Daniel Nijs (or Nys) (1572-1647) was a Flemish art dealer.

Life

Born in

Wesel Wesel () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wesel district. Geography Wesel is situated at the confluence of the Lippe River and the Rhine. Division of the city Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighove ...

into a family of Protestant refugees from the

Spanish Netherlands Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande.) (historically in Spanish: ''Flandes'', the name "Flanders" was used as a ''pars pro toto'') was the Ha ...

(now Belgium), he moved to Venice in 1596. There he worked for the firm of his cousins, the Gabrys, while also laying the foundation of his own firm. By 1615 he had made his fortune and possessed a major art collection which was described by Vincenzo Scamozzi, Giulio Cesare Gigli and Constantijn Huygens. In 1622 he came into contact with

Ferdinando Gonzaga Ferrante I Gonzaga (also Ferdinando I Gonzaga; 28 January 1507 – 15 November 1557) was an Italian condottiero, a member of the House of Gonzaga and the founder of the branch of the Gonzaga of Guastalla. Biography He was born in Mantua, the ...

, Duke of Mantua to whom Nijs began supplying luxury goods. Five years later the 7th Duke,

Vincenzo II Gonzaga Vincenzo II Gonzaga (7 January 1594 – 25 December 1627) was Duke of Mantua and Duke of Montferrat from 1626 until his death. Vincenzo was the son of Duke Vincent I and Eleonora de' Medici and inherited the duchy upon the death of his elder ...

, who was in dire financial straits, agreed to sell the cream of the paintings in the

Gonzaga art collection The Gonzaga Collection or Celeste Gallery (''la Celeste Galeria'') was the large collection of artworks commissioned and acquired by the House of Gonzaga in Mantua, Italy, exhibited for a time in the Palazzo Ducale, the Palazzo Te, the Palazzo Sa ...

to Nijs. Nijs, in turn, was interested in acquiring the paintings in order to sell them to

Charles I of Great Britain Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...

. Its works included: * '' La Perla'', 1518-1520, by

Giulio Romano Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-centu ...

, now in the

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

* ''

Eleven Caesars The ''Eleven Caesars'' was a series of eleven painted half-length portraits of Roman emperors made by Titian in 1536-40 for Federico II, Duke of Mantua. They were among his best-known works, inspired by the ''Lives of the Caesars'' by Sueton ...

'', 1537-1539, by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

, lost in a fire at the

Alcázar An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gover ...

near

* ''Madonna'' by

Andrea del Sarto Andrea del Sarto (, , ; 16 July 1486 – 29 September 1530) was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. He was known as an outstanding fresco decorator, painter of altar-pieces, ...

* ''Saint Jerome'' by Giulio Romano Vincenzo II's successor Charles I of Gonzaga-Nevers was persuaded to sell statues and further paintings to Nijs, leading to the bankruptcy of the dealer. Among the works included in the second part of the sale are the ''

Triumphs of Caesar The ''Triumphs of Caesar'' are a series of nine large paintings created by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna between 1484 and 1492 for the Gonzaga Ducal Palace, Mantua. They depict a triumphal military parade celebrating the victor ...

'' now at

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief ...

. Nijs died in London in 1647.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

yalebooks.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nijs, Daniel * * Flemish art dealers People from Wesel 1542 births 1647 deaths