Martin Van Heemskerck
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Maarten van Heemskerck or ''Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen'' (1 June 1498 - 1 October 1574) was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in
Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...
. He was a pupil of Jan van Scorel, and adopted his teacher's Italian-influenced style. He spent the years 1532–6 in Italy. He produced many designs for engravers, and is especially known for his depictions of the Wonders of the World.


Biography


Early life

Heemskerck was born in the village of Heemskerk,
North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...
, halfway between
Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...
and
Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...
. He was the son of a farmer called Jacob Willemsz. van Veen. According to his biography by Karel van Mander, he began his artistic training with the painter Cornelius Willemsz in
Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...
, but was recalled to Heemskerk by his father to work on the family farm. However, having contrived an argument with his father he left again, this time for Delft, where he studied under Jan Lucasz, before moving on to Haarlem, where he became a pupil of Jan van Scorel, learning to paint in his teacher's innovative Italian-influenced style.. Translated from a biography in ''Het Schilder-boeck'', Haarlem, 2020 (available as
Dutch online text from the DBNL
a more modern translation is in ''The Lives of the Netherlandish and German Painters'', H. Miedema, ed. 1994-9)
Heemskerck then went to lodge at the home of the wealthy curate of the Sint-Bavokerk, Pieter Jan Foppesz (whose name van Mander writes as Pieter Ian Fopsen). They knew each other because Foppesz owned land in Heemskerk. The artist painted him in a now famous family portrait, considered the first of its kind in a long line of Dutch family paintings. His other works for Foppesz included two life size figures symbolising the Sun and the Moon on a bedstead, and a picture of Adam and Eve "rather smaller but (it is said) after living models". His next home was in the house of a goldsmith, Justus Cornelisz, on the edge of Haarlem. Before setting off for Italy on a Grand Tour in 1532, Heemskerck painted a scene of
St. Luke painting the Virgin Saint Luke painting the Virgin (German and Dutch: ''Lukas-Madonna'') is a devotional subject in art showing Luke the Evangelist painting the Mary (mother of Jesus), Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus. Such paintings were often created during the Re ...
for the altar of St. Luke in the Bavokerk. An inscription, incorporated into a '' trompe-l'œil'' label on the painting begins "This picture is a remembrance from its painter, Marten Heemskerck; he has here dedicated his labours to St Luke as a proof of regard to his associates in his profession, of which that saint is patron".


Italy

He travelled around the whole of northern and central Italy, stopping at Rome, where he had letters of introduction from van Scorel to the influential Dutch cardinal William of Enckenvoirt. It is evident of the facility with which he acquired the rapid execution of a scene-painter that he was selected to collaborate with Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Battista Franco and Francesco de' Rossi (Il Salviati) on the redecoration of the
Porta San Sebastiano The Porta San Sebastiano is the largest and one of the best-preserved gates passing through the Aurelian Walls in Rome (Italy). History Originally known as the Porta Appia, the gate sat astride the Appian Way, the ''regina viarum'' (queen of th ...
at Rome as a triumphal arch (5 April 1536) in honour of Charles V. Giorgio Vasari, who saw the battle-pieces which Heemskerk then produced, said they were well composed and boldly executed. While in Rome where he made numerous drawings of classical sculpture and architecture, many of which survive in two sketchbooks now in the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin. He was to use them as source material throughout the rest of his career. Among these are the Capitoline Brutus, van Heemskerck being the first known artist to make a sketch of this now famous bust.


Later career

On his return to the Netherlands in 1536, he settled back at Haarlem, where he became president of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke (in 1540), married twice (his first wife and child died during childbirth), and secured a large and lucrative practice. The alteration in his style, brought about by his experience of Italy was not universally admired. According to van Mander, "in the opinion of some of the best judges he had not improved it, except in one particular, that his outline was more graceful than before". He painted large altarpieces for his friend, the art maecenas and later catholic martyr of the Protestant Reformation, (also known as ''Musius''). Muys had returned from a period in France to the Netherlands in 1538 and became prior of the St. Agatha cloister in Delft (later became the Prinsenhof). This lucrative and high-profile work in Delft earned Heemskerck a commission for an altarpiece in the Nieuwe Kerk (Delft) for their
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 1553 he became curate of the Sint-Bavokerk, where he served for 22 years (until the Protestant reformation). In 1572 he left Haarlem for Amsterdam, to avoid the siege of Haarlem which the Spaniards laid to the place.


Engravings

He was one of the first Netherlandish artists to make drawings specifically for reproduction by commercial printmakers. He employed a technique incorporating cross-hatching and stippling, intended to aid the engraver.


