Nicolaes van Verendael or Nicolaes van Veerendael (1640 in
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, – 1691 in Antwerp) 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; ...
painter active in Antwerp who is mainly known for his flower paintings and vanitas
still lifes
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...
. He was a frequent collaborator of other Antwerp artists to whose compositions he added the still life elements.
[Nicolaes van Verendael]
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 also painted a number of
singerie
''Singerie'' is the name given to a visual arts genre depicting monkeys imitating human behavior, often fashionably attired, intended as a diverting sight, always with a gentle cast of mild satire. The term is derived from the French word for "M ...
s, i.e, scenes with monkeys dressed and acting as humans.
[Bert Schepers, ''Monkey Madness in Seventeenth-Century Antwerp'', in: The Rubenianum Quarterly, 2012 2, p. 5]
Life
Nicolaes van Verendael was baptized in the
St. Andrew's Church in Antwerp on 19 February 1640.
[Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, ''Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool'', Antwerpen, 1883, p. 1141-1143 ] He trained with his father Willem van Veerendael.
[Els Vermandere. ''Veerendael, Nicolaes van.'' Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 2 December 2019]
He was not formally registered as a pupil at 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 ...
but was admitted to the Guild as the son of a member in 1657.
[
He married Catharina van Beveren, the 17-year old daughter of the prominent Antwerp sculptor ]Mattheus van Beveren
Mattheus van Beveren (1635 or 1636, Antwerp – after 21 January 1696, Brussels) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish sculptor and medalist who is mainly known for his monumental Baroque church sculptures and small wood and ivory sculptures. . The couple has 11 children, one of whom was born after the death of the artist. Despite his high reputation among fellow artists, van Verendael was never out of financial trouble as he was a slow worker. As a result he lived modestly.[
He was the teacher of someone referred to as 'priest Cano' and the flower painter ]Jean Baptiste Morel
Jan Baptist Morel or Jean Baptiste Morel (1662 – 1732) was a Flemish still life painter who specialized in flower pieces and garlands. He was a successful artist who worked in Antwerp and Brussels.Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, ''Geschieden ...
.[
]
Work
General
Van Verendael mainly painted flower pieces, vanitas still lifes and a few allegorical scenes with monkeys. His dated works are from the period between 1659 and 1690.[ (p.270-272, v.1; plate 105, v.2)] He was highly regarded from an early age. He was in demand as a collaborator working with some of the leading Antwerp painters such as David Teniers the Younger
David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile arti ...
, Gonzales Coques
Gonzales Coques (between 1614 and 1618 – 18 April 1684) was a Flemish painter of portraits and history paintings.Veronique van Passel, "Coques ocks; Cox Gonzales onsael; Gonsalo" ''Grove Art Online''. Oxford University Press, ccessed 4 Octob ...
, Erasmus Quellinus II
Erasmus Quellinus the Younger or Erasmus Quellinus II (1607–1678) was a Flemish painter, engraver, draughtsman and tapestry designer who worked in various genres including history, portrait, allegorical, battle and animal paintings. He was a ...
, Jan Boeckhorst
Jan Boeckhorst or Johann Bockhorst (c. 1604 – 21 April 1668) was a German-born Flemish Baroque painter and draughtsman. He was a versatile artist who produced history paintings, genre scenes and portraits in a style influenced by the trio o ...
, Carstian Luyckx
Carstian Luyckx, also known as the Monogrammist KL (1623 – c. 1675), was a Flemish painter and draughtsman who specialized in still lifes in various subgenres including flower still lifes, fruit still lifes, fish still lifes, pronkstillevens ...
and Jan Davidsz. de Heem
Jan Davidsz. de Heem or in-full ''Jan Davidszoon de Heem'', also called ''Johannes de Heem'' or ''Johannes van Antwerpen'' or ''Jan Davidsz de Hem'' (c. 17 April 1606 in Utrecht – before 26 April 1684 in Antwerp), was a still life painter wh ...
.[ Veerendael is known to have collaborated with other artists on works that expanded on the pure flower still lifes of his particular expertise.][Nicolaes van Verendael, ''Vanitas still life with flowers, a skull, hourglass, conch shell and silver jug on a partially draped table'']
at Sotheby's
Flower paintings
His early work shows the influence of the leading Antwerp flower still life painter Daniel Seghers
Daniël Seghers or Daniel Seghers (3 December 1590 – 2 November 1661) was a Flemish Jesuit brother and painter who specialized in flower still lifes. He is particularly well known for his contributions to the genre of flower garland painting.I ...
but he used more and stronger and more contrasting colours. His early flower paintings depicted small, bright, graceful bouquets in tall, narrow vases or cartouches and garlands surrounding a religious figure or scene.[ These garland paintings had been an invention by ]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 ...
dating to the beginning of the 17th century and were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter.
An example of a work by van Verendael in this genre is the ''Garland surrounding the Virgin Mary'' (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 ...
, Madrid) a collaboration with an unknown collaborator. The central motif is a sculpture rather than a painting of the Madonna as was more common. The garland of flowers is represented in groups, rather than in a circle, and is thus representative of the later evolution of this genre. The subject of the exaltation of the figure of Mary was a response to Protestant beliefs and is reinforced by the inscription 'ego flos campi' ('I am the flower of the field') at the foot of the bust.
