Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Oil on Copper (Cabinet Paintings)

Jan Verkolje
Portrait of Johanna Anthonetta Blonk
1693
oil on copper
private collection
 
Jan Verkolje
Portrait of Abraham van Bleyswijck-Guilliaamszn
1693
oil on copper
private collection

"Only toward the end of the sixteenth century would copper plates come into use as a new support for painting. Artists, were, of course, familiar with copper plates from printmaking, and there are a few rare instances in which paintings were executed on the backs of plates used for etchings or engravings. Normally special plates were produced for painting on copper, either hammered or  less commonly  rolled into sheets 2-4 mm thick. They were not very large, rarely exceeding 50 cm on a side. ... The stability of copper plates was not the decisive element that made them so popular, nor was the fact that paintings produced on them could easily be transported. More important was an aesthetic quality, one that artists found fascinating. On copper plates it was possible to execute especially intricate and radiant paintings, inasmuch as the support was hard and smooth and did not absorb oil pigments. The surfaces of such pictures were as glossy as enamels, and the effect was uncommonly brilliant. Moreover, on copper it was possible to execute the most intricate details, a feature exploited by a number of artists for marvelous cabinet paintings. Not only were religious motifs and mythological scenes produced on copper plates, but so were landscapes, genre scenes, and still lifes  in which fine brushwork was particularly desirable."

 from Captured Emotions : Baroque Painting in Bologna, 1575-1725, edited by Andreas Henning and Scott Schaefer (Getty Museum, 2008)

Carlo Saraceni
Venus and Mars
ca. 1600
oil on copper
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

David Teniers
Peasants playing cards
17th century
oil on copper
private collection


Jacob van Velsen
Fortune teller
1631
oil on copper
Louvre

Simon de Vos
Allegory of the Five Senses
1640
oil on copper
private collection

Denys van Alsloot
Landscape with Cephalus and Procris
early 17th century
oil on copper
private collection

Léonard Limosin
Portrait of Anne de Montmorency
1556
enamel on copper
Louvre

Willem van Nieulandt the Younger
View of the Roman Forum
17th century
oil on copper
private collection

Cigoli
Venus and Adonis
ca. 1600-1610
oil on copper
private collection

Jacopo Zucchi
Coral Fishers
ca. 1585
oil on copper
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Henry Bone
Lady Hamilton as Bacchante 
1803
enamel on copper
Wallace Collection, London

Gustave Doré
Landscape with Gorge
1878
oil on copper
private collection

circle of Frans Hals
Portrait of a man with a lute
1630s
oil on copper
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut