Leonaert Bramer, also Leendert or Leonard (24 December 1596 – before 10 February 1674 (date of burial)),
[Leonaert Bramer]
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...
was a Dutch painter known primarily for
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
, religious, and history paintings. Very prolific as a painter and draftsman, he is noted especially for nocturnal scenes which show a penchant for exotic details of costume and setting. He also painted
fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
s—a rarity north of the Alps—which have not survived, as well as murals on canvas, few of which are extant. Bramer is one of the most intriguing personalities in seventeenth-century Dutch art.
Life
Bramer was born in
Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
. In 1614, at the age of 18, he left on a long trip eventually reaching
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
in 1616, via
Atrecht,
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
Aix
Aix or AIX may refer to:
Computing
* AIX, a line of IBM computer operating systems
*An Alternate Index, for a Virtual Storage Access Method Key Sequenced Data Set
* Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point
Places Belgi ...
(February 1616),
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
,
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
, and
Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...
. In Rome he was one of the founders of the
Bentvueghels group of Northern artists, and was nicknamed "Nestelghat" (Fidget). He lived with
Wouter Crabeth
Wouter Pietersz. Crabeth II (1594 – c. 18 June 1644) was a Dutch Golden Age painter.
Biography
Wouter Crabeth was born in Gouda in 1594, the son of the writer and politician Pieter Woutersz. Crabeth. He was named after his grandfather Wout ...
and got into a fight with
Claude Lorraine
Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...
. He dedicated a poem to
Wybrand de Geest
Wybrand Simonsz. de Geest (16 August 1592 – ) was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter from Friesland.
Biography
Wybrand de Geest was born and died at Leeuwarden. He learned painting from his father, Simon Juckesz, a stained glass worker. He st ...
. Bramer lived in Rome intermittently until October 1627, visiting
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...
and
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
, often for deliveries and to meet
Domenico Fetti
Domenico Fetti (also spelled Feti) (c. 1589 – 1623) was an Italian Baroque painter who had been active mainly in Rome, Mantua and Venice.
Biography
Born in Rome to a little-known painter, Pietro Fetti, Domenico is said to have apprenticed ...
. In Italy Bramer acquired the sobriquet 'Leonardo della Notte' or 'Leonardo delle Notti' ('Leonardo of the night' or 'nights').
[
By 1628 he was back in Delft, where he joined the ]Guild of Saint Luke
The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was ide ...
in 1629 and the schutterij
Schutterij () refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces w ...
. Among his many patrons were members of the House of Orange
The House of Orange-Nassau (Dutch: ''Huis van Oranje-Nassau'', ) is the current reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the politics and government of the Netherlands ...
, but local burgomaster
Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, literally "master of the town, master of the borough, master of the fortress, master of the citizens") is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chie ...
s and schepen A schepen (Dutch; . ') or échevin (French) or Schöffe (German) is a municipal officer in Belgium and formerly the Netherlands. It has been replaced by the ' in the Netherlands (a municipal executive).
In modern Belgium, the ''schepen'' or ''éch ...
also bought his paintings in great numbers. He was a many sided artist, designing for tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...
firms in Delft, painting murals and ceilings, some of which are illusionistic
An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people.
Illusions may o ...
in style. He painted real frescos in the Civic Guard house, the nearby stadholder's palaces in Honselersdijk
Honselersdijk is a town in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is home to the historic Huis Honselaarsdijk, former palatial estate of the Dutch Princes of Orange. Huis Honselaarsdijk was one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture ...
, Rijswijk
Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was in , and it has an area of , of which is water.
The municipality also includes t ...
, the Communal Land Housde and the Prinsenhof
The Prinsenhof ("The Court of the Prince") in the city of Delft in the Netherlands is an urban palace built in the Middle Ages as a monastery. Later it served as a residence for William the Silent. William was assassinated in the Prinsenhof by ...
in Delft. Due to the Dutch climate they no longer survive. In 1648 Bramer traveled to Rome for a second time.
