codart Courant 7/December 2003 · Rembrandt’s early mastery of the fijnschilder style. Portrait of a white-haired man, 1667, is an outstanding illustration of Rembrandt’s late

c o d a r t Courant 7/December 2003

codart CourantPublished by Stichting codartP.O. Box 76709nl-1070 ka AmsterdamThe [email protected]

Managing editor: Rachel Esnere [email protected]

Editors: Wietske Donkersloot,Gary Schwartzt +31 (0)20 305 4515f +31 (0)20 305 4500e [email protected]

codart boardHenk van der Walle, chairmanWim Jacobs, controller of the Instituut

Collectie Nederland, secretary-treasurer

Rudi Ekkart, director of the Rijksbureauvoor Kunsthistorische Documentatie

Jan Houwert, director of the WegenerPublishing Company

Paul Huvenne, director of the KoninklijkMuseum voor Schone Kunsten,Antwerp

Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven, member of theDutch Labor Party faction

codart is an international council forcurators of Dutch and Flemish art. Itsupports inter-museum cooperation in the study and display of art from theLowlands through a variety of means,including congresses, study trips, pub-lications and a website (www.codart.nl).The organization was founded and is aided by the Netherlands Institute forCultural Heritage. It enjoys the generoussupport of the Netherlands Ministry ofEducation, Culture and Science and theMinistry of Welfare, Health and Cultureof the Flemish Community.

codart Courant appears twice a year. Contributions are welcome.

codart Courant is designed byTypography Interiority & Other SeriousMatters, Rotterdam

issn 1388 9559

contents

2 A word from the director3 News and notes from around the world

3 Australia, Melbourne, National Galleryof Victoria

3 Around Canada4 France, Paris, Institut Néerlandais,

Fondation Custodia4 Germany, Dresden, Staatliche Kunst-

sammlungen Dresden, GemäldegalerieAlte Meister

5 Germany, Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung

6 Italy, Bert W. Meijer’s influential role instudy and research projects on Dutchand Flemish art in Italy

8 Around Japan8 Romania, Sibiu, Brukenthal Museum9 Around the United Kingdom and

Ireland10 A typical codart story

12 The influence and uses of Flemish paintingin colonial Peru

14 Preview of upcoming exhibitions15 codart publications: A window on

Dutch cultural organizations for Russianart historians

15 codart activities in fall 200315 Study trip to New England,

29 October-3 November 200323 codart activities in 2004

23 codart zeven congress: Dutchand Flemish art in Poland, Utrecht,7-9 March 2004

23 Study trip to Gdańsk, Warsaw and Kraków, 18-25 April 2004

32 Appointments32 codart membership news33 Membership directory44 codart dates

A Boston taxi during the codart zes study trip.

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codart Courant 7/December 2003 2

A word from the director

As I write, in late November 2003, the boards,directors and staffs of hundreds of subsidizedcultural institutions all over the Netherlands,including codart, are in a state of highnervous tension. Their applications forfunding from the Ministry of Education,Culture and Science for the period 2005-08 haveto be handed in by 1 December, and they areagonizing over them. They want to showpositive results over the current period, 2001-04, and present strong arguments forcontinuing their good work in a brilliantapplication that no advisor, bureaucrat orpolitician can read without being touched.They (read: we) worry about getting all of thisonto paper (or onto the new electronicapplication form) with the right words and theright numbers – not too many, not too few – inthe right boxes. The prose has to be readable,the numbers have to be unproblematic.

After the introduction of a five-year planfor arts funding for the period 1988-92, asomewhat briefer four-year cycle wasinstituted for 1993-96 and the years since. Foran organization like ours, with a clear missionand a program that does not vary much fromyear to year, this has great advantages. If our

application is honored, we can do our work inrelative financial security for four years. (Fieldslike experimental theater and music havegreater problems with the four-yearCultuurnota, as it is called.) To the lesserextent that we are dependent on subsidy fromthe Flemish government, the lack of long-term funding is paralyzing. At this moment,we do not even know whether our grant fromFlanders will be forthcoming for the year 2004,let alone 2005 and later.

Nerves aside, we are confident that ourapplication to the Dutch authorities for 2005-08 is a winner. What makes it so is, in the firstplace, the way our members have reacted toand made use of codart. We candemonstrate that thanks to the facilities weprovide a number of exhibitions have beenheld in places like St. Petersburg, Bucharest,Rio de Janeiro and Boston, that wouldotherwise not have taken place; a groupidentity has been created – museum curatorsof Dutch and Flemish art – that barely existsfor curators of other schools; spin-off fromcodart generates an increase in grants,press attention and advancement for art fromthe Netherlands; public awareness ofcollections and exhibitions of Dutch andFlemish art has been raised to anunprecedentedly high level. (In the third weekof November, our prize-winning websiteregistered its five-millionth hit!)

The codart application is enlivenedby direct quotations from members of ourorganization and the public. It will not bebetraying the confidence of the writers or theMinistry, I am sure, in reporting some of themto you.

‘Very important for me as curator was attending thecodart congress – keeping in touch with thelatest research trends, exhibitions, other museumactivities and colleagues. For us in Eastern Europethe neighbouring countries are the least known. Itwas useful to have personal contact and find outwhat was going on in Poland, Russia and the BalticStates. codart has for me all the values of aprofessional association (something I miss at home).’

Dana BerceaNational Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest

‘I just wanted to send you a brief note to say how veryhelpful I find codart’s exhibitions calendar. It isthe only site that provides a comprehensive andreliable overview of Netherlandish exhibitionsaround the world and is the first port of call whenplanning research trips. I regularly recommend thesite to art historians and art lovers in London.’

Lucy CutlerCourtauld Institute of Art, London

‘I just discovered the essential bibliography today.Wow! Thank you! I’m printing it out right now topass along to our librarian at the Museum.’

Betsy WiesemanCincinnati Art Museum

‘After the codart zes congress in theTrippenhuis in March 2003, I was inspired to writean article on the history of this house for theFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.’

Dr. Jan NicolaisenMuseum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig

The success we have enjoyed among ourprofessional peers over the past years willallow us to go further in 2005-08 in thedirection that in the end counts the most –reaching the worldwide audience for art, themuseumgoers for whom curators do theirwork. By June 2004, when the next issue of thecourant appears, the Raad voor Cultuur(Council for Culture) will have judged ourapplication and passed on its recommendationto the State Secretary for Culture. At that timeI will write another report from headquarterson our chances for the next years. Whether ornot it is as upbeat at this one is uncertain. Forthat reason, this is the moment to express mythanks to all members of codart who in theyears since our founding in January 1998 havemade such good use of what we have to offer,and especially to those who have let us knowabout it.

Gary Schwartz

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News and notes from around the world

australiaMelbourne, National Gallery of Victoria

In December 2003, the National Gallery ofVictoria, Melbourne returns to its refurbishedbuilding, which has been closed since 1999.Designed by Sir Roy Grounds in 1968, thebuilding has been transformed by Italianarchitect Mario Bellini Associati (Milan) inpartnership with metier 3 (Melbourne) toincrease exhibition space by 25 percent. In2002, the ngv gained a second building, thearchitecturally acclaimed Ian Potter Centre:ngv Australia at Federation Square, where theAustralian art collection is now displayed. Thiscomplex is a few minutes walk across the YarraRiver from the St. Kilda Road building, nowknown as ngv International.

A new feature of ngv International is theRembrandt Cabinet, designed to provide adisplay devoted to the ngv’s holdings of thework of the Dutch master, which are uniquewithin the southern hemisphere. The ngv isfortunate in possessing two paintings byRembrandt that exemplify the artist’s geniusat both the beginning and end of his career.Two old men disputing, 1628, was painted in theartist’s hometown of Leiden when he was inhis early twenties and is a classic example ofRembrandt’s early mastery of the fijnschilderstyle. Portrait of a white-haired man, 1667, is anoutstanding illustration of Rembrandt’s lateportraiture style. Executed just two yearsbefore the artist’s death, it is one of the last twosigned and dated portraits known by his hand.

The Rembrandt Cabinet also provides acontext in which visitors can view the ngv’sthird painting from the Rembrandt school,Rembrandt, dated to the 1660s. This work is nowconsidered to belong to a group of ‘selfportraits’ made for an as-yet-undeterminedpurpose, which originated in Rembrandt’sworkshop and were painted by one or more ofhis studio assistants.

The Cabinet will also include a changingdisplay of works on paper by Rembrandt andDutch and Flemish artists of the 17th century.The ngv’s store of Rembrandt prints began in1891 with the purchase of 11 fine impressionsfrom the sale of Sir Francis Seymour Haden’sfamous collection. It continued to growthroughout the 20th century, with manynotable additions; the holdings now compriseabout one-third of his printed oeuvre as wellas two drawings. The first display in theRembrandt Cabinet will pay tribute to several

benefactors who generously assisted with thegallery’s most recent addition of five etchingsfrom Joost Ritman’s collection. These include asuperb impression of the final state ofRembrandt’s The angel appearing to theshepherds, 1634, his first etching of a nocturnalscene, and the rare Woman with the arrow, 1661.

The ngv’s collection of Dutch and Flemishpaintings will be on display once more in twoother special galleries, including works byJacob Jordaens, Aelbert Cuyp, Thomas deKeyser, Jacob van Ruisdael, Salomon vanRuysdael, Meindert Hobbema and Arent deGelder. The first exhibition in the dedicatedprints and drawings gallery, Surveying thecenturies, re-introduces Melburnians andvisitors to the highlights of our internationalworks on paper collection, the mostcomprehensive of its kind in Australia. (Otherstrengths of this collection are the highlyregarded Dürer, Goya and Blake holdings.)Included in this exhibition are prints anddrawings by Rembrandt, Jacques de Gheyn iiand Arent de Gelder, together with a diverserange of works from the 15th to the 21stcentury. The Ursula Hoff Reading Room hasalso reopened to allow students and scholarsaccess to this collection (by appointment). Newhandbooks on the international paintings andsculpture, and prints and drawings collectionsare being launched to coincide with theopening of our refurbished building and newdisplays. We hope many codart memberswill be able to visit our gallery and enjoy ournew facilities.

