2. Italian Artists in Holland

A list can quickly be compiled of the few Italian artists who worked in Holland (excluding the younger ones who wished to train there). A certain Octaviaen del Ponte (before 1564-1645) [i] and Laurens Baratta (died after 1657)[i] were in Utrecht at the beginning of the century.³⁹ Carlo Francesco Angeli is known to have been in Amsterdam in 1654 before moving to Antwerp the following year.⁴⁰ Very little is known about these three artists.

Jacob da Carpi (Verona 1685 - Amsterdam 1755) [i] went to Amsterdam as a young man, was taught by Arnold Boonen and subsequently moved to The Hague, where he became naturalised.⁴¹ He did not take any Dutch art back to Italy. Nor did Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741), who painted ceilings in the Mauritshuis in 1718, the Italian style of which still can be studied in situ [i].⁴² Pellegrini had previously been employed at the court in Düsseldorf and later went on to work in Antwerp and then England. He was thus instrumental in the dissemination of Italian art. Like Jacopo Amigoni (1682-1752) and Angelo Carboni (c. 1701/15-after 1782), Pellegrini was a genuine itinerant artist who moved from one court to the next, staying wherever he received lucrative offers. Thomas Ferdinand Joseph Bianchi (1767-1835), a native of Amsterdam, was probably of Italian extraction. For the sake of completeness, mention must also be made of Antonio Bartholomaeï from Venice, who stayed in Leeuwarden in 1622,⁴³ and of the architect Pier Maria Baldi (c. 1630-1686). The latter accompanied Cosimo III of Tuscany on his second journey to Holland in 1668/69 and drew 18 vedute of Dutch cities in his travel journal [i].⁴⁴ We can now happily take our leave of these few Italians and turn our attention to the Dutch artists in Italy.