Later he was influenced by Jan Davidsz. de Heem. Van Veerendael developed towards a brisker brushstroke in his later years and he found a personal style that was a forerunner of Flemish flower painting in the 18th century. Some of his still lifes include insects.[
]
Vanitas
Veerendael painted a number of still lifes with a vanitas
A ''vanitas'' (Latin for 'vanity') is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. Best-known are ''van ...
motif. Vanitas still lifes were very popular in the 17th century in Flanders and the Dutch Republic. The objects in these still lifes evoke the transient nature of earthly goods and pursuits, the role of chance in life and its apparent meaninglessness. Stock symbols expressing these ideas include skulls, extinguished candles, empty glasses, wilting flowers, dead animals, smoking utensils, watches, mirrors, books, dice, playing cards, hourglasses and musical instruments, musical scores, various expensive or exclusive objects such as jewellery and rare shells. The term ''vanitas'' is derived from the famous line in the Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
translation of the book of Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes (; hbo, קֹהֶלֶת, Qōheleṯ, grc, Ἐκκλησιαστής, Ekklēsiastēs) is one of the Ketuvim ("Writings") of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly use ...
in the Bible. In the King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
this line is translated as .
These vanitas paintings were informed by a Christian understanding of the world as a temporary place of ephemeral pleasures and torments from which humanity’s only hope of escape had been offered by the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ
The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lord. ...
. While most of these symbols reference earthly accomplishments (books, scientific instruments, etc.), pleasures (a pipe), sorrows (symbolised by a peeled lemon), the transience of life and death (skulls, soap bubbles, empty shells) and the role of chance in life (dice and playing cards), some symbols used in these paintings carry a dual meaning: a rose or an oar of grain refers as much to the brevity of life as it is a symbol of the resurrection of Christ and thus eternal life.
An example of a vanitas still life by Veerendael is the ''Vanitas with skulls'' (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen is a fine arts museum in the French city of Caen, founded at the start of the 19th century and rebuilt in 1971 within the ducal château.
History
Opening
On September 1, 1801, the Minister of Interior Jean-A ...
). The painting shows similarities with another vanitas work called ''Vanitas still life with a bunch of flowers, a candle, smoking implements and a skull'' in the Galleria Franchetti at the Ca' d'Oro, Venice dated 1679. The vanitas elements in the latter work have been attributed to the Antwerp painter Hendrick Andriessen
Hendrick Andriessen, known as Mancken Heyn ('Limping Henry') (Antwerp, 1607 – Antwerp or Zeeland, 1655) was a Flemish people, Flemish still-life painter. He is known for his vanitas still lifes, which are made up of objects referencing the prec ...
. Both paintings contain the token vanitas symbols such as the candle stick, pipe and pipe cleaner, wilted flowers, crumpled up books. The skull too may be one and the same. In the Venice painting vanitas symbols such as the drop of water and the soap bubble are included.
Singeries
Nicolaes van Verendael contributed to the spread of the genre of the 'monkey scene', also called 'singerie' (a word, which in French means a 'comical grimace, behaviour or trick').'Singerie'
in Larousse online Comical scenes with monkeys appearing in human attire and a human environment are a pictorial genre that was initiated in Flemish painting in the 16th century and was subsequently further developed in the 17th century. The Flemish engraver Pieter van der Borcht introduced the singerie as an independent theme around 1575 in a series of prints, which are strongly embedded in the artistic tradition of Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; – 9 September 1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genr ...
. These prints were widely disseminated and the theme was then picked up by other Flemish artists in particular by those in Antwerp such as Frans Francken the Younger
Frans Francken the Younger (1581 in Antwerp, 1581 – 6 May 1642, in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter who created altarpieces and furniture panels and gained his reputation chiefly through his small and delicate cabinet pictures with historical, m ...
, 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 ...
and the Younger, Sebastiaen Vrancx
Sebastiaen Vrancx, Sebastiaan Vrancx or Sebastian Vranckx (; 22 January 1573 – 19 May 1647) was a Flemish Baroque painter, draughtsman and designer of prints who is mainly known for his battle scenes, a genre that he pioneered in Netherlandish ...
and Jan van Kessel the Elder
Jan van Kessel the Elder or Jan van Kessel (I) (baptized 5 April 1626, Antwerp – 17 April 1679, Antwerp) was a Flemish painter active in Antwerp in the mid 17th century. A versatile artist he practised in many genres including studies of i ...
. David Teniers the Younger
David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile arti ...
became the principal practitioner of the genre and developed it further with his younger brother Abraham Teniers
Abraham Teniers (1 March 1629 – 26 September 1670) was a Flemish painter and engraver who specialized in genre paintings of villages, inns and monkey scenes. He was a member of artist family Teniers which came to prominence in the 17th century ...
.[Bert Schepers, ''La folie des singes à Anvers au XVIIe siècle'']
in: Les Collections de la République des Lettres, 2019, Marie Grappasonni, pp. 153-172
Later in the 17th century Nicolaes van Verendael started to paint these ‘monkey scenes’ as well. As he had collaborated with David Teniers the Younger in Antwerp, he was familiar with Teniers' work in this genre. An example is the ''Monkey feast'' which reprises the theme of 'The King drinks' with the human roles played by monkeys. Another example is the ''Merry Company or Singerie'' (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...
, which depicts monkeys reveling in an inn. A considerable number of paintings and additional drawings of singeries by Veerendael has been identified on the art market and in private collections.[
]
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Verendael, Nicolaes van
1640 births
1691 deaths
Flemish Baroque painters
Flemish still life painters
Flemish genre painters
Painters from Antwerp
Artists from Antwerp