For further information on our Rembrandtholdings, see Gregory and Zdanowicz,Rembrandt in the collections of the National Galleryof Victoria, Melbourne 1988 (acquisitions up to1988); for our Dutch and Flemish paintings, seeUrsula Hoff, European paintings before 1800 in theNational Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1995.

Alisa Bunbury and Ted GottNational Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

canadaAround Canada

A number of changes and activities have takenplace in the Dutch and Flemish art world inCanada over the last years. At the Art Gallery ofOntario, Toronto, curator Christina Corsigliaand assistant curator Erin Webster have re-hung the Renaissance and Baroque galleries.The new selection and arrangement shows offthe strengths of the collection, in particularthe beautiful Aelbert Cuyp and van Dyck’sPortrait of Michel le Blon. The two monumentalGaspar de Crayers now have their own gallery;they were recently joined by yet another

monumental canvas by same artist, St. Benedictreceiving Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, anotherdonated by Joey Tanenbaum. Unfortunately,the enchanting late Rembrandt, Woman witha lapdog, languishes rather high up on a wall,making way for a modest but strong Self-portrait by Barent Fabritius. The curatorialstaff has proved resistant with respect to newattributions, with the Samuel vanHoogstraten and Pieter Thys here still givento Gabriel Metsu and Anthony van Dyck. Theago is eagerly anticipating the arrival ofRubens’s Massacre of the innocents, purchasedlast summer with a donation in mind [see alsothe contribution by Axel Rüger below; editors].A major expansion is currently in planning, tobe designed by one-time Toronto residentFrank Gehry and sponsored in large part byLord Thomson.

At the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa,David Franklin and a team of scholars broughttogether a large selection of drawings from theNational Gallery’s own collection, and from anumber of other Canadian public collections,to form Dutch and Flemish drawings from theNational Gallery of Canada (23 May-1 September2003). Filling four galleries, this exhibition setthe context for a (proposed) major gift of Dutchand Flemish drawings from a private collector.The focus of the collection is the period around1600 and the practice of Mannerism at thecourt of Rudolph ii in Prague. One of itshighlights is a Goltzius drawing of Hercules,which was here joined by a series of Goltziusdrawings of the same format from Montreal.There are also a number of Rembrandt Schooldrawings, including works by Jan Lievens,Samuel van Hoogstraten, Lambert Doomerand Aert de Gelder, as well as an impressivesheet by Anthonie Waterloo. Presently ondisplay is Paulus Bor’s stunning Annunciationof the death of the Virgin, on loan from the Hall& Knight Gallery in London.

On 26 October 2003, the Agnes EtheringtonArt Centre, Kingston, opened Gift of genius: aRembrandt for Kingston (to 18 January 2004). Thisstudio exhibition presents the recent donationby Drs. Alfred and Isabel Bader of Rembrandt’sHead of an old man in a cap (Br. 633, C22). It isaccompanied by prints by van Vliet andRembrandt that expand on Rembrandt’spursuit of emotional expression, and thatilluminate the attribution of the painting andthe function of the tronie in Rembrandt’s art.In November a larger exhibition, drawingfrom the permanent collection, opened in theBader Gallery. It focuses on depictions of thehuman figure, with the title Real and imaginedpeople (30 November 2003-19 June 2005).

3 codart Courant 7/December 2003

Curator David de Witt is presently preparing acatalogue of the Dutch and Flemish paintingscurrently in the Art Centre’s collection andthose that will enter it from the collection ofAlfred and Isabel Bader in Milwaukee as part ofa bequest. Also in preparation is an exhibitionon the theme of Tobit in Dutch art, with theBijbels Museum in Amsterdam as partner.

David de WittAgnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston

franceParis, Institut Néerlandais, Fondation Custodia

The Fondation Custodia, housed together withthe Institut Néerlandais in Paris, was foundedon the initiative of the art historian Frits Lugt(1884-1970) and in conjunction with the Dutchgovernment in 1956. It administers the FritsLugt Collection, which is a remarkableensemble of drawings, prints, artists’ letters,paintings and rare books. Scholarly researchrelating to these collections, a publishingprogram and the organization of exhibitionsbelong to the various activities of thecuratorial staff.

We are currently preparing severalexhibitions and publications. Regards sur l’arthollandais du xviie siècle: Frits Lugt et les frèresDutuit collectionneurs will be on view from18 March to 16 May 2004, organized by theFondation Custodia in collaboration with thePetit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Villede Paris. A choice of about 70 of the best works(paintings, drawings and prints) from bothinstitutions will be displayed as a tribute tothe collectors Dutuit and Frits Lugt, forming apresentation of the Dutch Golden Age as well.The exhibition will be held at the InstitutNéerlandais, as the Petit Palais is closed forrenovation. Jongkind et son cercle., curated byRhea Blok (10 June-18 July 2004) at the InstitutNéerlandais (Hôtel Turgot), will presentautograph letters, drawings and prints byJongkind and his circle from the Frits LugtCollection. Around the same time, a show ofJongkind’s work will be held at the Muséed’Orsay.

Our most important project at themoment, however, is the preparation of arevised edition of Frits Lugt’s Les marques decollections de dessins et d’estampes. For manycollectors, dealers and art historians, the nameFrits Lugt is mainly associated with thisunsurpassed reference work, published in1921. A supplement appeared in 1956. The bookprovides an inventory of collectors’ marks andcontains a vast amount of information aboutcollectors of drawings and prints and theircollections. Planning for an improved and

expanded edition of this indispensablestandard work began in 1996 at the FondationCustodia. All those acquainted with the bookwill understand how much time and money isinvolved in this operation. The Société FritsLugt pour l’Étude des Marques de Collectionswas established specifically in order to bringthis project to fruition. Fund-raising beganwith a highly successful sale of donated printsand drawings. The Société Frits Lugt (sfl)invites all those interested in researching anddisseminating knowledge of marks, initials,signatures, inscriptions, mounts and all othercollectors’ marks on works on paper tocontribute to and support this new edition.Providing supplementary information andfunds now will enable future generations tomake use of a priceless store of informationabout their predecessors. A computer programhas now been developed that contains all theinformation from the existing volumes andthat will incorporate the new material,enabling us to publish the forthcomingedition of Les marques de collections in threevolumes as well as on cd-Rom. The new,expanded and revised edition of the book isplanned for 2006.

For more information please contact the Société

Frits Lugt pour l’Étude des Marques de Collections,

121 rue de Lille

f- 75007 Paris

t +33 1 4705 7519

f + 33 1 4555 6535

e [email protected]

w www.fondationcustodia.fr

Stijn AlsteensInstitut Néerlandais, Fondation Custodia, Paris

germanyDresden, Staatliche KunstsammlungenDresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

The television pictures and reports of lastAugust’s flood disaster in Dresden went allaround the world. The aerial images of theZwinger in particular, the heart of Dresden’sBaroque city center and the repository of anumber of large world-class art collections,were greeted with dismay. The GaleriegebäudeGottfried Semper, which borders the northernside of the grounds nearest the Elbe, housesthe Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, while themanagement offices, the museum’s photolaboratory and the workshops for restoration,framing and gilding are in the northeasternZwingerpavillon and adjoining rooms, and inthe cellars beneath. Since a comprehensiverenovation project, completed in 1992, threemodern storage and packing areas wereaccommodated in the cellar beneath the

Semperbau and Theaterplatz.The first extreme floods in the Dresden area

originated in the small rivers in the Erzgebirgeto the south of the city, and reached Dresdenitself in the early hours of 13 August. Around6 a.m. the gallery’s technical staff noticed thatwater was beginning to seep into the threeunderground storerooms, coming in by way ofthe ventilation shafts and the sewers. Shortlyafterwards, the decision was taken to evacuatethe storerooms and at around 8 a.m. allavailable staff began the task of clearing thearea. The deeper stores beneath Theaterplatzwere the first to be cleared; these containedseveral hundred pictures belonging to thirdparties, a large collection of historic frames andparts of two valuable 17th-century Turkishtents from the Dresden Armory. As it was notlong before water levels also began to rise inthe main storeroom beneath the Semperbau,home to two-thirds of the old collection of themusem, the morning’s work was concentratedprincipally on this area. With the aid of around200 staff members and helpers from the armyand the Saxony Ministry for Science and Art, itwas possible to clear most of this storeroom bythe late afternoon. The paintings were carriedto the exhibition rooms on the first floor of theSemperbau and quickly stacked there as safelyas possible, while the staff, with great effort,moved the large-scale works of art, some ofwhich were very heavy, into the Gobelinsaaland surrounding rooms. This evacuation tookplace under very difficult conditions: thepower had failed that morning so that neitherthe lighting nor the freight elevator wereworking, and by the afternoon the water in


The painting reserves of the Gemäldegalerie Alte

Meister in Dresden after the flood in August 2002.


the main storeroom had risen to a height ofaround 50 cm. The darkness, falling picturehooks and the participation of people who hadno experience of handling works of art madethe evacuation a very risky procedure for allinvolved and for the works of art. By around5 p.m., all but six of the gallery’s large-scalepaintings and a few canvases withoutstretchers, which were rolled up around largedrums, had been brought to safety. Theremaining works of art, whose size meant thatthey could only have been transported by wayof the freight elevator, had to remain in thestores, and ropes were used to tie them asclosely as possible to the ceiling. This spec-tacular operation turned out to have a been avery good move, as the water that flooded allof the storerooms over the course of a weekfinally came to a stop around one meter fromthe ceiling. As the two deepest storeroomswere flooded completely on 13 August, nofurther rescue attempts, aimed at saving theframes, for example, were possible.

