Marten Ryckaert
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Marten Ryckaert or Maerten Ryckaert (baptised 8 December 1587,
Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
– 11 October 1631), was a
Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
landscape
painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
. He was known for his small, usually imaginary
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
s in an Italianate style.


Life

Marten Ryckaert was a member of the Ryckaert (or Rijckaert) family of artists. He was born in Antwerp in 1587 as the second child of David Rijckaert the Elder and Catharina Rem.Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, ''Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool'', Antwerpen, 1883, p. 601-603 David the Elder was a brewer and a painter of wooden statues who had become a master of the Antwerp
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 1585.Bernadette Van Haute. ''David III Ryckaert: A Seventeenth-Century Flemish Painter of Peasant Scenes.'' Volume 1, Doctoral thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Literature and Philosophy at the University of South Africa, November 1996, pp. 10-12 He is also mentioned as a dealer in paintings. Marten had 7 siblings of whom his older brother David the Younger (born in 1586) became a prominent still life painter. He was the uncle of
David Ryckaert III David Ryckaert III, David Rijckaert III or David Rijckaert the Younger (2 December 1612, Antwerp - 11 November 1661, Antwerp) Marten probably first studied with his father and was later a pupil of
Tobias Verhaecht Tobias Verhaecht (1561–1631) was a painter from Antwerp in the Duchy of Brabant who primarily painted landscapes. His style was indebted to the mannerist world landscape developed by artists like Joachim Patinir and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He ...
(or Verhaeght). Verhaecht was also
Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
's teacher for a brief period. Marten became a member of the Antwerp
Guild of St. 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 Four Evangelists, Evangelist Saint Luke, Luke, the patron sa ...
in 1607. It is believed he traveled to Italy between 1607 and 1610 although no documentary evidence of this trip has been found. It is believed that during his stay in Italy he practised ''plein air'' sketching.Martin Ryckaert (Antwerp 1587-1631), ''An extensive mountainous landscape with figures on horseback and others resting in the foreground, a winding river and a town beyond''
at Christie's
Marten rejoined the Antwerp
Guild of St. 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 Four Evangelists, Evangelist Saint Luke, Luke, the patron sa ...
in 1611 and was registered as the "painter with one arm".Biographical details
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 ...
He spent the remainder of his professional career in his native city. He was active in the local
chamber of rhetoric Chambers of rhetoric ( nl, rederijkerskamers) were dramatic societies in the Low Countries. Their members were called Rederijkers (singular Rederijker), from the French word 'rhétoricien', and during the 15th and 16th centuries were mainly inte ...
''De Violieren''. He never married and collected many paintings by his contemporaries in his house in the Meyerstraat in Antwerp.Martin Ryckaert
in Wurzbach, Alfred von earb. ''Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon: mit mehr als 3000 Monogrammen (Band 2): L - Z'', Amsterdam, 1910
He was reportedly a close friend of
Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...
, who painted his portrait showing Ryckaert dressed up as a king around 1630. This portrait was in the possession of Marten Ryckaert when he died and is today in the
Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It migh ...
in
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 ...
.Sotheby's Important Old Master Paintings, Including European Works of Art
New York , 29 janv. 2009
The portrait was engraved by
Jacob Neefs Jacob Neefs or Jacob Neeffs ( Antwerp, 1610 – Antwerp, after 1660) was a Flemish etcher, engraver and publisher. He worked on publication projects for prominent Flemish artists of his time including Rubens, van Dyck and Jordaens. Life Jacob N ...
and then included in van Dyck's book project entitled "Iconography" which contained portraits of famous people of that time. Ryckaert fell ill in early 1631 and is buried in Antwerp on 11 October. He left his entire fortune to his sister Maria and his brother Pauwel (or Pauwels).


Work

His sparse surviving works mainly depict imaginary landscapes with forests, often with waterfalls, rocks, ruins, architecture and small human figures. Marten Ryckaert's work shows similarities with that of the Antwerp painter
Joos de Momper Joos de Momper the Younger or Joost de Momper the Younger (1564February5, 1635) was a Flemish landscape painter active in Antwerp between the late 16th century and the early 17th century. Brueghel's influence is clearly evident in many of de Momp ...
and also to that of
Paul Bril Paul Bril (1554 – 7 October 1626) was a Flemish painter and printmaker principally known for his landscapes.Nicola Courtright. "Paul Bril." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 September 2016 He spent most of ...
and Jan Brueghel It is difficult to assess the stylistic development of his work. The landscapes are in an
Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
style and thus resemble those of the
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 ...
-based Flemish landscape painter
Paul Bril Paul Bril (1554 – 7 October 1626) was a Flemish painter and printmaker principally known for his landscapes.Nicola Courtright. "Paul Bril." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 September 2016 He spent most of ...
. This is particularly true for works from the period following his return from his presumed trip to Italy as Paul Bril's prints of Roman-style landscapes were widely disseminated in Antwerp at this time. The placement, style and grouping of the figures in the landscapes are indebted to
Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collaborato ...
. This is most obvious in works such as the ''Landscape with the Flight into Egypt'' (in a private collection) that is based on a lost original by Brueghel, although Ryckaert did not slavishly copy Brueghel's invention. The colour treatment resembles that of Joos de Momper. His style of painting became gradually obsolete during his own lifetime and was replaced by the
Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
style, which was characterized by a greater realism, greater scale, warmer colours and transparent light.Biographical details
at the Nouvelle Biographie Nationale
His composition ''A rocky landscape with figures by an iron foundry'' has long been regarded as one of the oldest paintings of a blast furnace and refinery in Europe.Marten Ryckaert , ''A rocky landscape with figures by an iron foundry, a river and houses on the bank beyond''
at Christie's


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryckaert, Marten Flemish Baroque painters Flemish landscape painters Painters from Antwerp 1587 births 1631 deaths