Wonders of the World

Heemskerck produced designs for a set of engravings, showing eight, rather than the usual seven wonders of the ancient world. His addition to the conventional list was the Colosseum in Rome, which, unlike the others, he showed in ruins, as it was in his own time, with the speculative addition of a giant statue of Jupiter in the centre. They were engraved by Philip Galle and published in 1572. File:Colossus of Rhodes.jpg, ''
Colossus of Rhodes The Colossus of Rhodes ( grc, ὁ Κολοσσὸς Ῥόδιος, ho Kolossòs Rhódios gr, Κολοσσός της Ρόδου, Kolossós tes Rhódou) was a statue of the Greek sun-god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes (city), Rhodes, on ...
'', imagined in a 16th-century engraving by Martin Heemskerck File:Heemskerck-hanginggardens.jpg, ''
Hanging Gardens of Babylon The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World listed by Hellenic culture. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of tre ...
'', said to be the oldest-known imaginary reconstruction from historical descriptions File:Temple of Artemis.jpg, The Temple of Artemis, has the "old-fashioned" look of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and other Italian ''quattrocento'' churches of the mannerist generation. File:Statue of Zeus.jpg, A fanciful reconstruction of Phidias'
Statue of Zeus at Olympia The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Gr ...
, engraving by Philip Galle in 1572, from a drawing by Heemskerck File:Pharos of Alexandria.jpg, A fanciful 16th-century interpretation of the Pharos, or Lighthouse of Alexandria File:Giza.PNG, The Great Pyramid of Giza (Bettman collection) File:Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.jpg, Fanciful interpretation of the
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or Tomb of Mausolus ( grc, Μαυσωλεῖον τῆς Ἁλικαρνασσοῦ; tr, Halikarnas Mozolesi) was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC in Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey) for Mausolus, an ...
, 1572 File:Self-portrait with the Colosseum, by Maerten van Heemskerck.png, He painted his
self-portrait with the Colosseum ''Self-portrait with the Colosseum'' is a 1553 painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Maarten van Heemskerck in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Many works by van Heemskerck survive. ''Adam and Eve'' and '' St. Luke painting the Likeness of the Virgin and Child'' in presence of a poet crowned with ivy leaves, and a parrot in a cage – an altar-piece in the gallery of Haarlem, and the '' Ecce Homo'' in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, are characteristic works of the period preceding van Heemskerck's visit to Italy. An altar-piece executed for the St. Laurence Church of
Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...
in 1539–1543, composed of at least a dozen large panels, which including portraits of historical figures, preserved in
Linköping Cathedral Linköping Cathedral ( sv, Linköpings domkyrka) is an active Lutheran church in the Swedish city of Linköping, the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Linköping in the Church of Sweden. One of the largest Gothic cathedrals in Europe, it is situat ...
, Sweden since the Reformation, shows his style after his return from Italy. He painted a crucifixion for the Riches Claires at Ghent (now in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent The Museum of Fine Arts ( nl, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, MSK) an art museum in Ghent, Belgium, is situated at the East side of the Citadelpark (near the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst). The museum's collection consists of some 9000 artworks ...
) in 1543, and an altar-piece for the Drapers' Company at Haarlem, finished in 1546 and now in the gallery of the Hague. They show how Heemskerck studied and repeated the forms which he had seen in the works of
Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
and Raphael at Rome, and in the frescoes of Andrea Mantegna and Giulio Romano in Lombardy, but he never forgot his Dutch origin or the models first presented to him by Scorel and Jan Mabuse. In 1550, Heemskerck painted a large, now dismembered triptych, the remains of which are today divided between the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg (''
Adam and Eve/Gideon and the Fleece ''Adam and Eve'' and ''Gideon and the Fleece'' are two life-sized Old Testament paintings by the Low Countries Dutch Renaissance painter Maarten (or Maerten) van Heemskerck. They are on display in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Strasbourg, France ...
''), and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (''The Visitation''). As late as 1551, he then produced a copy from Raphael's ''
Madonna of Loreto The ''Madonna of Loreto'' is an oil on panel painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael, executed ''c.'' 1511. It is housed in the Musée Condé of Chantilly, France. For centuries the painting kept company with Raphael's ''Portr ...
'' ( Frans Hals Museum). In 1552, he painted a view of a bull race inside the Colosseum of Rome ( Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille). A ''Judgment of Momus'', dated 1561, in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, shows that he was well acquainted with anatomy and fond of florid architecture. Two altar-pieces which he finished for churches at Delft in 1551 and 1559, one complete (''St. Luke painting the Virgin''), the other a fragment, in the museum of Haarlem, a third of 1551 in the Brussels Museum, representing
Golgotha Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...
, the ''Crucifixion'', the ''Flight into Egypt'', ''Christ on the Mount'', and scenes from the lives of St. Bernard and St. Benedict, are all fairly representative of his style. There is a ''Crucifixion'' in the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, and two ''Triumphs of Silenus'' in the gallery of Vienna. Other pieces of varying importance are in the galleries of Rotterdam, Munich, Cassel, Brunswick, Karlsruhe, Mainz, Copenhagen, Strasbourg and Rennes.


Parrots

In his depiction of '' Saint Luke painting the Virgin'', which Heemskerck painted twice for two painter's guilds, there is some confusion in the literature about a parrot. In both paintings he painted a parrot, but the parrot in a cage has been sawn off the first painting and is no longer visible.Het Schilderboek: Het Leven Van De Doorluchtige Nederlandse En Hoogduitse Schilders.
Carel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander I (May 1548 – 2 September 1606) was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembe ...
, with notes, 1995. .