On the following night, water levels in thestorerooms and other areas beneath groundlevel including the entrance hall, theimportant underground machine rooms andoperational areas of the gallery, and theworkshops, rose to a height of 150 cm. Thedeepest underground storerooms had alreadycompletely flooded by this point and no accesshad been possible for some time.

In the course of the following days,particularly after the second wave of highwater at the end of the week (16-18 August),which was now coming in from the directionof the Elbe, further efforts were made to reducethe level of water in the underground gallery

spaces using high-efficiency pumps fromvarious fire services and from a technical relieforganization in order to protect the large-scalepaintings still in the main storage room. Theoften desperate attempts of the gallery staff toget sufficient equipment and vehicles to carryout this task were unfortunately notsupported, and in some respects were actuallyhindered, by the leaders of the city’semergency task force.

On Wednesday, 14 August, staff embarkedon an emergency inventory of all 2,690salvaged works of art and 255 frames in orderto ascertain the condition of the collections.To great all-round relief, it was establishedthat not one single work was missing. Thefinal balance of the effects of the flood disasteron the works of art was remarkable: apart from17 unstretched canvases that were rolled ondrums, which had become wet in parts, all thepictures from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister,including those which had been suspendedbeneath the ceiling of the storehouse, hadsurvived the evacuation without significantdamage. However, the 321 historic frames thathad to be left behind in the deepest storeroomsbeneath Theaterplatz fell victim to the flood.The situation in the building, on the otherhand, parts of which had been under water foraround two weeks, was devastating, andmeant that the gallery had to be closed to thepublic for some time. In addition to thestorerooms and the workshops in the cellararea, all the technical control centers of thegallery, such as the air-conditioning, theelevators, and the electrical, heating andsecurity systems, had been completelydestroyed. The essential temporary air-

conditioning for the packed exhibition roomswas installed immediately, using mobile unitslent by other institutions and museums. Thegallery had to be used as a storeroom, and thiswas another reason why it remained closeduntil November 2002.

Parallel to the clean-up work, which beganimmediately, and to which many gallery staffonce more devoted themselves whole-heartedly, the restoration of the damagedlarge-format paintings and rolled pictures wastackled by freelance restorers and by studentsfrom the Dresden Hochschule für BildendeKünste. Thanks to various generous donations,this restoration work could begin immediatelyand is still continuing today. In addition tothese donations, in the weeks that followed wereceived many letters from all over the worldfrom museum colleagues, from restorers andfrom private individuals, offering manydifferent kinds of help and support. We werevery moved by all these expressions ofsympathy and by the support that was offered,and would like to take this opportunity tothank everyone once more, because it was notpossible to respond to every letter last year.

The damage to our workshops and to thetechnical ‘hinterland’ of the art gallery hasseriously hindered our work during the wholeof the past year, even though the gallery itselfmay once more be admired in its former glory.Fortunately, a year having passed, it is nowalso possible for us to use our floodedworkshops without restriction. The storeroomsituation, on the other hand, is still mostunsatisfactory, as we can no longer use theformer underground storerooms. The picturesthat are not on display are currently being keptin a temporary storeroom on the northernedge of Dresden. This has caused a greatnumber of problems for the day-to-dayrunning of the museum. Plans are being madefor the construction of a modern storagebuilding in the near future, and the directorsof the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresdenpropose that this should be situated in the citycentre. This would make a definiteimprovement to working conditions in thegallery.

Uta NeidhardtStaatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden,

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

Translated from the German by Laura Watkinson

The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden during the floods in August 2002.

Munich, Staatliche Graphische SammlungIn Munich, works by Dutch and Flemishartists are mainly housed in the AltePinakothek (part of the Bayerische Staats-gemäldesammlungen) and in the StaatlicheGraphische Sammlung (the collection of printsand drawings of the Bavarian state). On specialoccasions, the latter makes guest appearancesat the Alte Pinakothek, for example in 2001-02,when Rembrandt auf Papier: Werk und Wirkungwas shown; the show later traveled to theRembrandthuis in Amsterdam. Thisexhibition, which included drawings byRembrandt and his followers, with worksdrawn mainly from the Staatliche GraphischeSammlung and complemented with selectedloans from other print collections, was verysuccessful. So were the events thataccompanied it, such as ‘Music in Amsterdamin the age of Rembrandt,’ a lecture on‘Claudius Civilis and Dutch nationalconsciousness,’ and a recital of songs by Hooftand Bredero. Apart from a small show ofGoltzius’s engravings last spring, anexhibition on Netherlandish artists in Municharound 1600 is planned for the near future.

Last year, the Bayerische Staatsgemälde-sammlungen (Alte Pinakothek) published itsvoluminous catalogue of painters of theFlemish Baroque. Compiled by Konrad Rengerand Claudia Denk, it also documents theresults of the scientific research into the worksin the collection. From 17 October 2003 to18 January 2004, several portraits of IsabellaBrant, wife of Peter Paul Rubens, will be shownat the Alte Pinakothek. From mid-March 2004until the end of June Rembrandt’s Sacrifice ofIsaac from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg willbe on display, hanging side by side with thepainting of the same subject belonging to theAlte Pinakothek. Afterwards both paintingswill travel to St. Petersburg.

Also noteworthy, the Schleißheim Galerie,long closed for renovation, reopened last year,making the Flemish paintings once againaccessible to the public. The cabinet of Dutchpaintings will reopen in the course of 2004.Although Munich is far away from theNetherlands, and although its orientation inart and architecture is generally more Italian,nevertheless our museums remain strongbulwarks of Dutch and Flemish culture.

Thea Vignau-WilbergStaatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich

italyBert W. Meijer’s influential role in study andresearch projects on Dutch and Flemish art inItaly

The Istituto Universitario Olandese di Storiadell’Arte (Dutch University Institute for ArtHistory) in Florence, under the direction ofBert W. Meijer, has initiated a series of veryimportant projects, particularly in recentyears, and has become an essential resource forthose interested in the study and knowledge ofDutch and Flemish painting in Italy.

The special relationship that existed fromthe 15th century onwards between the artisticcultures of Italy and that of the Low Countries,coupled with the interest that 18th- and 19th-century Italian artists had in the art of thisregion, has ensured that there are a largenumber of works from the Netherlands andFlanders in Italian public collections. ManyItalian museums began as legacies fromprivate individuals or have benefited frombequests over the course of time. Generally,these works have not been studied in any greatdepth, and knowledge about them is limited.With this mind, the Institute embarked uponan extensive and painstaking research project,aimed at the publication of the multi-volumeRepertory of Dutch and Flemish paintings in Italianpublic collections, edited by Meijer. The projectdeals with almost 10,000 works of art spread allover Italy, and is designed to establish moreprecise details about the history and identityof these pieces, so as to gain a betterunderstanding of their significance. This isdone by means of brief entries giving anaccount of technical data, attribution, date,provenance, critical reception and by a

photograph of each of the works of art. Thevolumes dedicated to Liguria and Lombardyhave already been published (1998, 2001-02),and those relating to Piedmont, the VenetoLazio, and Tuscany are currently in progress.

In the summer of 2002, on the occasion ofthe publication of the two-volume workdedicated to Lombardy, an exhibition entitledFiamminghi e Olandesi: dipinti dalle collezionilombarde was held at the Palazzo Reale inMilan, and at one of the sites of the PinacotecaAmbrosiana. Organized by Bert Meijer onbehalf of the Dutch University Institute forArt History and enthusiastically supportedby Salvatore Carubba, alderman of the cityof Milan responsible for culture, this was anevent of great importance, especiallyconsidering that in Italy exhibitions of Dutchand Flemish art are extremely rare. Alongsidefamous works, the exhibition also highlightedmany lesser-known works, which have nowbecome the subject of in-depth study.

The exhibition in Milan was just the latestin a series of initiatives led by Bert Meijer,which in recent years have resulted in theorganization of exhibitions and thecompilation of academic catalogues ofcollections of Dutch and Flemish paintings inpublic galleries. Such events included theexhibition Luci del nord: dipinti fiamminghi eolandesi del Museo Civico di Cremona, held inCremona in 1998. On this occasion, FrancescaRossi and I also ran a training course on Dutchand Flemish art for teachers in Italian highschools. The exhibition was followed in 2001 bythe publication of the catalogue of Dutch andFlemish paintings in the Museo Borgogna inVercelli (Museo Borgogna: dipinti fiamminghi eolandesi). The same year saw the appearance ofthe substantial volume dedicated to works by


Corneille de Lyon, Portrait of a man, Museo Civico Ala

Ponzone.

Willem de Poorter, Death and the miser, Museo

Borgogna, Vercelli.

non-Italian artists in the Pinacoteca delCastello Sforzesco in Milan (Museo d’Arte Anticadel Castello Sforzesco. Pinacoteca: scuole straniere),which contains a large number (around 300)of Dutch and Flemish works of art. Many ofthese were part of the 19th-century collectionof Count Lodovico Belgiojoso, one of the mostsignificant collections of 17th-centurypaintings from the Low Countries in thewhole of Italy.

These initiatives have seen thecollaboration of Dutch and Italian academicsand have been spurred on by the Institutewhich, with its vast specialized library,complete with the Iconclass photographsand other photographic resources, offersappropriate study tools, particularly for Italianart historians specializing in Dutch andFlemish art. In many cases, the workingrelationship (and the friendship, as I cantestify) between Italian art historians and the Institute began at the Scuola diSpecializzazione in Storia dell’Artedell’Università Cattolica di Milano, where,from 1996, Bert Meijer holds courses dedicatedto the art of the Low Countries. These coursesbore fruit in many dissertations andpublications, including my own volume (witha preface by Bert Meijer), Robert de Longe aCremona: Un maestro fiammingo del Baroccoitaliano (in the series ‘Annali della BibliotecaStatale e Libreria Civica di Cremona,’ vol. 51,2000), and Francesca Rossi’s 2001 Mill’altremaraviglie ristrette in angustissimo spacio: Unrepertorio dell’arte fiamminga e olandese a Verona

tra Cinque e Seicento (Istituto Veneto di Scienze,Lettere ed Arti).

