An artwork is generally considered an extension of the artist’s psyche, a singular statement of his or her personality and style. It would seem to be unthinkable that an artwork would be released into the world with two names on it, each artist responsible for a different part of the work.
However, during the Baroque period in the Netherlands, this was a common practice, even by the top painters of the day. Peter Paul Rubens was one of the ringleaders, organizing and overseeing collaborations, and Jan Breughel the Elder frequently worked with others. Artists would collaborate on work on commission, and do their own work on the side. So, for example, someone who was good at landscapes would paint a landscape, then hand it over to someone who was good at portraits to paint the people in the landscape.
“This was particular to the Netherlands. There were so many artists there. In 1650, there were 350 registered artists and half as many butchers and bakers,” said Peter Sutton. “They had a really small margin of profit.”
Credit-sharing kept a lot of artists working and made a statement. “It implies that in the final analysis it’s more about the art than about the aritist,” he said.
Sutton, director of the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, is curator of the new show there, “Northern Baroque Splendor: The Hohenbuchau Collection,” a lavish collection of Dutch and Flemish masterworks from the 16th and 17th centuries.
Many examples of collaborative paintings are featured in the exhibit. Denys van Alsloot and Hendrick De Clerck’s “The Temptations of Christ in a Broad Landscape” shows Jesus being tempted by Satan dressed as a monk, in the midst of a wide plateau of forest, mountains and sea, with ships that look more 17th-century Netherlands than ships from Jesus’ time. Frans Francken the Younger and Hans Jordaens III collaborated on “The Continence of Scipio,” from an ancient Roman story about a kindly military leader. Jan Breughel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen made “The Virgin and Child in a Landscape,” which places Jesus and Mary in a lush oasis with perfect rose bushes, three attentive cherubs offering fruit and flowers, and happy, scampering forest creatures. Joos de Momper the Younger and Breughel worked together on “Harvest and Return of Herd in an Autumnal Landscape with a Hamlet, “an idyllic evocation of a rural village,” and “A Hermit Before a Grotto,” a fantasy scenario of a perfectly appointed church service being held inside a cave.
Sometimes these collaborations ended unpleasantly. “Unscrupulous dealers cut pictures apart,” said Sutton, referring to artworks that depicted Biblical scenes (by one artist) surrounded by frames of perfect blooming flowers (by another artist). “Religious scenes were less sellable than the flowers.” The Bruce exhibit has two such artworks. “It’s marvelous that the pictures come intact,” he said.
Many of the landscapes were done in a style particular to the time and place: Weltlandschaften, with high horizon lines, with numerous little details enhancing the scene all the way up to the top of the painting. “Pictorially, it was a spiritual respect for the earth, with all kinds of wondrous things piled up,” Sutton said.
Another particularly Dutch baroque style was “pronck”-style still lifes, featuring particularly opulent set-ups of food, plants, flowers and serving pieces. Several of these impossibly rich table scenes hang beside another kind of still life, “game pieces,” designed to hang in hunting lodges, featuring bloody animals surrounded by high-end hunting accoutrements evocative of aristocracy.
The show-stopper of the exhibit is the first painting one sees entering the gallery Jan Mandyn’s “Temptation of St. Anthony,” which features the saint surrounded by a grossly oversized severed head, prancing demons and a huge fire, amply shows Mandyn’s inspiration by Hieronymous Bosch.
“NORTHERN BAROQUE SPLENDOR: THE HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION FROM: LIECHTENSTEIN, THE PRINCELY COLLECTIONS, VIENNA” will be at the Bruce Museum, One Museum Drive in Greenwich, until April 12. www.brucemuseum.org.