Baroque Religious Visions of Matthias Stom

Matthias Stom
The Annunciation
ca. 1635-40
oil on canvas
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Matthias Stom
The Annunciation (detail)
ca. 1635-40
oil on canvas
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Matthias Stom
Esau selling his Birthright
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Matthias Stom
Sarah bringing Hagar to Abraham
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Matthias Stom
Sacrifice of Isaac
ca. 1630-40
oil on canvas
Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, Corsica

Matthias Stom
Agony in the Garden
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Matthias Stom
Christ before the High Priest
ca. 1633
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum

Matthias Stom
Christ before the High Priest (detail)
ca. 1633
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum

Matthias Stom
Christ before the High Priest (detail)
ca. 1633
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum

Matthias Stom
Christ at the Column
ca. 1635
oil on canvas
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Matthias Stom
Christ crowned with Thorns
ca. 1633-39
oil on canvas
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena

Matthias Stom
St Peter liberated from Prison by an Angel
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca della città Metropolitana di Bari

Matthias Stom
St Peter liberated from Prison by an Angel (detail)
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca della città Metropolitana di Bari

Matthias Stom
King David
ca. 1633-39
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseilles

Matthias Stom
St Ambrose
ca. 1633-39
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes

"The earliest known reference to Stom (wrongly called Stomer in modern literature) dates from 1630, when he was living in the same house in Rome that the Utrecht painter Paulus Bor occupied about five years earlier.  About 1632 Stom went to Naples, and in the 1640s he was active in Palermo and elsewhere in Sicily.  Antonio Ruffo, the nobleman in Messina for whom Rembrandt painted Aristotle with the Bust of Homer in 1653, purchased three works by Stom between 1646 and 1649.  Both the name Stom and the usual description of him as "fiamingo" indicate that he was Flemish, not Dutch.  He specialized in exaggerated Caravaggesque effects of light and shadow, with leathery surfaces suited to his frequent representation of elderly characters."

– from curator's notes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Sacred Storytelling by Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painters

Jacob van Loo
Susanna and the Elders
1658
oil on canvas
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

Moses van Uyttenbroeck
Finding of Moses
ca. 1625-27
oil on panel
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Hendrick ter Brugghen
Esau selling his Birthright
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Hendrick ter Brugghen
Esau selling his Birthright (detail)
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Jan Victors
Jacob seeking pardon from Esau
1652
oil on canvas
Indianapolis Museum of Art

Jan Steen
The Wrath of Ahasuerus
ca. 1668
oil on canvas
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Pieter de Grebber
The Wrath of Ahasuerus
1628
oil on panel
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

"And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified."

– from the Book of Esther, chapter 7 (King James Bible, 1611)

 

Salomon de Bray
Sacrifice of Manoah
ca. 1650-60
oil on panel
private collection

Jan Lievens
Landscape with Tobias and the Angel
1640
oil on panel
National Gallery, London

Claes Cornelisz Moeyaert  (Nicolaes Moeyaert) 
Ruth and Boas
ca. 1625-30
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Werner van den Valckert
Suffer the Little Children to come unto Me
(portrait historié of Michiel Poppen and Family)
1620
oil on panel
Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht

Joachim Wtewael
Raising of Lazarus
ca. 1605-1610
oil on canvas
National Gallery, London

Dirck van Baburen
Christ crowned with Thorns
1623
oil on canvas
Museum Catharijnconvent, Utrecht

Leendert van der Cooghen
Doubting Thomas
1654
oil on canvas
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Hendrick ter Brugghen
Supper at Emmaus
1616
oil on canvas
Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio

Sacred Images by Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painters

Roelant Savery
Paradise
1626
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Cornelis van Haarlem
Humanity before the Deluge
1615
oil on panel
Musée des Augustins de Toulouse

Arie de Vois
Jacob's Dream
ca. 1660-80
oil on panel
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Abraham Bloemaert
Landscape with the Prophet Elijah in the Desert
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gerrit van Honthorst
Samson and Delilah
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Gerrit van Honthorst
Adoration of the Shepherds
1632
oil on canvas
Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio

Cornelis van Haarlem
The Good Samaritan
1627
oil on canvas
private collection

Cornelis van Haarlem
Preaching of St John the Baptist
1602
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Jan van Bijlert
St John the Baptist in Prayer
ca. 1625-30
oil on canvas
Centraal Museum, Utrecht

attributed to Daniel Mytens after Raphael
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
ca. 1625
oil on canvas
National Trust, Knole, Kent

Jan van Bijlert
Pilate washing his Hands
before 1671
oil on panel
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff

Abraham Bloemaert
The Lamentation
ca. 1625
oil on canvas
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Frans Badens
St Sebastian
ca. 1600-1615
oil on canvas
Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, Corsica

Jan van Bijlert
St Sebastian attended by St Irene
before 1671
oil on canvas
private collection

Jan van de Venne
St Christopher and the Christ Child
before 1651
oil on panel
private collection

Moon Deluge

So still and luminous the night
That I might dream had come again
The Deluge – but of softer rain,
Shed from the full moon's mist of light –
And earth knew silent deeps of seas,
Where coral hills are girt around
With fronded forests of no sound,
And fishes slide from tree to tree.

– Raynor D. Chapman (1944)

Sacred Images by Sixteenth-Century Dutch Painters

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen
The Holy Trinity
before 1559
oil on panel
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen
Triptych - The Micault Family with The Raising of Lazarus
ca. 1520-50
oil on panels
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen
The Micault Family
with The Raising of Lazarus (detail)
ca. 1520-50
oil on panel
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen
The Micault Family
 with The Raising of Lazarus (detail)
ca. 1520-50
oil on panel
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen
St Jerome in Meditation
ca. 1525-30
oil on panel
Musée du Louvre

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen
Saul and the Witch of Endor
1526
oil on panel
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anthonie Blocklandt
Baptism of Christ
ca. 1560-80
oil on panel
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

Pieter Aertsen
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
1559
oil on panel
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Jan van Scorel
Adoration of the Magi
ca. 1519
oil on panel
Art Institute of Chicago

Jan van Scorel
Madonna of the Daffodils, with Christ Child and Donors
ca. 1535
oil on panel
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Jan van Scorel
Apostle Paul
ca. 1535-45
oil on panel
Museum Catharijnconvent, Utrecht

Jan van Scorel
Triptych - The Entry into Jerusalem, flanked by Saints and Donors
1526
oil on panel
Centraal Museum, Utrecht

Jan van Scorel
The Lamentation, with Donor
ca. 1535
oil on panel
Centraal Museum, Utrecht

attributed to Cornelis Engebrechtsz
The Taking of Christ
before 1527
oil on panel
Casa Museo Rodolfo Siviero, Florence

Cornelis Engebrechtsz
Crucifixion Group, with St Peter, St Margaret, and Donors
ca. 1525-27
oil on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Sonnet: On being cautioned against walking on an Headland overlooking the Sea, because it was frequented by a Lunatic

Is there a solitary wretch who hies
    To the tall cliff, with starting pace or slow,
And, measuring, views with wild and hollow eyes
    Its distance from the waves that chide below;
Who, as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs
    Chills his cold bed upon the mountain turf,
With hoarse, half-uttered lamentation, lies
    Murmuring responses to the dashing surf?
In moody sadness, on the giddy brink,
    I see him more with envy than with fear;
He has no nice felicities that shrink
    From giant horrors; wildly wandering here,
He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know
The depth or the duration of his woe.

– Charlotte Smith (1783)