The intense activity and culturaldynamism of the Institute have also had animpact in the Netherlands. For over a decade,the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrechthas been host to a yearly symposium,organized by the Department of Art Historyand Musicology at Utrecht University – whereBert Meijer holds a chair dedicated to theartistic links between Italy and theNetherlands in the Renaissance and theBaroque period – and by the Dutch UniversityInstitute for Art History in Florence incooperation with the Italian Cultural Institutein Amsterdam. This symposium allowsinternational specialists on artistic relationsbetween the two countries to present theresults of their research, and has a differentfocus each time: Venice and the north (1999),Baroque decoration (2000), Lombardy (2001), Printsand printmaking (2002), and The twentieth century(17 November 2003), to mention only the mostrecent themes and titles.

The artistic relationship between Italy andthe Netherlands was the subject of anextensive work produced in honor of Bert W.Meijer on the occasion of his 25th anniversaryas director of the Institute: Aux quatre vents: aFestschrift for Bert W. Meijer, edited by AntonBoschloo, Edward Grasman and Gert Jan vander Sman (Florence 2002). It contains manycontributions bearing witness to the vastnetwork of professional relationships andfriendships that the Institute, through itsdirector, has succeeded in creating. This bookwas presented on 6 December 2002, in thesplendid surroundings of the Palazzo di Parte

Guelfa in Florence, in the presence of EugenioGiani, alderman for sport and recreation of thecity of Florence; His Excellency RonaldLoudon, the Dutch ambassador in Rome;Ronald de Leeuw, director of the Rijksmuseumin Amsterdam; and Marco Chiarini, formerdirector of the Galleria Palatina in Florence.The international flavor and the enthusiasticparticipation of the public made this anunforgettable event.

The rapid response to initiatives takingplace in Viale Torricelli also demonstrates thatthe Institute has many friends: universityprofessors, museum staff, independentscholars, students and art lovers. Frequentlectures are given by academics from manydifferent countries and important exhibitionsof prints and drawings are held. Some recentexamples: Nel segno di Rembrandt: acqueforti dalmuseo ‘Casa di Rembrandt’ di Amsterdam (15October-12 December 1999) and Da Leonardo a Mondrian: disegni del Museum Boijmans VanBeuningen di Rotterdam (6 October-10 December2000). As for the exhibitions, one should notforget the permanent display of 20th-centuryDutch sculptures in the garden of theInstitute, inaugurated on 28 November 1998,following the exhibition Dimensioni dell’uomotra Appel e Mitoraj: opere dal Museo ‘Sculture almare’ di Scheveningen (11 September-8 November 1998).

The numerous projects and initiativescarried out by Bert Meijer with academic rigorand tireless passion have made the Institute anessential resource for research into Dutch andFlemish art and its links with Italian art. It isprobably the success of such initiatives thathas led to a reawakening of interest in this area


Volume 2 of the Repertory of Dutch and Flemish paintings

in Italian public collections, published by the Dutch

University Institute for Art History in Florence, edited

by Bert W. Meijer. Bert Meijer in the garden of the Dutch University Institute for Art History in Florence.

of study, and is prompting more Italianmuseums to use suitable methods to cataloguetheir own collections. The Museo Poldi Pezzoliin Milan recently entrusted me with thecompilation of academic and educationalrecords relating to its collection of Dutch andFlemish art. This is part of a general inventoryof its collections intended for onlinepublication. Another work in progress is thecatalogue of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana,which, as mentioned, contains many Flemishworks of great art-historical importance.

Relationships between Italy and the LowCountries are also a subject of study beyondthe borders of Italy, and so many works arepublished on the theme that it can be difficultto keep track of them all. Monitoring this areaand that of Dutch studies on Italian art isanother task of the Institute, which, togetherwith the Rijksbureau voor KunsthistorischeDocumentatie (Netherlands Institute for ArtHistory), has produced a most valuable littlebook, Bibliografie van Nederlandse kunsthisto-rische studies met betrekking tot Italië gepubliceerdsinds 1995 (Florence & The Hague 2002). Thisdetails many of Bert Meijer’s contributions,demonstrating not only his activities asdirector of the Institute, but also his activitiesas a scholar devoted to the theme of Old Masterdrawings and to art from the Veneto. Amongsthis most recent publications are:

– ‘On drawings and Flemish-Venetianrelations in the seventeenth century,’ inA.W.F.M. Meij (ed.), Rubens, Jordaens, VanDyck and their circle: Flemish master drawingsfrom the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,Rotterdam 2000, pp. 31-39– ‘Pietro Mera e le ‘Metamorfosi’ di Ovidio,’in L’arte nella storia: contributi di critica e distoria dell’arte per Gianni Carlo Sciolla, Milan2000, pp. 275-83– ‘A propos de quelques dessins de LambertSustris,’ in Francesco Salviati et La bellamaniera. Actes des colloques de Rome et de Paris(1998), Rome 2001, pp. 645-65 – ‘Some paintings by Sante Peranda,’ inZwischen den Welten: Beiträge zur Kunst-geschichte für Jürg Meyer zur Capellen,Weimar 2001, pp. 122-26 – ‘Ferrare et le nord,’ in exhib. cat. UneRenaissance singulière: La cour des Este àFerrare, Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts)2003-04Raffaella ColaceTranslated from the Italian by Laura Watkinson

japanAround Japan

From 3 November 2002 to 13 January 2003, anexhibition was held in the National Museum,Kyoto, entitled Rembrandt Rembrandt. It latermoved to Frankfurt. Although some majorworks were shown only at that venue, it wasnonetheless a good opportunity for theJapanese audience to admire Rembrandt’sworks, among them such top pieces asThe anatomy lesson of Dr. Jan Deijman, Samsonand Delilah and the Portrait of Andries de Graeff.However, the manner in which the data on theexhibited works was given was dubious inboth the exhibition itself and in the Japanese-language catalogue: certain words, such as‘school’ and ‘copy,’ and question marksregarding the attribution of some works werenot translated into Japanese. The museumclaimed that this work had been carried outunder the supervision of the organizer; theorganizer, on the other hand, said that as hecould not read Japanese, there was no way hecould check the translated text. This shouldserve as a word of warning: please be careful ifyou write for Japanese museums, and makesure you know who is responsible for thetranslation!

Professor T. Nakamura of Kyoto Universityorganized a colloquium to discussRembrandt’s paintings on 15 December 2002;participants included Nobert Middelkoop,Amsterdams Historisch Museum; YorikoKobayashi-Sato, Mejiro University; ToshiharuNanakura, Kyoto University; and AkihiroOzaki, Tohoku University.

On 13 September 2003 another Rembrandtexhibition, Rembrandt and Rembrandt’s school:the Bible, mythology and ancient history, opened atthe National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.Organized by Akira Kofuku, the chief curatorof the National Museum, Tokyo, it contains60 history paintings and 30 prints, amongthem around ten paintings by Rembrandthimself, e.g. Susanna and the elders and Mosesbreaking the tablets of the law. In conjunctionwith the exhibition, the museum held asymposium on 13 and 14 September. Speakersincluded Jonathan Bikker, Marten Jan Bok,Taco Dibbits, Jan Kelch, Volker Manuth andDavid de Witt from Europe and Canada; andYoriko Kobayashi-Sato, Akira Kofuku,Toshiharu Nakamura, Tatsushi Takahashi andAkihiro Ozaki from Japan. Among the topicsdiscussed were Rembrandt’s patrons, thereception of his Holy family at night, the artist’snudes, issues of originality and imitation inthe work of his pupils, and the market forRembrandt’s work.

Another exhibition, Dutch art in the age of Frans Hals from the collection of Frans HalsMuseum, Haarlem opened at the NiigataBandaijima Art Museum on 7 October 2003; itthen traveled to the Toyohashi City Museumof Art and History (6 December 2003-18 January 2004), and will be on view at theSakura City Museum of Art from 24 January-7 March 2004.

Yoriko Kobayashi-Sato Mejiro University, Tokyo

romaniaSibiu, Brukenthal Museum

In 2002, thanks to the generous support of thisorganization, I had the chance to attendcodart vijf. Landing at Brussels airport,I was surprised to see the poster of theexhibition Jan van Eyck: de Vlaamse Primitievenen het Zuiden featuring Man with a blue cap,formerly in the Brukenthal Museum’scollection. I could not help but think that ithad taken a whole century for art historians tofully recognize and once again welcome thispicture in Bruges. In 1902, the catalogue of the‘Flemish Primitives’ exhibition had ascribedthe painting to Jan van Eyck, but there werediffering opinions expressed as well. I wasextremely touched to see the earliest survivingportrait by Jan van Eyck, once considered thepearl of Brukenthal’s gallery, in suchimpressive company in the 2002 Bruges show.

It was to be a short-lived joy. Havingreturned to Sibiu, I was looking forward toreading the catalogue, especially the entries onvan Eyck’s portrait and Lorenzo Lotto’s PenitentSt. Jerome, both in the Brukenthal collectionbetween 1775 and 1948. The lender of the twopaintings was the National Museum of Art ofRomania, Bucharest, where they are currentlyheld. I soon discovered, however, that theprovenances given in the catalogue couldprove quite misleading for the western reader.To make matters worse, an angry Germanjournalist from the Hermannstaedter Zeitungcalled the museum after reading a presscommuniqué from the National Museumof Art in a Bucharest paper, which providedinformation about the two paintingsexhibited in Bruges, but without mentioningtheir Brukenthal provenance. The journalistexpected the Brukenthal Museum to protestthis omission, and to make an officialstatement clarifying the matter.

How had this situation come about? Whatwere the circumstances that had brought 19 ofthe most important paintings in theBrukenthal Museum from Sibiu inTransylvania to Bucharest in December 1948?


Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803), a LutheranSaxon of modest background raised to theranks of baron by Maria Theresa in 1762 andgovernor of Transylvania from 1777 to 1787,brought together a collection of around 1,00016th- to 18th-century Western Europeanpaintings, as well as prints, manuscripts,incunabula, rare books, coins and medals,antiquities and minerals. Brukenthaldisplayed these objects in his house in Sibiu(still the location of the museum), which heopened to the public in 1790; this makes themuseum the oldest institution of its kind insoutheastern Europe, with remarkablecontinuity to the present day. The baronbequeathed his collections to Sibiu’s LutheranGymnasium. In accordance with the collector’swill, dated 1802, the properties and assets wereput together in a trust, run by one of Bruken-thal’s descendents. The family having becomeextinct in 1872, the same document stipulatedthat the estate was to be administrated by theLutheran Church, of which the school wasitself a part. As a result, the BrukenthalMuseum operated under the auspices of theLutheran Church of Sibiu between 1872 and1948.

Following the Dictate of Vienna (1940), the Transylvanian Saxon community wasrecognized as an ethnic German group,directly dependent on, and protected by, thegovernment of the Third Reich. Their schools,including the Lutheran Gymnasium of Sibiu,came under the control of the Nazis until 1944,when the war changed its course. As a result, in1946 the Brukenthal Museum and theMuseum of Natural History were to be putunder the administration of the Romanianstate and to be supervised by the Ministry ofNational Education. Thanks to the protests ofthe Lutheran bishop, this measure was notimmediately put into effect. In 1948, however,with the Communist government’snationalization of every major private orcorporate property, control of the museumpassed to the state. In September 1948 theBrukenthal Museum was separated from theBrukenthal Lyceum and handed over to theMinistry of Arts. In November governmentofficials took charge, and in December19 valuable paintings were taken from thepermanent collection and transferred to thenewly founded National Museum of Art,housed in the former royal palace in Bucharest.

The paintings – works by Jan van Eyck,Memling (2), Antonello da Messina, LorenzoLotto, Pieter Brueghel ii (2), Jacob Jordaens (2),Philip de Koninck, David Teniers ii (2), PhilipWouwermann (2), a 16th-century German

painter, Rigaud, Carrierra and Magnasco (2) –were appropriated on the basis of a simplereport by a representative of the museum. Noproper legal document was ever signed. It wasa time of terror, when everything wassupposedly done in the name of ‘the people.’Confiscations, deportation and imprisonmentwere common. In order to destroy all forms offree thought, intellectuals were removed fromtheir posts (some were even killed) andreplaced by those obedient to the new regime.Under these circumstances, opposition to theseizure of the paintings would have beenimpossible. Nonetheless, the recentlyappointed administration of the BrukenthalMuseum regarded it as a kind of long-termloan and never removed the works from theirinventory. Moreover, they never accepted thetransfer of the paintings to Bucharest. Bothmuseums were subordinate to the Ministry ofCulture, thereby making it possible tomaintain a kind of status quo. Some time later,in an attempt to tip the scales in their favor,the National Museum of Art registered theBrukenthal paintings in their own inventory.At the Brukenthal Museum, meanwhile, everynew control of the stocks raised the unresolvedissue of the 19 missing pictures.

The events of December 1989 finally openedthe way for negotiations. The BrukenthalMuseum, together with the recently foundedGerman Forum, maintained that thepaintings and other items should be returnedto Sibiu. In the early 1990s, two distinguishedart historians, Dr. Theodor Enescu, the newdirector of the National Museum of Art, andDr. Andrei Ples,u, the first Minister of Culture,agreed to return the paintings to their rightfulowner, the Brukenthal Museum. At the time, alaw was needed in order to fulfill the claim, butthe new parliament had many other legislativemeasures to pass that were perhaps even morepressing. The initial enthusiasm for theproject waned, and conservative forces tookover the reins of power; in the end, the lawsregarding cultural heritage and the status ofmuseums, so long overdue, did not, in fact,provide the means necessary to solve thematter. The current administration inBucharest has made repeated promises toreturn the paintings to Sibiu. In 2001 theNational Museum of Art reopened to thepublic after repairing the serious damagesuffered during the events of 1989. Some ofthe Brukenthal paintings were again put onpermanent display, although this time at leastwith a label describing their provenance.Moreover, the paintings have traveled quite alot in the last few years.

More recently, a law regarding the fate ofproperties seized from religious institutionsgave the Lutheran Church the opportunity toclaim not only the paintings in question, butalso the whole Brukenthal Museum.Negotiations are currently underway betweenrepresentatives of the Ministry of Culture, theLutheran Church and the German Forum inorder to find a solution to the matter.

Open to the public since 1790, theBrukenthal Museum has had more than twocenturies of eventful history. It has managedto overcome many difficult moments, right upto our own day. The extraordinary foundationcreated by Samuel von Brukenthal willcontinue to exist, carrying his name down theages. A first step in doing justice to this namewould be to return the assets that have beenwrongly taken away.

Maria OrdeanuBrukenthal Museum, Sibiu

united kingdomAround the United Kingdom and Ireland

Apart from Impressionism, the field of Dutchand Flemish art is probably the most prolific in terms of exhibitions worldwide. This wasreflected by a remarkable and uninterruptedrun of major Dutch and Flemish exhibitions in the UK between 1998 (Pieter de Hooch) and2002 (Inspired by Italy, both exhibitionscoincidentally took place at the DulwichPicture Gallery). By contrast, 2003 in Britainhas been somewhat quieter, with mostlysmaller and more focused exhibitions anddisplays.

The year started with a one-roomexhibition at Tate Britain on the Flemishportrait painter Marcus Gheeraerts theYounger (1561/2-1636), curated by KarenHearn. The exhibition provided an intriguingin-depth look at this interesting painter, whohad settled in Britain early on and developedinto one of the most important artists of theElizabethan and Jacobean ages.

The 17th century was represented byseveral smaller displays. In conjunction withthe publication of Fred Meijer’s catalogue ofthe Ashmolean Museum’s collection of Dutchand Flemish still-life paintings, the Londondealer Paul Mitchell held an exhibition of thefine works from this collection in his gallery.The exhibition underscored the well-knownfact that the Ashmolean houses one of thefinest groupings of Dutch and Flemish still-life paintings in this country.

Much more broadly painted but no lessexquisite were the oil sketches by Peter PaulRubens that the Hermitage sent to its


outstation in London’s Somerset House for theexhibition Rubens: touch of brilliance. Rubenscaught the imagination of the curators of theCourtauld Institute Galleries next door. As acomplement to the Hermitage exhibition, theCourtauld put on display among its ownworks by Rubens a selection of the five oilsketches from the Torre de la Parada series, onloan from the Prado in Madrid. Earlier in theyear the gallery had already focused onRubens’s prints in its exhibition Lastingimpressions: Rubens and printmaking.

Rubens also figures prominently in thedisplay of the permanent collection of theNational Gallery. At present the museum hason long-term loan Rubens’s Massacre of theinnocents, which was sold in 2002 here inLondon for a spectacular sum to a privatecollector [see also the contribution by Davidde Witt; editors]. The National Gallery’s chiefcurator, David Jaffé, has devised an ongoingprogram of works to be shown alongside theMassacre. These include pictures from themuseum’s own collection, such as Samson andDelilah, as well as a number of short-termloans, such as two works from the Courtauldcollection, the sketch for the Prado Adoration ofthe Magi from Groningen, and the Decollation ofSt. John the Baptist from a private collection. Thedisplay is accompanied by a leaflet (publishedin association with Apollo, 2003) and a video.

The National Gallery has also received anumber of loans from other institutions. Dueto the redevelopment of the FitzwilliamMuseum in Cambridge, a selection of workshas been sent on loan. Shown as an exhibitionin 2002, the works are currently on displaywithin the permanent collection, where theywill remain until early 2004. The Nether-landish works include Maarten vanHeemskerck’s Portrait of the artist in front of theColosseum, the late Portrait of a man by FransHals, Adriaen Coorte’s Bundle of asparagus, twosmall panels showing butterflies and insectsby Jan van Kessel, and eight oil sketches byRubens. Three further loans to the permanentcollection came in June 2003 from the NationalGallery of Art in Washington for a period ofabout 12 months due to the temporary closureof their Dutch and Flemish galleries. Thegenerous loan of Judith Leyster’s Self-portrait,Frans Hals’s Portrait of Willem Coymans and JanSteen’s Dancing couple temporarily addsignificant facets to the collection that areotherwise not represented.

Further afield, another exhibition entirelydevoted to 17th-century Dutch painting wasthe show Love letters: Dutch genre painting in theage of Vermeer at the National Gallery of Ireland

in Dublin. With Dublin’s paintings byVermeer and Gabriel Metsu as a starting point,the exhibition brought together an impressivegroup of beautiful works around the subject ofletter-writing and reading. Organized by PeterSutton, the exhibition opened in Dublin inOctober and will travel to the Bruce Museumin Greenwich, Connecticut, in January 2004.

Although technically not an exhibition, itmay be worth drawing attention to the newdisplay of the ‘Art of the Van de Veldes’ in theQueen’s House of the National MaritimeMuseum in Greenwich (this time Greenwich,England). Drawing on the extensive holdingsof the museum in this area, the display overthree rooms highlights the accomplishmentsof these two marine painters and places themwithin the context of some of theircontemporaries.

Museum news not related to anyexhibitions have in 2003 came mainly fromScotland. Most of us have heard the regrettablenews that Julia Lloyd-Williams left her post aschief curator and curator of Dutch andFlemish art at the National Gallery of Scotland.The challenge of filling the big shoes Julia leftbehind will be taken up by Emilie Gordenker,who will start at the gallery in December.Responsibility for 17th-century Netherlandishart has also changed hands in Glasgow. AtKelvingrove, Robert Wenley, formerly of theWallace Collection in London, took on theposition of curator of European art 1600-1800in June. Robert is currently based at the BurrellCollection while the museum at Kelvingrove isclosed for major renovations. About 200highlights from the collection, includingRembrandt’s Man in armour, however, are onview in the McLellan Galleries in Glasgow forthe duration of the closure.

