David Teniers the Younger - modello for Theatrum Pictorium 1673

''Theatrum Pictorium'', or ''Theatre of Painting'', is a short-hand name of a book published in the 1660s by David Teniers the Younger for his employer, the

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (5 January 1614 – 20 November 1662), younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand III, was an Austrian soldier, administrator and patron of the arts. He held a number of military commands, with limited success, an ...

. It was a catalog of 243 Italian paintings in the Archduke's collection of over 1300 paintings, with engravings of the paintings taken from small models that Teniers had personally prepared. A second edition with page numbers was published in 1673. During the years 1646-1656 Leopold Wilhelm was governor of the Netherlands and formed one of the greatest art collections of his age. Teniers effectively became its curator after the death of his predecessor Jan van den Hoecke in 1651. Leopold Wilhelm's collection came to hold works by

Hans Holbein the Elder Hans Holbein the Elder ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Ältere; – 1524) was a German painter. Life Holbein was born in free imperial city of Augsburg (Germany), and died in Issenheim, Alsace (now France). He belonged to a celebrated family o ...

, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jan van Eyck,

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

Giorgione Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quali ...

, Paolo Veronese and more than 15 works by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

. Teniers made a list of the painters in the collection as part of the forward to his 1673 catalog: File:Theatrum Pictorium gri 33125009347911 0012.jpg File:Theatrum Pictorium gri 33125009347911 0013.jpg This list is an important document that reflects the contemporary taste in paintings in Brussels at that time. Of all the painters, the names Magdalena Woutiers and Madonna Fitta de Milano are the only women whose work is documented as being in the Archduke's collection. No matter how illustrious the name however, only works by the better known Italian painters were chosen to be engraved for illustrations. At the end of his governorship, the Archduke and his collection moved to the Stallburg. This archducal collection now forms the heart of Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum. Before moving to Vienna in 1659, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm formed his art collection in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, where David Teniers the Younger painted views of the most prized possessions of his Brussels gallery. He painted several of these in various compositions which are now spread among various collections: File:David Teniers (II) - The gallery of Archduke Leopold in Brussels.jpg, ''Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (I)'' Staatsgalerie im Neuen Schloss, Schleißheim File:David Teniers (II) - The Gallery of Archduke Leopold in Brussels - WGA22066.jpg, '' Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Schleissheim)'', Staatsgalerie im Neuen Schloss, Schleißheim File:David Teniers - Gallery of the Archduke Leopold Willem in Brussels KMSKB.jpg, '' Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (Brussels)'', Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, 1651 File:El archiduque Leopoldo Guillermo en su galería de pinturas en Bruselas (David Teniers II).jpg, '' The Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Painting Gallery in Brussels'',

Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

File:David Teniers d. J. 008.jpg, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Vienna) ''Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels'' is a 1651 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, n ...

'', Kunsthistorisches Museum File:Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels - Petworth House.jpg, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Petworth) ''Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels'' is a 1651 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now held in Petworth House in England ...

'',

Petworth House Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Sa ...

File:David teniers-lazaro galdiano.JPG, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Galdiano) ''Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels'' is a 1653 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now held in the collectio ...

'', Museo Lázaro Galdiano File:David Teniers II - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels (1653).jpg, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Rothschild) ''Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels'' is a 1653 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger. It is now held in a priv ...

'', Private collection File:Nikolaus van Hoy - Theatrum Pictorium, view into the picture gallery of the Archduke Leopold in Stallburg.jpg, View into the picture gallery of the Archduke Leopold, by Nikolaus van Hoy in Teniers' catalog of paintings in 1673 Teniers employed a team of 12 engravers for reproducing the 243 paintings in the Theatrum. He produced small copies in oil of each of the chosen paintings, issuing these as models to his engravers and 120 of which were auctioned by the estate of

John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough (2 June 18224 July 1883), styled Earl of Sunderland from 1822 to 1840 and Marquess of Blandford from 1840 to 1857, was a British Conservative cabinet minister, politician, peer, and noblem ...

in 1886. Teniers’ painted copies measuring approximately 17 x 25 cm are now spread among various collections. The

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

Gallery holds 14 of these works, the largest group in any public collection. Of the 12 engravers, the five who contributed most were

Jan van Troyen Jan van Troyen (1610 – 1670) was a Flemish engraver and etcher. He is mainly known for the work he did for David Teniers the Younger on the illustrations for the '' Theatrum Pictorium'', an publication which gave an overview of the paintings i ...

with 56, Lucas Vorsterman the Younger with 52, Pieter van Lisebetten 40,

Theodoor van Kessel Theodor van Kessel, Theodoor van Kessel or Theodorus van KesselTheodoor van Kessel
at Ecart ...

27, and Coryn or Quirin Boel 25.History of the project
on website for ''Historians of Netherlandish Art'' Johannes Popels contributed five engravings.

Surviving works

The works listed in the book that survive are generally in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, while the modelli or small models for the engravings have been lost or are in other collections. The engravings and the modelli were inscribed with the dimensions of the original paintings, though their characteristics were often adjusted to take advantage of the maximum illustration possibilities of the album page size. The dimensions were in the form "4 alta 3 lata", which means 4 palm-widths high and 3 palm-widths wide, such as the case with the engraving after Bassano's ''Boy with a Flute'': File:Francesco Bassano - Boy with Flute GG 8.jpg, Example of a painting by Francesco Bassano the Younger in the Kunsthistorisches Museum File:Teniers - Boy with a Flute GG 9708.jpg, Example of a modello by David Teniers the Younger after Bassano, also in the Kunsthistorisches Museum File:Arolsen Klebeband 13 035.jpg, Example of an engraving from the first, 1660, edition of the ''Theatrum Pictorium'' by Jan van Troyen after the Bassano painting

List of engravings (matched to painting or modello)

References

Complete set of images
from the 1660s version with associated metadata listing titles (not in the 1673 book), original artist names (note that the engravings reflect the period attributions by Teniers, while some paintings have since been reattributed), page numbers, and engravers in the

Slovak National Gallery The Slovak National Gallery ( sk, Slovenská národná galéria, abbreviated SNG) is a network of galleries in Slovakia. It has its headquarters in Bratislava. The gallery was established by law on 29 July 1949. In Bratislava, it has its display ...

Copy of the 1673 book
in the

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Le Grand Cabinet Des Tableaux De L'Archi-Duc Leopold-Guillaume &c. &c. &c.
record for a later version published in Amsterdam and Leipzig by Arkstée & Merkus, 1755

called ''David Teniers’s Theatrum Pictorium and the

John G. Johnson John Graver Johnson (1841, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – April 13, 1917, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American corporate lawyer and art collector. The Philadelphia law firm that he founded in 1863 continues under the name Saul Ewing. H ...

Collection'', June 12, 2010 - January 2011, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art {{Authority control (arts) 1673 books Visual arts exhibitions Art collections in the Netherlands Art collections in Germany Paintings in the collection of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria Catalogues David Teniers the Younger