He evidently knew the greatest of his Delft contemporaries, Johannes Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...
, as he came to the latter's defence when his future mother-in-law was trying to prevent him from marrying her daughter.
It is possible that Vermeer received his artistic training from Bramer, although there is no documentation for this, and Bramer's dark and exotic style is unlike Vermeer's.
A lifelong bachelor, Bramer remained very productive until his death, which occurred in his home town of Delft in 1674.
Work
Bramer showed in his choice of subjects a preference for Italian rather than Dutch artistic practice. His subjects are usually mythological, allegorical, historical or biblical scenes (such as the ''Denial of St Peter'', Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...
, Amsterdam). He stayed away from typical Dutch themes such as landscapes, still lifes, portraits and genre pieces and he rarely painted Italianate pastoral scenes popular with the Utrecht Caravaggisti.
His style is nervous, but his technique, painting the reflection of light, is very good. His famous "Album Bramer" (drawn between 1642 and 1654, now in Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
) contains many sketches after paintings in Delft collections. He was influenced by Adam Elsheimer
__NOTOC__
Adam Elsheimer (18 March 1578 – 11 December 1610) was a German artist working in Rome, who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century in the field of Baroque paintings. His relatively few paintin ...
and the fresco painter Agostino Tassi
Agostino Tassi (born Agostino Buonamici; 1578 – 1644) was an Italian landscape and seascape painter, who was convicted of raping Artemisia Gentileschi in 1612.
Because he aspired to nobility he modified the details of his early life. Though ...
. Upon his death, his works were offered for sale in 1674 in an advertisement in the Haarlems Dagblad
The ''Haarlems Dagblad'' is a regional newspaper in Haarlem, Netherlands. It makes claim to being the newspaper with the oldest publishing history in the world, even if this claim is based on its (forced) merger with another title.
''Oprechte ...
, probably necessary because of the (depressed) Dutch economy:
Among his drawings, probably the most puzzling set are those he titled "Straatwerken," meaning "street works." From his inventory it is clear that the Flemish merchant and art collector Gaspar Roomer
Gaspar Roomer ( Antwerp, between 1596 and 1606 - Naples, 3 April 1674) was a prominent Flemish merchant, banker, art patron and art collector who was active in Naples in the 17th century.
Biography
Born in Antwerp, he lived for at least four dec ...
who resided in Naples owned 1500 drawings by Bramer.
Notes
Sources
* Haak, B. (2003) Hollandse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw, p. 324.
* Bramer, L., & Goldsmith, J. T. B. (1994). ''Leonaert Bramer: 1596–1674; ingenious painter and draughtsman in Rome and Delft; onografie bij de tentoonstelling gehouden te Delft, van 9 September – 13 November 1994'. Zwolle: Waanders.
* Liedtke, W. (2007) Dutch paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 87–89.
* Liedtke, W. A., Plomp, M., Rüger, A., Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), & National Gallery (Great Britain). (2001). ''Vermeer and the Delft school''. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
* Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam). (2007). ''Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: Vol. 1. (Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.)'' Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum.
* Vermeer, J., Duparc, F. J., Wheelock, A. K., Mauritshuis (Hague, Netherlands), & National Gallery of Art (U.S.). (1995). ''Johannes Vermeer''. Washington: National Gallery of Art.
* Filippo Baldinucci's Artists in biographies by Filippo Baldinucci
Filippo Baldinucci's ''Notizie de' Professori del Disegno, Da Cimabue in qua, Secolo V. dal 1610. al 1670. Distinto in Decennali'' (or ''Notice of the Professors of Design, from Cimabue to now, from 1610–1670'') was a major art biography of Baroq ...
, 1610–1670, p. 19
Internet Archive
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bramer, Leonaert
1596 births
1674 deaths
Dutch Golden Age painters
Dutch male painters
Dutch draughtsmen
Baroque painters
Artists from Delft
Painters from Delft
Members of the Bentvueghels