Axel RügerThe National Gallery, London

A typicalcodart story

Even some of those present at codart zes(including myself) missed the scholarlyhighpoint of the congress. It took place duringthe presentation on Tuesday morning,18 March, by Tatjana Bosnjak of the NationalMuseum, Belgrade: The Dutch and Flemishcollections in Belgrade and the new plans forcataloguing and displaying them. At a givenmoment the screen was filled by a slide of a15th-century panel painting of the preaching

of St. John the Baptist, with Christ in thebackground. This painting had entered thecollection as a purchase in 1963 from a memberof the Italian embassy in Yugoslavia. Bosnjakpresented it as anonymous follower of GerardDavid. Next slide, please.

The talk was given in the room on thesecond floor of the Netherlands Institute forCultural Heritage known picturesquely as theVoor- en Achterzaal, a space formed byopening the sliding doors between two rooms.Back in the Achterzaal, a gasp escaped one ofthe listeners. ‘That’s it, that’s it,’ he said. Whatit was he told to various colleagues followingthe presentation. It was the missing panelfrom a polyptych of about 1500 by the foremostIbero-Flemish painter of the age, Juan deFlandes. The listener who could not containhimself was Till-Holger Borchert of the Brugesmuseums. A year before, for the Jan van Eyckexhibition that provided the occasion forcodart vijf, he had published areconstruction of the polyptych as nr. 116 inthe catalogue, in the form of a large, framedcentral panel of the baptism of Christ flankedin the wings by four half-sized scenes from thelife and death of the Baptist. The locations offour of the five panels were known. The birth ofJohn the Baptist is in the Cleveland Museum ofArt; The baptism of Christ in a private collectionin Madrid; The beheading of John the Baptist inthe Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva; andThe revenge of Herodias in the Mayer van denBergh Museum in Antwerp. He had clipped

codart Courant 6/June 2003 10

Juan de Flandes, The preaching of John the Baptist (lower

left panel of the Miraflores Altar), National Museum,

Belgrade.

and pasted color images of the panels into ahypothetical reconstruction of the polyptych,known as the Miraflores Altar. At theexhibition he was able to display thereconstruction of all panels but one.

Only the fifth panel, The preaching of Johnthe Baptist, was illustrated in black-and-white.The location was given as formerly Hungary,private collection, but if truth be told, Borcherthad no idea where the painting was. He onlyknew as much about it as he did thanks to thework of another codart member, SusanneUrbach of Budapest, who unfortunately wasunable to attend codart zes. In the 1970s,in the photo collection of her ownSzépmüveszeti Múzeum, she had stumbledacross an old image of the painting, labeled asin the collection of Arthur Isfkovits, on loan tothe museum of Debrecen. But that was in 1905.Enquiries in Debrecen revealed that Isfkovitz’sdaughter retrieved the painting, along withother works that had belonged to her father,in 1948. In 2001, by which time Urbach andother researchers had put together a likelyreconstruction of the five-panel polytpych,Urbach published an article on the MirafloresAltar in the Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museumvoor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, calling oncolleagues to look for the missing panel.

How did Tatjana Bosnyak get to the codartcongress in Amsterdan on 18 March 2003? Thatstory begins not that long ago, in Bucharest inMay 2001. I was in the city upon the invitationof the New Europe College. Henk van Os and Iwere there as guest lecturers for a week. As ithappened, during that week, a new wing of theNational Museum of Art of Romania wasopened, the wing devoted to the country’smedieval art. Henk and my wife Loekie and Iwere invited to all the events surrounding thisimportant occasion. The design andrefurbishing of the seven new galleries hadbeen executed in part by a remarkable Dutchexpat in Romania, the heart surgeon andbuilding contractor Peter Oostveen, whom Ihad met and befriended during codartvier the year before. His work on the newwing was remarkable for its quality, speed andlow price. This was repeated over and over bythe speakers at the official opening, one ofwhom was Walter Feilchenfeldt, head of theInternational Music and Art Foundation(Liechtenstein), which had sponsored the job.His entire speech consisted of the followingremarks: ‘Usually, our foundation does not paymore than 50 percent of the costs of a project.However, when we saw the budget for this joband the specifications, we were so astonished

at how much was going to be accomplished forhow little money that we voted to provide itall. We gave $250,000, which was enough tocompletely renovate seven large galleries to ahigh international standard. Thank you.’

At the gala dinner in the museum, a guesthe did not know approached Oostveen. ‘Sir,’ hesaid, ‘I am the Minister of Culture ofYugoslavia. You know we also have an artmuseum, in Belgrade, which also needs to befixed up. Would you like to do the job?’Oostveen is not a man to turn down aninvitation like that. After his first visit toBelgrade, he called me to report on hisexperiences. ‘They’re passing a special law togive me executive powers for this job. And it’snot only the galleries. They also want me tohelp them identify the paintings in thecollection and get them shown abroad. Whatdo I do?’ I knew immediately what he shoulddo. I gave him the name and telephonenumber of Lia Gorter, a codart member andpartner in our Russian projects, whospecializes in operations of exactly this kind.I also called Lia and gave her Peter’s number.

They made contact, and in January 2003 Liatraveled to Belgrade with her trusted associateBernard Vermet. There they met TanjaBosnyak, who showed them the Netherlandishholdings of the museum. Working their waythrough the paintings, one of the works thatcaught their attention was the panel of Johnthe Baptist. They suggested to Tanja that shecome to the codart congress and showslides of her more interesting paintings. Bythe time I received her request to speak atcodart zes, I had been prepared for theapproach by Görel Cavalli-Bjorkman, who hadbeen in Belgrade in late November 2002, andhad mailed me about the collection out ofconcern about its condition. The ProgramCommittee approved a ten-minutepresentation of the Dutch and Flemishpaintings from Belgrade at its meeting of19 February 2003, where it was decided toconcentrate on relatively unknowncollections.

The rest is (art) history, a history that tookits next turn in September 2003 when Borchertdiscussed the new discovery at the bi-annualcongress on underdrawings in earlyNetherlandish painting with some colleagues.There he, Susanne Urbach and Bernard Vermetwere joined by Helene Mund of the StudyCenter for the Flemish Primitives, and LiviaDepuydt, head of the painting conservationdepartment of the Koninklijk Instituut voorhet Kunstpatrimoniun, in a plan to bring thepanel to Brussels for restoration. They expect


Reconstruction of the Miraflores Altar, a polyptych by Juan de Flandes, ca. 1500, as published in the catalogue of the

exhibition Jan van Eyck, Early Netherlandish paintings and the south of Europe, 1430-1530, in the Groeningemuseum,

Bruges 2002.

to be able to raise the necessary funds in orderto bring the painting north before the end ofthe year.

The story is worth telling not only for theimportance of the discovery, its EasternEuropean exoticism and the generosity of thenew Dutch and Flemish partners that havejoined up to help the Yugoslavians, but foranother reason as well. It has not escaped theattention of the director and staff of codart,as well as the Program Committee, that not allattendees of codart congresses are thrilledby collection presentations. ‘You get one slideafter another, with no time to look at them,and attributions that you can only doubt.Can’t we do something more interesting?’ Tomy mind, the discovery at codart zes ofthis major element in an important earlyaltarpiece is in itself worth hours of flippingthrough slides of questionably attributedworks of art. Should anyone ever againcomplain to me about this fixture of codartcongresses, my answer is contained in this tale.

Gary Schwartz

The influence and usesof Flemish painting incolonial Peru

Flemish painting exercised a strong influenceon colonial painting during the virreinatoperiod in Peru. This influence was twofold: onthe one hand, the work of Flemish artists wasshipped to Spain’s American colonies in greatnumbers; on the other, there were theengravings made after the paintings ofFlemish artists. These engravings were of greatcommercial importance to the artiststhemselves and, in addition, facilitated thedissemination of their work on a larger scale.They were also eagerly adopted by the RomanCatholic Church as instruments ofpropaganda. In this way, compositionalelements and iconographical motifs from thework of often well-known Flemish painterscame to be widely adopted by Peruviancolonial artists. The original works of art werereinterpreted and adapted by indigenouspainters, and became an integral part of theirown creations a phenomenon known as ‘elproceso de mestizaje.’ As a result, one canperceive an undeniable Flemish stylisticinfluence in Peruvian colonial painting.

The paintings created in the Andean south,based on the aforementioned engravings andgenerally aimed at the lower classes, were often

specially commissioned by the religiousauthorities to support the process of Catholicevangelization and indoctrination. They hadan outspoken religious character and helped toform the new beliefs of the indigenouspopulation. Although European models wereused, the results were by no means simply‘inferior’ copies. The use of different materialsand colors, as well as the incorporation of localculture, made for variations on the originalcompositions with their own artistic value.

Printed religious books containingengravings were a very important source forcolonial artists. The Evangelicae historiaeimagines (1593), a work by the Jesuit GerónimoNadal, has long been recognized as a majorinfluence on Peruvian colonial painting. It isillustrated with 153 plates, designed byGiovanni Battista Fiammeri, BernardinoPasseri and Maarten de Vos and engraved byAntonie, Hieronymus and Johan Wierix, incollaboration with Karel van Mallery andAdriaen and Jan Collaert. Other illustratedbooks by Maarten de Vos, Sadeler andVredeman de Vries also played a seminal role.