Death

In Amsterdam he made a will, which has been preserved. It shows that he had lived long enough and prosperously enough to make a fortune. At his death, he left money and land in trust to the orphanage of Haarlem, with interest to be paid yearly to any couple who should be willing to perform the marriage ceremony on the slab of his tomb in the cathedral of Haarlem. It was a superstition in Catholic Holland that a marriage so celebrated would secure the peace of the dead within the tomb.


Reputation

Heemskerck was widely respected in his own lifetime and was a strong influence on the painters of Haarlem in particular. He is known (along with his teacher Jan van Scorel) for his introduction of Italian art to the Northern Netherlands, especially for his series on the wonders of the world, that were subsequently spread as prints. Karel van Mander devoted six pages to his biography in his ''Schilder-boeck''.


Public collections

* Courtauld Institute of Art * Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam *
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
*
National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
* Rijksmuseum Amsterdam * University of Michigan Museum of Art * Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino,
Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...


References


Sources

* Includes an English translation of van Mander's biography of Heemskerck.


Further reading

* Tatjana Bartsch, ''Maarten van Heemskerck. Römische Studien zwischen Sachlichkeit und Imagination.'' (München: Hirmer 2019) (Römische Studien der Bibliotheca Hertziana Bd. 44). * Arthur J. DiFuria, ''Maarten van Heemskerck's Rome: Antiquity, Memory, and the Cult of Ruins.'' (Leiden: Brill 2019). * Marco Folin - Monica Preti, ''Les villes détruites de Maarten van Heemskerck. Images de ruines et conflits religieux dans les Pays-Bas au XVIe siècle'', (Paris: Institut national d'histoire de l'art, 2015). * Tatjana Bartsch - Peter Seiler (ed.), ''Rom zeichnen. Maarten van Heemskerck 1532–1536/37.'' (Berlin: Mann 2012) (humboldt-schriften zur kunst- und bildgeschichte, 8). * Tatjana Bartsch, "Maarten van Heemskercks Zeichnung des 'Brutus' und seine Verbindung zu Kardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi," Agnes Schwarzmaier (ed.), ''Der 'Brutus' vom Kapitol: Ein Porträt macht Weltgeschichte.'' (München: Ed. Minerva, 2010) (exh.-cat. Berlin), 81–89. * Arthur J. DiFuria, "Maerten van Heemskerck's Collection Imagery in the Netherlandish Pictorial Memory," ''Intellectual History Review,'' 20, 2010 - Issue 1, 27–51. * Arthur J. DiFuria, "Remembering the Eternal: Maerten van Heemskerck's Self-Portrait Before the Colosseum," ''Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaerboek.'' 59(1), 2009, 90-108. * Tatjana Bartsch, "Transformierte Transformation. Zur 'fortuna' der Antikenstudien Maarten van Heemskercks im 17. Jahrhundert," Ernst Osterkamp (ed.), ''Wissensästhetik: Wissen über die Antike in aesthetischer Vermittlung'' (Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008) (Transformationen der Antike, 6), 113–159. * Tatjana Bartsch, "Kapitell. Colosseum. Überlegungen zu Heemskercks Bildfindungen am Beispiel von fol. 28 r. des römischen Skizzenbuches," Kathrin Schade e.a. (ed.), ''Zentren und Wirkungsräume der Antikenrezeption.'' (Münster: Scriptorium, 2007), 27–38. * Erik Zevenhuizen - Piet de Boer (ed.), ''Maerten van Heemskerck, 1498 - 1574: 'constigh vermaert schilder (Heemskerk: Historische Kring Heemskerk, 1998). * Ilja Veldman, ''Maarten van Heemskerck.'' (Roosendaal: Koninklijke Van Poll, 1993-1994) (The new Hollstein Dutch & Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, 1, 2). * Jefferson Cabell Harrison Jr., ''The Paintings of Maerten van Heemskerck – a Catalogue Raisonné.'' (Charlottesville/Va., University of Virginia, Phil. Diss., 1987). * Rainald Grosshans, ''Maerten van Heemskerck. Die Gemälde.'' (Berlin: Boettcher, 1980). * Ilja Veldman (Michael Hoyle, trans.), ''Maarten Van Heemskerck and Dutch Humanism in the Sixteenth Century.'' (Maarssen: Gary Schwartz, 1977).


External links


Entry on Maarten van Heemskerck in the RKD Artist databaseWorks by Maarten van Heemskerck in the Rijksmuseum AmsterdamLiterature on Marten van HeemskerkA catalogue of the prints which have been engraved after Martin Heemskerck''Vermeer and The Delft School''
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Maarten van Heemskerck (see index) *
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints
', a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Maarten van Heemskerck (see index)
Prints after Maarten van Heemskerck
in Dresden's Kupferstich-Kabinett {{DEFAULTSORT:van Heemskerk, Maarten 1498 births 1574 deaths People from Heemskerk Dutch Mannerist painters Dutch male painters Dutch portrait painters Painters from Haarlem Dutch Roman Catholics