Gabriël Grupello (also Gabriël de Grupello or Gabriël Reppeli; 22 May 1644 – 20 June 1730) was a

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

sculptor who produced religious and mythological sculptures, portraits and public sculptures. He worked in Flanders, France and Germany. He was a virtuoso sculptor who enjoyed the patronage of several European rulers.

Life

Early life and training

Grupello was born as the son of Bernardo Rupelli, an Italian cavalry captain in Spanish service, and his Flemish wife Cornelia Delinck.C. J. A. Genders, ''Gabriël Grupello''
in: Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek, Volume 6, p. 392–404, Brussel, Paleis der Akademiën, 1964 His father, who died at a young age, was a member of the higher non-aristocratic class of society. Grupello later styled himself as Chevalier de Grupello, but a noble ancestry has not been demonstrated. At age 14, he started a five-year training as a sculptor in the Antwerp workshop of leading Baroque sculptor

Artus Quellinus the Elder Artus Quellinus the Elder, Artus Quellinus I or Artus (Arnoldus) Quellijn (20 or 30 August 1609, Antwerp – 23 August 1668, Antwerp) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish sculptor. He is regarded as the most important representative of the ...

.Kai Budde. "Grupello, Gabriel."
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 6 June 2021 After studying in Italy where he had worked in the workshop of his compatriot François Duquesnoy, Quellinus had returned to Antwerp in 1640. He had brought with him a new vision of the role of the sculptor. The sculptor was no longer to be an ornamentalist but a creator of a total artwork in which architectural components were replaced by sculptures. He saw the church furniture that he was commissioned to make as an occasion for creating large-scale compositions, incorporated into the church interior.Helena Bussers, ''De baroksculptuur en het barok''
at Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen From 1650 onwards, Quellinus worked for fifteen years on the new

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

in Amsterdam together with the lead architect

Jacob van Campen Jacob van Campen (2 February 1596 — 13 September 1657) was a Dutch artist and architect of the Golden Age. Life He was born into a wealthy family at Haarlem and spent his youth in his hometown. Being of noble birth and with time on his han ...

. Now called the Royal Palace on the

Dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

, this construction project, and in particular the marble decorations that Quellinus and his workshop produced, became an example for other buildings in Amsterdam. Quellinus invited many sculptors from his native Antwerp to assist him in the realisation of this project, many of whom such as his cousin

Artus Quellinus II Artus Quellinus II or Artus Quellinus the Younger (alternative first name: Arnold; variation on family name: Quellijn, Quellyn, Quellien, Quellin, Quellinius) (between 10 and 20 November 1625 – 22 November 1700) was a Southern Netherlands, F ...

, Rombout Verhulst and

Bartholomeus Eggers Bartholomeus Eggers (c. 1637Bartholomeus Eggers
at the

would become leading sculptors in their own right.Halsema-Kubes, W. “Bartholomeus Eggers' Keizers- En Keizerinnenbusten Voor Keurvorst Friedrich Wilhelm Van Brandenburg.”
Bulletin Van Het Rijksmuseum, vol. 36, no. 1, 1988, pp. 44–53, 6 June 2021 Grupello may have assisted Quellinus with the sculptural decorations in this project. His exact contributions cannot be identified as this was a collaborative effort. The sculptural decorations in the Amsterdam city hall established the international reputation of Quellinus and his workshop and would lead to many more foreign commissions for the Quellinus workshop including in Germany, Denmark and England. This helped further spread the Flemish Baroque idiom in Europe. He completed a further two years of study in Paris and

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

, where he was in contact with his compatriots Philippe de Buyster, Gerard van Opstal and Martin Desjardins and learned the technique of bronze casting. He subsequently worked for two years for the sculptor Johan Larson in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

In Brussels

He returned to Flanders in 1671 and two years later he became a master of the Brussels Guild. He opened a workshop in Brussels, which became very successful and employed many assistants. He enjoyed the patronage of the city as well as that of various European rulers, including the Spanish king Charles II, William II of Orange and Frederick III, the Elector of Brandenburg. Grupello collaborated from about 1673 to 1678 on the decorative project for the funerary chapel of Duke Lamoral of Thorn and Taxis (in the Church of Our Lady of Victories at the Sablon in Brussels). This decorative project was initially under the direction of