Rubens, van Dyck, Maarten de Vos andSimon de Vos were the principal artists whoinfluenced Peruvian colonial painting. Theirreligious images, closely connected with theideas of the Counter Reformation, werequickly adopted in the Spanish territories.Rubens had an agreement with the Plantin-Moretus printing establishment in Antwerpfor the reproduction of his paintings in theform of engravings, and prints after hisreligious works had a powerful impact on17th-century Spanish art. A branch of theGuillermo Forchoudt firm in Seville wasresponsible for exporting these engravings toAmerica. In this way, Rubens’s compositionscame to be widely known in the colonies, and itis very common to see stylistic andcompositional references to his art in thePeruvian works of the period. An excellentexample is The raising of the cross, the original ofwhich hangs in Antwerp Cathedral. Worksbased on engravings after this painting can befound in a number of churches in Peru (e.g. inthe Convento de San Francisco and Iglesia de laCompañía, Lima, and in Cuzco Cathedral).Prints after the tapestry series The triumph of theEucharist, designed by Rubens for theMonasterio de las Reales Descalzas in Madrid,were also widely distributed abroad. A copyafter part of the series can be found in theMonasterio de los Descalzos in Lima. Themassacre of the innocents in Cuzco Cathedral andthe Christ paintings in the Capilla de laPenitenciaría in the Iglesia de San Pedro in the

Peruvian capital are also all clearly influencedby Rubens.

The Stations of the cross series in theConvento de San Francisco (Lima) bears astrong formal resemblance to similar picturesfrom the workshops of Rubens and van Dyck.Unfortunately, the exact origins of this groupremain unknown, as does the year in which itarrived at its present location. It is assumedthat it originally belonged to the order of theJesuits. Following their expulsion from thecolonies in 1767, the paintings were bought bya certain Marquis de Lara, who later donatedthem to the Terceros fraternity. It seemsprobable that some of the pictures may evenhave been executed in the Rubens workshopitself. One of them, The betrayal of Christ, alsoexhibits various similarities to the van Dyckversion of the same theme in the Prado. TheCrucifixion with Sts. Dominique and Catalina deSiena in the Convento de los Descalzos bears alikeness to a van Dyck picture in theKoninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten,Antwerp. The Monasterio de San Francisco inCuzco possesses a Pietà that is also stronglyreminiscent of van Dyck.

The Monasterio de la Concepción in Limahouses 12 paintings representing scenes fromthe life of the Virgin. They are signed by Simonde Vos and dated between 1638 and 1639. In thesame monastery we find another series of 12pictures depicting scenes from the OldTestament, which is also attributed to Simonde Vos or his workshop. The monastery had avery wealthy congregation that importedvarious works by well-known artists fromSpain to the colonies.


Anonymous, The Archangel Michael vanquishing Satan,

Iglesia de San Pedro, Lima.

Among the artists who influenced Peruviancolonial painting of the virreinato periodMaarten de Vos is especially important. Thecopying and reinterpretation of hiscompositions came about mainly throughengravings. A striking example is his ArchangelMichael vanquishing Satan. Samuel vanHoogstraten made an engraving (Antwerp,1575) after his painting of the subject that waswidely circulated throughout the colonies.However, this particular theme wasdisseminated not only through prints. There isan actual Maarten de Vos painting of thesubject in the small Franciscan church ofCuautitlán in Mexico. It belongs to analtarpiece that also includes depictions of theCoronation of the Virgin and Sts. Peter and Paul theApostle. It is signed and dated ‘mertino devos antepieces inventor et fecit –1581.’ This image of St. Michael and thedefeated demon was quickly incorporated intocolonial iconography. A painting directlyrelated to the one in Cuautitlán, from the early17th century, can be found in the sacristy ofLima Cathedral. An interesting variation onthe theme hangs in the Jesuit Iglesia de SanPedro (see illustration). The composition andgestures are identical to the original, but aportrait of an indigenous donor has beenadded at the bottom. Naturally, given thegeographical distance between the Mexicanchurch and the Peruvian locations, it is alsoquite possible that the latter versions are allbased on prints.

The anonymous Archangel Michael in theIglesia de San Pedro is an interesting exampleof the merging of Old and New Worldelements. As noted above, it includes a portraitof an indigenous female donor, located at thelower left. There are many such portrayals incolonial art, intended to symbolize theacceptance of and devotion to Roman

Catholicism on the part of indigenous society.The same idea is expressed in the subjectmatter itself, a depiction of the victory of theRoman Catholic Church (Archangel Michael)over heathenism (Satan). Both must be seen inthe context of an enforced imposition of thereligion of the colonizers on the localpopulation.

At the same time, we should also considerthe status this particular indigenous womanmust have enjoyed in society. Peruviancolonial life was hierarchically structured,with a strongly fixed social order, and not justanyone could be represented next to a sacredimage. Her position is indicated by herheaddress (manto), which is decorated withnative tropical birds. Both the ornamentationand the fabric itself are of pre-Hispanic origin,and before the arrival of the colonizers wereworn exclusively by the Inca nobility. Thewoman has thus chosen to be represented as a descendant of the indigenous aristocracy,perhaps in an effort to reaffirm the privilegesof her social group within colonial society. Onthe other hand, we must also take into accountthat the Jesuits were continually seekinglegitimation within the colonial community,and did so, among other things, byassimilating native imagery connected withthe Inca elite.

In the second decade of the 17th century,the Jesuit order requested the services of a newpainter to support the ongoing process ofreligious indoctrination. Diego de la Puente,born in Malinas but of Flemish origin – his realname was probably van den Brugge – came toPeru in 1620 to succeed the Italian Jesuitpainter Bernardo Bitti. De la Puente’spaintings can be found in various Jesuitcongregations (Lima, Trujillo, Cuzco, Juli andCharcas). His work illustrates the stylistictransition from Mannerism to Baroque

naturalism common at this period and wasprobably influenced by the Flemish Romanistartists Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen.Examples of de la Puente’s work include aMartyrdom of St. Ignacio of Antioch (1620) in theaforementioned Iglesia de San Pedro; a Christand a Virgin in the sacristy of the same church;a St. Michael in the Templo de la Immaculada(Lima); and a Last Supper – attributed to him –in the refectory of the Convento de SanFrancisco (see illustration). There are otherversions in Cuzco and Santiago de Chile.

De la Puente’s most important work isundoubtedly the Last Supper in Lima. It isinteresting to see how, in typical Jesuitfashion, the artist incorporated nativeelements into his composition, for example,the corn (choclo) on the table. The painter,possibly influenced by the dictates of his order,sought to create something familiar by addingelements that would be easily recognizable tonative observers, thereby making it easier forthem to accept Christian beliefs. Around themiddle of the eighteenth century, the cuzqueñoartist Marcos Zapata did the same by includinga cuy (an Andean rodent resembling a guineapig, eaten as a delicacy) in his own Last Supper(Cuzco Cathedral).

Around the turn of the 18th century, a newiconographic theme became popular in somecolonial churches. It usually consists of agroup of two canvases representing The death of the just and The sinner’s death, respectively.Through these images, the Church sought toprovide guidance for its New World flock,illustrating the benefits of a life livedaccording to Roman Catholic precepts, asopposed to the punishments reserved for thosewho refused to follow its teachings. The

13 codart Courant 6/June 2003

Diego de la Puente (attributed to), The Last Supper, Convento de San Francisco, Lima.

Anonymous, The sinner’s death, Museo de Arte del

Centro Cultural de San Marcos, Lima.

anonymous Sinner’s death in the collection ofthe Museo de Arte del Centro Cultural de SanMarcos in Lima (see illustration) shows clearcompositional parallels with Flemishpaintings of the 15th century. These imagesprobably arrived in the New World by way ofengravings. The northern influence is perhapsmost evident in the representations of Christand the Archangel Michael at the upper leftand right. Both can already be found in thetype of Last Judgment scenes developed byFlemish Primitives such as Hans Memling and Rogier van der Weyden. In adopting theseforms, the Peruvian Catholic Church sought to establish a link between the Last Judgmentand the trial at the end of a sinner’s life. Thiswas to be a moral admonishment, and wasdesigned as criticism of the extremelysecularized society developing under the newBourbon regime. Elements already present inwestern iconography were combined with thespecific purpose of creating a more coherentideological corpus. To this visual rhetoricother elements were added, such as thebanners with inscriptions. They explain andunderscore the meaning of the images in orderto increase the impact on the public.

Stylistically, the work belongs to theCuzqueña School of the 18th century, from the Peruvian-Andean south. Some of thecharacteristic features of this style are a lack of perspective, naive drawing, sentimentalizedfaces, and the use of flowers around theborders. One of the peculiarities of this schoolis the fact that its artists often looked back toolder stylistic forms and elements, notnecessarily making faithful copies of theoriginals, but altering them according to thedemands of the local context.

Peruvian colonial artists were undeniablyinfluenced by Flemish artists, principallythrough engravings. They adopted theircompositional elements and iconographicalmotifs, but their works are more than merecopies. Peruvian colonial painting was createdin a very different cultural context. As a result,the compositions went through a process ofcultural re-signification that altered theirimport: new meanings and new elements wereadded according to the religious needs of thelocal population.

