Willem van Herp (Antwerp Narratives)

attributed to Willem van Herp
Atalanta and Meleager
before 1677
oil on copper
Musée Hyacinthe Rigaud, Perpignan

attributed to Willem van Herp
Deer Hunt
before 1677
oil on copper
Musée Hyacinthe Rigaud, Perpignan

Willem van Herp (figures) and Guillam Forchondt (landscape)
Departure of the Israelites
before 1677
oil on copper
private collection

Willem van Herp (figures) and Guillam Forchondt (landscape)
Noli me tangere
before 1677
oil on copper
private collection

Willem van Herp
Abraham and the Three Angels
ca. 1650-60
oil on copper
Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt

Willem van Herp
Christ's Entry into Jerusalem
before 1677
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Willem van Herp
Achilles discovered amongst the Daughters of Lycomedes
before 1677
oil on panel
National Trust, Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk

Willem van Herp
The Visitation
1659
oil on canvas
private collection

Willem van Herp
Allegory of Faith and Devotion
before 1677
oil on canvas
private collection

attributed to Willem van Herp
Stable Interior
before 1677
oil on canvas
private collection

Willem van Herp
Finding of the infant Erichthonius
by the Daughters of Cecrops
ca. 1650
oil on copper
private collection

Willem van Herp
Atalanta and Hippomenes
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Willem van Herp
Christ before Caiaphas
before 1677
oil on canvas
private collection

Willem van Herp
Esther at the Palace of Ahasuerus
before 1677
oil on copper
private collection

Willem van Herp
The Transfiguration
before 1677
oil on copper
private collection

"Willem van Herp was artistically trained around the years 1625-29 by the painters Damiaan Wortelmans and Hans Biermans in Antwerp.  By 1637-38 he was enrolled in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.  He is known mainly for a prolific output of narrative religious and mythological scenes, often of small format, including many on copper.  From 1651 he began to work for the art merchant Matthijs Musson, at which time his artistic production multiplied, with frequent repetitions of the same compositions in an almost industrial manner.  In the main, these were copies and pastiches of works by Rubens and Van Dyck.  Van Herp also drew on painters such as Daniel Seghers and Jan Boeckhorst.  His career seems to represent a shift away from the traditional model of unique commissions for specific patrons, and toward a more market-driven commodification catering to an anonymous public."  

– from a biographical sketch at Museo del Prado, Madrid

Jan van Hemessen (Antwerp Romanist)

Jan van Hemessen
Mary Magdalene
(Christ in the background)
ca. 1550
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Jan van Hemessen
Nature as Nursemaid of Art
ca. 1540-57
oil on panel
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jan van Hemessen
Woman holding a Balance
ca. 1530
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Jan van Hemessen
Virgin and Child beneath a Vine
ca. 1528
oil on panel
private collection

Jan van Hemessen
St Jerome
1543
oil on panel
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Jan van Hemessen
Christ as Triumphant Redeemer
ca. 1545
oil on panel
(altarpiece fragment)
private collection

Jan van Hemessen assisted by his daughter Catharina
Altarpiece with Stories from the Old and New Testaments
ca. 1550-60
oil on panels
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Jan van Hemessen assisted by his daughter Catharina
Altarpiece with Stories from the Old and New Testaments
(Baptism and Ascension of Christ)
ca. 1550-60
oil on panels
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Jan van Hemessen assisted by his daughter Catharina
Altarpiece with Stories from the Old and New Testaments
(Sacrifice of Isaac)
ca. 1550-60
oil on panels
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Jan van Hemessen assisted by his daughter Catharina
Altarpiece with Stories from the Old and New Testaments
(Adam and Eve)
ca. 1550-60
oil on panels
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Jan van Hemessen
Last Judgement Altarpiece (detail)
ca. 1536-37
oil on panel
Sint Jacobskerk, Antwerp

Jan van Hemessen
Last Judgement Altarpiece (detail)
ca. 1536-37
oil on panel
Sint Jacobskerk, Antwerp

Jan van Hemessen
Allegory of Vanity
ca. 1535-40
oil on panel
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

Jan van Hemessen
Allegory of Vanity
(detail with skull in mirror)
ca. 1535-40
oil on panel
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

Jan van Hemessen
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1540
oil on panel
Art Institute of Chicago

"Jan van Hemessen is considered the greatest and most imaginative artistic force in the northern city of Antwerp between the death of Quinten Massys in 1530 and the coming of age of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.  Certainly his profound influence on Flemish painting as a whole through the 1530s and 1540s is undeniable.  . . .  Hemessen had been elected to the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp in 1524, having completed his pupilage under Hendrik van Cleve I, and, as with Jan Gossaert before him, his journey to Italy brought him into contact with the classicizing style and idiom of the great painters of the Italian High Renaissance.  While Michelangelo and Raphael remain the obvious influences on his religious work, his later portraiture owes more to the great master of the 1530s and '40s, Agnolo Bronzino."   