Lucas Faydherbe Lucas Faydherbe (also spelled Lucas Faijdherbe; he signed as Lucas Fayd'herbe) (Mechelen, 19 January 1617 – Mechelen, 31 December 1697)Jan van Delen Jan van Delen (1635/1636, City of Brussels, Brussels – 12 March 1703,Léon Lock, ''Caritas, Jan van Delen''
by Erfgoed Koning Boudewijnstichting - Patrimoine Fondation Roi Baudouin, 2013 The ''Charity'' and ''Faith'' (Fides) sculptures were stolen at the end of the 18th century during one of the occupations of the Southern Netherlands by the French. ''Charity'' was rediscovered in a French private collection two centuries later and returned to Belgium after a sale at Christie's in 2012.Jan van Delen, ''Caritas''
at Christie's The statue group of ''Hope'' (Spes) by Grupello shows a sitting woman personifying hope with an anchor and a child which may be a symbol of the next generation. In other words, the child could represent the son of the Duke of Lamoral who after the early death of his father had to continue the family name and business. The book above Hope refers to the genealogy of the Lamoral family prepared by Jules Chifflet, which had revealed the truth about the family and given a firm basis to the family's claim to its elevated position. During his time in Brussels, he also fathered a son (born 1671) and a daughter (born 1674) with his mistress Johanna Louisa Quebault (Tebout).

In Germany

In 1695, the Elector Johann Wilhelm appointed Grupello as his official court sculptor and Grupello then moved to live and work in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

. He created numerous sculptures of the royal couple in marble and bronze, and was responsible for the supervision of craftsmen who worked on the Elector's palaces. Grupello also designed a fountain known as the Grupello pyramid for the Galerieplatz in Düsseldorf (now in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

Grupello married Anna Maria Dautzenberg, the daughter of the Elector's lawyer, in 1698. Five children were born from this marriage. The Elector gave Grupello in 1708 a house in the city centre.Grupellohaus
The house, which is still called the '' Grupello-Haus'' or "Grupello House", is believed to have been designed by the Italian architect Matteo Alberti. Grupello carried out an important reconstruction of the building and used the house as the living quarters of his family and partially also as a studio. Originally, two busts representing the Greek goddesses

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

and

Aphrodite Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...

presumed to be by Grupello were placed above the portal of the house. The original bronze statues are now in the local Stadtmuseum Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf and have been replaced by two concrete cast replicas.Zwei Büsten vervollständigen wieder das Portal am Grupello-Haus
With the death of Elector Johann Wilhelm in 1716, the employment of the sculptor at the court came to an end. Elector Johann Wilhelm's successor Elector Carl Philipp introduced austerity measures and dismissed officials and artists. Grupello continued to live in Düsseldorf and in 1619 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI appointed him as Imperial sculptor. In 1725, Grupello and his wife moved into the quarters at Ehrenstein Castle in Kerkrade (now in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

) of their daughter, who was married to an imperial official. He died there in 1730 at the age of 86 years.

Work

Grupello was a versatile artist in terms of the subject range of his sculptures as well as the materials in which he worked. He executed works in marble, ivory and wood and was rare among his contemporary Flemish Baroque sculptors in that he also made bronze statues. A prime example is the bronze equestrian statue of the Elector Johann Wilhelm. His early work shows a

classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

tendency, which may be due to his study period in France. In Brussels, his work was influenced by the Flemish Baroque, and in particular

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...

, and developed into a full-blown Baroque style. A major work that Grupello created in this style in Brussels is the marble wall fountain, intended for the main ballroom of the wholesale fishmongers guild. It is this Baroque style that he brought to Düsseldorf when he moved there. In his later life, he turned more to religious art and produced crucifixes, Madonnas and statues of saints.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grupello, Gabriel Flemish Baroque sculptors Ivory carvers 17th-century births 1730 deaths People from Geraardsbergen