José Enrique Torres and Fernando VillegasMuseo de Arte del Centro Cultural de la Universidad

Nacional Mayor de San Marcos

Bibliography

– Jorge Bernales Ballesteros, ‘La pintura en Lima

durante el virreinato,’ Pintura en el virreinato del Perú,

Lima 1989

– Teófilo Castillo, ‘Interiores Limeños ix: Casa de los

señores Pazos y Varela,’ Variedades 362 (1915)

– José Martínez Cereceda, Autoridades en los Andes, los

atributos del Señor, Lima 1997

– César Coloma Porcari, ‘Los óleos de Brueghel que

dono al Perú la hermana de Alfonso Ugarte,’ Boletín de

Lima 79 (1992)

– Sáiz Félix Diaz, El Museo del Convento de los Descalzos,

Lima 2001

– Juan Manuel Eléspuru, ‘Rubens en la pinacoteca

franciscana,’ Pintura en el virreinato del Perú, Lima 1989

– Juan Manuel Eléspuru, ‘Los Rubens de la orden

Terciaria,’ Pinacoteca de la Venerable Orden Tercera de

San Francisco de Lima, Lima 1986

– Teresa Gisbert, ‘The indigenous element in colonial

art,’ America bride of the sun: 500 years Latin America and

the Low Countries, Antwerp 1992

–Teresa Gisbert and José de Mesa, ‘Martín de Vos en

América,’ Anales del Instituto de Arte Latinoamericano e

Investigaciones 23 (1970)

– Emilio Gutiérrez de Quintanilla, ‘La Galería Ortiz

de Zevallos,’ El Ateneo 8-11 (1900)

– Duncan Kinkead, ‘Juan de Luzón and the Sevillian

painting trade with the New World in the second half

of the seventeenth century,’ The Art Bulletin (June

1984)

– Alfonso Emilio Pérez Sánchez, ‘Rubens y la pintura

barroca española’ Goya 140/141 (1977)

– Martín Soria, ‘La pintura en el Cuzco y el alto Perú,

1550-1700,’ Anales del Instituto de Arte Latinoamericano e

Investigaciones 12 (1959)

– Martín Soria, ‘Una nota sobre pintura colonial y

estampas europeas,’ Anales del Instituto de Arte

Latinoamericano e Investigaciones 5 (1952)

– Francisco Stastny, La pintura Latinoamericana colonial

frente a los modelos de Rubens. Presentada para el simposio

‘El Barroco Latino Americano,’ Lima 1981

Preview of upcomingexhibitions

December 2003-June 2004The calendar of exhibitions and other majormuseum events on the codart websitecontains dossiers on all past, current andupcoming exhibitions, congresses andsymposia concerning Dutch and Flemish artall over the world, extending as far into thefuture as we have information. As you can seein the list here below, we know of 24exhibitions on Dutch and Flemish art in 26different venues that have been announced by museums to open between now and thebeginning of June 2004 – the planned date ofpublication of the next codart Courant.More information on these exhibitions isavailable on the codart website, where you

can also sign up for the free notification serviceannouncing opening and closing dates ofexhibitions ten days in advance.

Please keep codart posted on upcomingexhibitions and other events in your museum.E-mail us at: [email protected].

6 December-14 March 2004 De Winterkoning,balling aan het Haagse hof (The Winter King, anexile at the court of The Hague), Haags HistorischMuseum, The Hague.6 December-18 January 2004 Dutch art in the ageof Frans Hals from the collection of the Frans HalsMuseum, Haarlem, Toyohashi City Museum ofArt and History, Toyohashi.9 December-29 February 2004 Peter Paul Rubens:the life of Achilles, Museo Nacional del Prado,Madrid.15 December-15 April 2004 Büyükelçi, Padisah veSanatçı: Istanbul’da Kabul Töreni, 1727-1744 (Theambassador, the sultan and the artist: an audience inIstanbul), Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi, Istanbul.22 December-12 April 2004 Die flämischeLandschaft (Flemish landscape painting),Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.2 January-1 April 2004 Het Catharijneconvent tegast (The Catharijneconvent invited), Gruuthuse Museum, Bruges.14 January-14 March 2004 Pursuits and pleasures:Baroque painting from the Detroit Institute of Arts,Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan.17 January-28 April 2004 Love letters: Dutchpaintings of letter themes in the age of Vermeer,Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences,Greenwich, Connecticut.24 January-7 March 2004 Dutch art in the age ofFrans Hals from the collection of the Frans HalsMuseum, Haarlem, Sakura City Museum of Art,Sakura.31 January-16 May 2004 Vergnügliches Leben,verborgene Lust: Holländische Gesellschaftsszenenvon Frans Hals bis Jan Steen (Satire and jest: Dutchgenre painting in Haarlem in the age of Frans Hals),Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.1 February-1 April 2004 Vis vitalis: visstillevens inde Nederlanden, 1550-1700 (Fish: still lifes by Dutchand Flemish Masters, 1550-1700), CentraalMuseum, Utrecht.5 February-3 May 2004 Rembrandt Gemälde,Zeichnungen, Radierungen (Rembrandt paintings,drawings, etchings), Albertina, Vienna.6 February-8 May 2004 Jongkind, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne.14 February-9 May 2004 Rembrandt’s journey:painter – etcher – draftsman, Art Institute ofChicago, Chicago, Illinois.1 March-6 June 2004 Rubens, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille.


6 March-13 June 2004 De bibliotheek van Rubens(Rubens’s library), Museum Plantin-Moretus,Antwerp.6 March-14 June 2004 Rubens, de verzamelaar(Rubens the collector), Rubenshuis, Antwerp.12 March-3 May 2004 Rubens i Rembrandt, ichpoprzednicy i nastepcy: rysunki flamandzkie iholenderskie xvi-xviii w. ze zbiorów polskich(Dutch and Flemish drawings of the 15th-18thcenturies from Polish collections), MuzeumNarodowe w Warszawie (National Museum inWarsaw), Warsaw.18 March-13 June 2004 Ein Meisterwerk kehrtzurück nach Kassel: Peter Paul Rubens und JanBrueghel d.Ä.: Pan und Syrinx (A masterpiece returnsto Kassel: Pan and Syrinx by Peter Paul Rubens andJan Bruegel the Elder), Staatliche Museen(Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister), Kassel.18 March-16 May 2004 Regards sur l’arthollandais du xviième siècle: Frits Lugt et les frèresDutuit collectionneurs (A look at Dutch 17th-century art: Frits Lugt and the Dutuit brothers ascollectors), Institut Néerlandais, Paris.1 April-1 June 2004 Albert Eckhout (1610-1666),Mauritshuis, The Hague.10 April-4 July 2004 Pursuits and pleasures:Baroque paintings from the Detroit Institute ofArts, Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon,Michigan.8 May-1 August 2004 De uitvinding van hetlandschap: Vlaamse landschapsschilderkunst vanPatinir tot Rubens (The invention of the landscape:Flemish landscape painting from Patinir to Rubens),Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten,Antwerp.14 May-29 August 2004 Carel Fabritius (1622-1654) Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin.15 May-31 July 2004 Rubens, Jordaens en vanDijck: tekeningen van de Vlaamse meesters (Rubens,Jordaens and van Dyck: drawings of the Flemishmasters), Arentshuis, Bruges.

codart publications

A window on Dutch cultural organizationsfor Russian art historians

On the initiative of the former consul inSt. Petersburg, Jan Henneman, an annualmeeting is held in St. Petersburg in Septemberentitled ‘Window on the Netherlands,’ atwhich Dutch businesses, government andcultural organizations can present their work.It was in this context that codart and theStichting Cultuur Inventarisatie, sci, held asymposium on 11 and 12 September 1999 at theHermitage and the St. PetersburgInternational Center for Preservation. The aim

of this conference was to provide informationon the activities of Dutch cultural institutionsand to make suggestions for cooperativeprojects with art historians from Russia andEastern Europe. The meeting took place in thetheater built by Catherine the Great in theHermitage, and in the former Trubetskoy-Naryshkin Mansion, made available to theInternational Center by the city ofSt. Petersburg. Unfortunately, only a smallnumber of our Russian colleagues were ableto attend. In order to make the informationavailable to as wide an audience as possible, itwas decided to compile a small brochure basedon the papers given. sci gathered thesetogether and, where necessary, translatedthem into Russian and English.

The celebration of the 300th anniversaryof the founding of St. Petersburg provided anexcellent opportunity for the officialpresentation of the Russian edition. Manydignitaries came to the city for the ‘Window onthe Netherlands’ meeting, among themCrown Prince Willem Alexander, the StateSecretary for Economic Affairs, the Minister ofEducation, and the State Secretary for Culture,Medy van der Laan. On 27 September sheoffered the codart compilation Window onDutch cultural organizations for Russian arthistorians to the deputy director of the StateHeritage museum, George Vilinbakhov, and tothe director of the St. Petersburg InternationalCenter for Preservation, Kirby Talley, in thepresence of representatives from codart andsci. Lia Gorter and Marijcke van Dongenemphasized the importance of long-standing

reciprocal contacts in their speech.Thanks to a generous gift from the

Wilhelmina E. Jansen Fonds, the texts in thevolume can now be found on the codartwebsite. A printed version can be acquiredfrom the Dutch consulate general in St.Petersburg and the Dutch embassy in Moscow.

Lia GorterStichting Cultuur Inventarisatie

codart activitiesin fall 2003

Study trip to New England, 29 October-3 November 2003

Upon the spontaneous suggestion of RonniBaer during the codart vijf congress inBruges in March 2002 to come to Boston, thecodart zes study trip was scheduled forthe fall of 2003, enabling participants to see notonly the rich holdings of museums and privatecollectors in the area, but also to visit the majorexhibition Rembrandt’s journey: painter, etcher,draftsman, now on show at the Museum of FineArts in Boston. At the codart zes congressin Amsterdam in March 2003, Ronni Baer, BillRobinson and Jim Welu presented the historyof their collections and discussed theirrelationships with private collectors. Now itwas time for 27 codart members from theNetherlands, Belgium, Germany, Finland,Estonia, Switzerland, the Czech Republic,Spain, Brazil and Argentina to see them withtheir own eyes. They were joined by a varyingassortment of members of the local codartzes committee, many of whom had never seensome of the private collections visited.

The trip opened on 29 October in Back Bay,a 19th-century extension of the then rapidlygrowing city of Boston. Back Bay was built onartificial land, a similarity between Boston andthe Low Countries that the participants maynot have noticed. At the St. Botolph Club onCommonwealth Avenue, founded in 1880 andknown as Boston’s most bohemian club, aunique six-hour double exhibition wasmounted especially for the occa

Documents

codart Courant 7/December 2003 · Rembrandt’s early mastery of the fijnschilder style. Portrait of a white-haired man, 1667, is an outstanding illustration of Rembrandt’s late