel
before 1675
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

An Art Tour of Italy by a noble English couple in 1613-14 

"The Arundels set out as part of the official entourage escorting the elector and Princess Elizabeth on their journey through the Netherlands to Heidelberg, where they arrived on 7 June [1613].  After a week's stay Arundel and his wife departed with the duke of Lennox for Strasbourg, then headed south through Basel to Milan.  Their party included Prince Henry's former surveyor Inigo Jones, who had not yet distinguished himself as an architect but who did speak Italian and was already acquainted with northern Italy.  Experiences shared on this trip, which were fundamental in educating both Jones and Arundel in Italian visual culture, cemented a lifelong relationship between them.  After a quick visit to Parma, abruptly terminated when the Spanish governor failed to pay him the respect he believed due to his rank, Arundel took up residence near the hot springs of Albano, a few miles outside Padua.

Arundel interrupted his cure to fulfill the diplomatic assignment of conveying James I's respect and support to the government of Venice, which had recently emerged from a serious dispute with the papacy.  This mission assured him a lavish reception, by a welcoming party that included Gregorio Barbarigo, a cultivated and well-read follower of Paolo Sarpi, whose family had bought up the contents of Titian's studio after the artist's death.  Barbarigo arranged a feste di gentildonne to conclude the earl's visit and must have educated him in the city's rich artistic culture.  Arundel's connections with Venetian nobles probably also facilitated Jones's introduction to the architect Scamozzi and his inspection of Palladian villas in the Veneto.  The earl himself quickly began acquiring paintings and patronizing Venetian artists.  In September her wrote to Cotton, 'if  you could pick out some story of my ancestors, which would do well in painting, I pray send me it in writing'.

That same month Arundel may have made a brief trip to Mantua to pay James's respects to its newly installed duke, before departing for Florence by way of Bologna.  He then proceeded to Siena, where he took up residence in a monastery with his wife to perfect their Italian.  In the winter he left Aletheia behind to visit Rome, where he stayed several months, probably with the leading art patron Vincenzo Giustiniani, who gained him permission to conduct an archaeological dig in the Forum and contrived to have ancient statues placed where he would uncover them.  With these 'discoveries' Arundel began the collection of classical statues and inscriptions which he installed in the galleries and gardens of Arundel House. In March the earl and his wife visited Naples, before returning north at a leisurely pace through Florence, where Duke Cosimo gave them a lavish reception, and Genoa."

 R. Malcolm Smuts, from his extensive and learned entry in the Dictionary of National Biography for Thomas Howard, fourteenth earl of Arundel, fourth earl of Surrey, and first earl of Norfolk (1585-1646), art collector and politician

Lucas Vorsterman after Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel
ca. 1625-45
engraving
British Museum

Lucas Vorsterman after Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Lucas Vorsterman
ca. 1625-45
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Lucas Vorsterman after David Teniers
Portrait of a man
ca. 1658-73
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

David Teniers after Giambattista Moroni
Portrait of sculptor Alessandro Vittoria
ca. 1658-73
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Willem Hondius after Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia
1633
engraving
Teylers Museum, Harlem

Robert van Voerst after Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke
ca. 1619-36
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Willem Jacobz Delff
Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert, Remonstrant Minister, age 75
1632
engraving
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Claude Mellan
Portrait of Pierre Seguier
1639
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Claude Mellan
Portrait of Henri Louis Habert
1640
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Claude Mellan
Portrait of Pierre Gassendi
ca. 1630-40
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Claude Duflos after Pierre Ernou
Portrait of Nicolas le Conte
1710
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Jacobus Houbraken
Portraits of artists Jan de Bisschop and Johannes Voorhout
ca. 1718-21
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem