4. Rome: Caravaggism and Artists from the Low Countries

In the meantime the works of Caravaggio (1571-1610) had liberated Rome from the late stages of Mannerism when it was largely a spent force. The renewal he triggered was so powerful that it must have had a huge impact on the young artists who came from the North, especially since his works raised the fundamental principle underlying Naturalism, which ran through Dutch veins, to a very high level and with a hitherto inconceivable consistency. There can be no talk of any interaction here, let alone of any expansionist drive on the part of the Dutch Caravaggists. They had to content themselves with the role of mediators.⁵⁶ Caravaggio was forced to flee Rome in 1606 after working in the city for almost ten years, but his works remained in place: the altarpiece and lateral canvases of the Cappella Contarelli in San Luigi dei Francesci (1599/1600) [i][i][i], the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter in Santa Maria del Popolo [i][i], the Entombment of Christ in the Vatican [i], the Madonna di Loreto in Sant’Agostino [i] as well as other works in Roman churches or in the possession of his patrons. Among the latter Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1637) is of particular importance for us because he was favourably disposed towards the Netherlandish painters and engravers.⁵⁷

Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629) was indubitably the most talented and, in a certain sense, the most personal disseminator of Caravaggism. We are obliged to use the term Caravaggism because, although Ter Brugghen was in Italy as early as 1604, there are no records indicating that he ever came into contact with the great artist himself.⁵⁸ In fact, no Dutch painter had the privilege of meeting the instigator of the new style in person.⁵⁹ Since we have no knowledge of any works produced by Ter Brugghen during his stay in Italy, it is impossible to envisage his style in the early stages.⁶⁰ In 1620, i.e. five years after he had returned home, it was still somewhat antiquated and ungainly (The Apostles in Deventer)[i][i][i][i]. This makes it a little unlikely that he exerted any influence on the Italian artist, Giovanni Serodine (1594/1600-1630), who did not arrive in Rome from Northern Italy until 1615 and whose works are very similar to his [i].⁶¹

If we can believe Houbraken, Ter Brugghen was also in Naples, but no trace has survived of any paintings he might have made there.⁶² At all events, in both Naples and Rome Ter Brugghen was able to see works not only by Caravaggio, but also those of his followers in Italy, especially the paintings of Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639). ‘Borrowings’ from Caravaggio can still be detected in the works of his Utrecht period [i][i].⁶³ Special credit is due to Ter Brugghen, however, for having transcended the emphatic, somewhat crude Naturalism of most of the Dutch Caravaggists and achieving a smooth tonality with a bright silvery sheen that was not found anywhere in Holland until the appearance of Vermeer (which has prompted the rather precipitate conclusion that there was an influence at play here, although Ter Brugghen died three years before Vermeer was born).

Dirk van Baburen (c. 1592/3-1624) arrived in Rome in 1611, in other words after Caravaggio’s death.⁶⁴ He remained in the city until 1622 and several paintings from his time in Italy have come down to us [i].⁶⁵ He was a less independent spirit and so occasionally kept very close to his revered model, as is evidenced by the repetition of Caravaggio’s Entombment of Christ in San Pietro in Montorio, which probably dates to 1617 [i]. In his Italian works Baburen generally adhered more closely to the strong chiaroscuro of Caravaggio’s mature style, as did Valentin de Boulogne, whereas after his return to Utrecht he modelled himself on Ter Brugghen’s style (for instance in his Flagellation of Christ in the Franciscan monastery in Weert) [i].⁶⁶

A companion and friend of Baburen was David de Haen (c. 1585-1622), some of whose paintings have survived in the same chapel in San Pietro in Montorio that houses Baburen’s Entombment of Christ [i][i].⁶⁷ He was a moderate Caravaggist whose works were well known in Rome. He is reputed to have had many pupils and Marchese Giustianini as his patron. Mancini, in his description of San Pietro in Montorio, talks of this ‘Davit e compagno fiammenghi’ (which then must be Baburen).⁶⁸ He was barely 20 years old when he died in 1622.⁶⁹

By far the most popular artist of this circle was Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) who arrived in Rome in 1609 before Baburen.⁷⁰ He stayed in the city for almost twelve years, travelling home via Florence in 1621.⁷¹ Honthorst produced large altarpieces for various churches in Rome (Santa Maria della Scala [i], Santa Maria in Aquiro [i],⁷² Santa Maria della Concezione [i], Santa Maria della Vittoria [i]) and the surrounding countryside (San Albano Laziale [i], Castelvetrano [i],⁷³ Monte Compatri [i]).⁷⁴ He had patrons in Florence and Rome, where he enjoyed the protection, in particular, of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani and Cardinal Scipione Borghese.⁷⁵ Marchese Giustiniani commissioned him to paint the large night-piece Christ before Caiaphas (now in the National Gallery in London) [i], of which there are numerous replicas both in Italian churches and collections and elsewhere.⁷⁶

Gherardo delle Notti’s paintings were extremely popular, as is evidenced by the frequent copies made of them (including Italian copies) and the reputation they acquired after the artist’s death. When Willem Schellinks came to Rome in 1664 he made a point of seeing Honthorst’s Beheading of St. John the Baptist in Santa Maria delle Scala, ‘zynde Kaarslicht’ [being a candlelight-piece].⁷⁷ The narrow interpretation of Caravaggio as a painter of nocturnal scenes is largely attributable to Honthorst, who was very creative in elaborating on this aspect of his work.⁷⁸ Honthorst’s style has its origins in Caravaggio’s Conversion of St. Paul in Santa Maria del Popolo [i] with its stark contrasts between light and shade. His entire interest – and here he was at one with Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582-1622) – was aimed at making this effect even more intrusive and striking. He therefore delighted in placing a large, dark figure or even just a hand or a head in the foreground in order to conceal the source of light, thus bringing out the contours very starkly. Like Valentin de Boulogne (1594-1632) he was very fond of half-length paintings. However, Honthorst learned nothing from the way Caravaggio’s bodies generate space or from his powerful, cohesive composition, which is such an eminent feature of each of his paintings. Honthorst often transferred the serious style of his model to the friendly environment of a pleasing genre picture, thereby increasing its attractiveness for many collectors. Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582-1622) may have given him a few lessons in the ‘dark manner’.⁷⁹

We saw earlier that Honthorst-style Caravaggism spread as far as Flanders, although there were also Flemish followers of Caravaggio.⁸⁰ Gerard Seghers (1591-1651) assimilated Honthorst’s preference for artificial lighting and the use of a human figure to screen the source of light [i].⁸¹ Adam de Coster (c. 1586-1643) employed the same effect [i]. Jan Janssens (1590-after 1650) [i], on the other hand, drew his inspiration from Hendrick ter Brugghen.⁸²

Needless to say, it was in Utrecht itself that the influence of Honthorst’s work lasted the longest. Jan van Bijlert (c. 1597/8-1671), who might have met Honthorst in about 1620 when he was still in Rome, helped to spread his style in his native city, where he achieved considerable renown in the course of a long life. It should be pointed out, however, that van Bijlert, who had many pupils, was not a fanatical Caravaggist [i].⁸³ Even the past master of Utrecht Mannerism, Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651), who had taught Honthorst and van Bijlert, was persuaded by his former pupils to try his hand at the new style [i].⁸⁴ This backwash effect can also be seen in the work of Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638) [i]. While Moreelse was in Rome before the turn of the century, where he might have seen Caravaggio’s earliest works, his Mannerist compositions of the first ten years make it clear that at that time he still had no proper grasp of the new style [i]. Hendrick Bloemaert (c. 1601-1672) [i], Johan Moreelse (1602-1634) [i], Wouter Crabeth II (c. 1594-1644) [i][i], Paulus Bor (c. 1601-1669) [i] and Herman van Aldewereld (1628/9- 1669) [i] are painters who can be counted in a broad sense among the followers of Caravaggio in the Netherlands. They concentrated for the most part on half-length figures with a Naturalist surface treatment. This external assimilation of Caravaggism together with light, grey shading would suggest that Ter Brugghen’s style of painting took on a significance in Utrecht that should not be underestimated.

Honthorst, on the other hand, had the satisfaction of familiarising a number of German artists with the advantages of the new style. Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688) painted his first pictures in his teacher’s Caravaggist style [i].⁸⁵ Not long after, he combined Honthorst’s approach with motifs taken from Hendrick Bloemaert and Jacob Jordaens to create a style of his own, as is apparent from the Twelve Months cycle in Schleissheim.⁸⁶ Sandrart had in the meantime been to Rome, where he frequented the house of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1637). Later on he returned to a Caravaggist theme in the manner of Honthorst in the Beheading of St. John, dated 1651, in Bamberg [i].⁸⁷ Another example of a late imitation of Caravaggio (in the manner of Honthorst) among German artists is the work of Wolfgang Heimbach (1613/16-1678). His candlelight pictures are formal and inept derivatives of Honthorst’s genre paintings in shimmering yellow light [i][i].⁸⁸ Heimbach did not arrive in Rome until 1645, which indicates just how tenacious this style was.⁸⁹

Imitations of Honthorst’s painting were naturally rarer among Italian artists.⁹⁰ After all, they had Caravaggio’s original paintings to consult. The artificial light effects employed by Francesco Rustici (1592-1626) [i] and Carlo Saraceni (1579-1620) [i] are reminiscent of Honthorst, but a more tangible influence is only apparent in the work of the Flemish artist Matthias Stom (c. 1589/90-?), one of Honthorst’s pupils, whose pictures were among those in the inventory of Conte Antonio Ruffo (1610/1-1678) in Messina in 1648.⁹¹ The starting point here is a work entitled The Miracle of St. Isidore in the Augustinian Church in Caccamo which bears the inscription ‘Matthias Stom ft a 1641’[i]. Over the course of time other works by this master have been rediscovered in Sicily, Naples and various museums, where they were mostly recorded under Honthorst’s name.⁹² Stom is also reputed to have had followers in Sicily, including – according to Hermann Voss – the ‘Master of the dying Cato’, whose works have been included by other connoisseurs among Stom’s late paintings [i].⁹³ Stomer had two Netherlandish pupils in Messina: Jan Baptist van der Bracken and Joannes van Houbracken (born c. 1600), whose works must be extremely rare [i][i].⁹⁴ Looking at the ‘Cato master’ Hermann Voss is reminded of Leonello Spada (1576-1622), whose Judith in Bologna [i] is similar in style, while Bernardo de Dominici was familiar with works in Naples of a Domenico Viola (c. 1610/15-1696) , whose night-time effects are supposedly reminiscent of Stom.⁹⁵ At all events, the extent of Honthorst’s influence in Southern Italy is quite striking.

It was not long before Caravaggism came to an end in Rome itself. After the mid-1630s Caravaggio’s art no longer held any power over the artists from the north who came to the city.