Roelant Savery - Landscape with Birds - WGA20885

Roelant Savery (or ''Roeland(t) Maertensz Saverij'', or ''de Savery'', or many variants; 1576 – buried 25 February 1639) was a

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

-born Dutch Golden Age painter.

Life

Savery was born in

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; vls, Kortryk or ''Kortrik''; french: Courtrai ; la, Cortoriacum), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It is the capital and large ...

. Like so many other artists, he belonged to an Anabaptist family that fled north from the Spanish-occupied

Southern Netherlands The Southern Netherlands, also called the Catholic Netherlands, were the parts of the Low Countries belonging to the Holy Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled by Habsburg Spain (Spanish Netherlands, 1556–1714) and later by the A ...

when Roelant was about 4 years old and settled in Haarlem around 1585. He was taught painting by his older brother Jacob Savery (c. 1565 – 1603) and

Hans Bol Hans Bol or Jan Bol (16 December 1534 – 20 November 1593), was a Flemish-Belgian painter, print artist, miniaturist painter and draftsman.Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

around 1604, where he became court painter of the Emperors

Rudolf II Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the Hous ...

(1552–1612) and Mathias (1557–1619), who had made their court a center of mannerist art. Between 1606 and 1608 he traveled to

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

to study plants. Gillis d'Hondecoeter became his pupil. Before 1616 Savery moved back to Amsterdam, and lived in the

Sint Antoniesbreestraat The Sint Antoniesbreestraat ("St. Anthony's Broad Street") is a street in the centre of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The street runs south from Nieuwmarkt square to the Sint Antoniesluis sluice gates, where it continues as the Jodenbreestraat. ...

. In 1618 he settled in Utrecht, where he joined the

artist's guild 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 ident ...

a year later. His nephew Hans would become his most important assistant. In 1621 Savery bought a large house on the Boterstraat in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. The house had a large garden with flowers and plants, where a number of fellow painters, like

Adam Willaerts Adam Willaerts (21 July 1577 – 4 April 1664) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography Willaerts (occasionally ''Willarts'', ''Willers'') was born in London to Flemish parents who had fled from Antwerp for religious reasons. By 1585 the ...

were frequent visitors. Savery had kept his house in Amsterdam, and had one child baptized in

Nieuwe Kerk (Amsterdam) The Nieuwe Kerk (, ''New Church'') is a 15th-century church in Amsterdam located on Dam Square, next to the Royal Palace. Formerly a Dutch Reformed Church parish, it now belongs to the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. Current uses The Nie ...

. Savery was friends with still life painters like

Balthasar van der Ast Balthasar van der Ast (1593/94 – 7 March 1657) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who specialized in still lifes of flowers and fruit, as well as painting a number of remarkable shell still lifes; he is considered to be a pioneer in the gen ...

and

Ambrosius Bosschaert Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (18 January 1573 – 1621) was a Flemish-born Dutch still life painter and art dealer.heavy drinking. Though he would have pupils until the late 1630s, amongst which Allaert van Everdingen and

Roelant Roghman Roelant Roghman (14 March 1627 - 3 January 1692) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, sketcher and engraver. Biography Roghman was born in Amsterdam, the son of the engraver Henrick Lambertsz Roghman and Maria Jacobs Savery. His mother was a daughte ...

, he went bankrupt in 1638 and died in Utrecht half a year later.

Works

Roelant Savery - Large flower piece with Kaiser's crown

Savery primarily painted landscapes in the Flemish tradition of

Gillis van Coninxloo Gillis van Coninxloo (now also referred to as Gillis van Coninxloo II but previously referred to as Gillis van Coninxloo III) (24 January 1544 – January 1607) was a Flemish painter of landscapes who played an important role in the development ...

, often embellished with many meticulously painted animals and plants, regularly with a mythological or biblical theme as background. He also painted multiple flower still lifes; bouquets in stone niches, sometimes with lizards such as '' Flowers with Two Lizards'', insects or fallen petals and regarded as his best work. His unique style of painting, related to the then reigning Mannerism, has been highly popular with collectors and can be found in many museums in Europe and North America. His preparatory drawings are also valued highly. Among his best-known works are several depictions of the now-extinct

dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...

painted between 1611 and 1628.http://julianhume.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/History-of-the-dodo-Hume.pdf His nephew Hans a.k.a.

Jan Savery Jan or Hans Savery the Younger (1589, Haarlem – bur. 7 August 1654, Utrecht) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Though more often referred to as ''Jan'' in connection with his best-known painting, he signed his works with ''Hans'', both names b ...

was also known for his paintings of the dodo (including a famous 1651 illustration currently held at the

Oxford University Museum of Natural History The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum or OUMNH, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It a ...

), which he probably copied from his uncle's work.

Savery's dodos

Savery is famous for being the most prolific and influential illustrator of the extinct

, having made at least ten depictions, often showing it in the lower corners. A famous painting of his from 1626, now called ''Edwards' Dodo'' as it was once owned by the ornithologist George Edwards, has since become the standard image of a dodo. It is housed in the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

, London. This and his other images are the source for many other dodo illustrations.

Sources

External links

Savery at WGAWhale on the beach (1614)Tyrolean landscape''Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints''
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Roelant Savery (see index) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Savery, Roelant 1576 births 1639 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Flemish Baroque painters Dutch bird artists Dutch still life painters People from Kortrijk Artists from Utrecht Painters from Utrecht Sibling artists