– from biographical notes published by Sotheby's, London

Maarten van Heemskerck (Haarlem Mannerist)

Maarten van Heemskerck
Momus reproaches the works of the Gods
1561
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Maarten van Heemskerck
Momus reproaches
the works of the Gods (detail)
1561
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Maarten van Heemskerck
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
ca. 1530
oil on panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Maarten van Heemskerck
St John the Evangelist with the Virgin
and The Magdalen with a Donor
ca. 1540
oil on panels
(two shutters from triptych)
National Gallery, London

Maarten van Heemskerck
St Luke painting the Virgin and Child (detail)
1532
oil on panel
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Maarten van Heemskerck
St Luke painting the Virgin and Child (detail)
1532
oil on panel
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Maarten van Heemskerck
Ecce Homo (detail)
1559-60
oil on panel
(central panel of triptych)
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Maarten van Heemskerck
Massacre of the Innocents
1546
oil on panel
(central panel of triptych)
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Maarten van Heemskerck
Massacre of the Innocents (detail)
1546
oil on panel
(central panel of triptych)
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Maarten van Heemskerck
Massacre of the Innocents (detail)
1546
oil on panel
(central panel of triptych)
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Maarten van Heemskerck
Massacre of the Innocents (detail)
1546
oil on panel
(central panel of triptych)
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Maarten van Heemskerck
Massacre of the Innocents (detail)
1546
oil on panel
(central panel of triptych)
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Maarten van Heemskerck
Massacre of the Innocents (detail)
1546
oil on panel
(central panel of triptych)
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Maarten van Heemskerck
Bullfighting in the Colosseum Ruins
1552
oil on panel
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

Maarten van Heemskerck
Bullfighting in the Colosseum Ruins (detail)
1552
oil on panel
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

 "Maarten van Heemskerck was born in 1498, the son of Jacob Willemsz van Veen, a farmer.  The artist is named after Heemskerk, the village of his birth, which lies a short distance to the north of Haarlem.  According to Carel van Mander, whose Schilder-Boek of 1604 is an important source of information, Heemskerck first studied with Cornelis Willemsz in Haarlem and then with Jan Lucasz in Delft.  The work of neither artist is known to us.  Between 1527 and 1530 Heemskerck worked with Jan van Scorel, during the period that Scorel resided in Haarlem, and was ostensibly attracted by the new manner of painting that Scorel had brought back from Italy.  Heemskerck himself remained in Haarlem until at least May of 1532, at which point he set off for Rome, arriving there by July 1532.  While in Rome Maarten van Heemskerck made accurate, conscientious sketches of antique ruins and statues; he was influenced by Raphael and contemporary artists such as Michelangelo and Salviati.  It is also likely that on his way home, in late 1536 or early 1537, Heemskerck stopped in Mantua and viewed the work of Giulio Romano.  By 1537 Heemskerck was back in Haarlem, where he was to remain virtually the rest of his life."

– from the biography in the Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Caesar van Everdingen (Classicizing, Idealizing)

Caesar van Everdingen
Cupid with Crystal Ball (Vanitas)
ca. 1650-55
oil on canvas
private collection

Caesar van Everdingen
Abduction of Europa
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
private collection

Caesar van Everdingen
Jupiter and Callisto
1655
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Caesar van Everdingen
Four Muses and Pegasus
ca. 1648-50
oil on canvas
Paleis Huis ten Bosch, The Hague

Caesar van Everdingen
Weeping Woman (possibly Lucretia)
ca. 1650-60
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Caesar van Everdingen
Portrait of Burgomaster Willem Jacobsz Baert
1671
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Caesar van Everdingen
Trompe l'oeil with Bust of Venus
1665
oil on canvas
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Caesar van Everdingen
Trompe l'oeil with Bust of Adonis
1666
oil on canvas
Michaelis Collection, Cape Town, South Africa

Caesar van Everdingen
Vertumnus and Pomona
ca. 1637-40
oil on panel
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

attributed to Caesar van Everdingen
Vertumnus and Pomona
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Caesar van Everdingen
Nymphs offering the young Bacchus Wine, Fruit and Flowers
ca. 1670
oil on canvas
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Caesar van Everdingen
Holy Family
ca. 1655-65
oil on canvas
Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht

Caesar van Everdingen
Diogenes looking for an Honest Man
(Portrait of the Steyn Family)
1652
oil on canvas
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Caesar van Everdingen
Officers and Standard-Bearers of the Old Civic Guard
1657
oil on canvas
Stedelijk Museum, Alkmaar

Caesar van Everdingen
Young Woman with Sunhat
ca. 1645-50
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Caesar van Everdingen hailed from a distinguished family of artists that included his younger brother Allart van Everdingen, a noted draftsman and engraver.  Although Caesar spent most of his life in his native Alkmaar in the Netherlands, scholars associate him with the Haarlem school of painting.  The Haarlem school painters created idealized, classicizing history paintings and genre in the mid-1600s.  Everdingen's paintings similarly emphasized draftsmanship, but the sensuality and prominence of his figures distinguishes his pictures from others of the Haarlem school.

– biographical notes from the Getty Museum, Los Angeles