View of S. Teodoro in Rome

? Paris, c. 1645 - c. 1646

Object data

point of brush and black ink, with grey wash, over graphite; outlines indented for transfer; framing line in black ink, in parts over black chalk; verso: lightly blackened for transfer

height 186 mm × width 252 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso: on a slip of paper pasted upper left, in a seventeenth-century hand, in brown ink, Tempio di Marco Curtio; lower left, possibly in the same hand, in brown ink, No 1142.; above this, in graphite: AN.{Similar to the inscription on the View of the Aqueduct at Frascati, in the Morgan Library & Museum, New York (inv. no. 1969.8; J. Shoaf Turner, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, 2 vols., coll. cat. New York 2006, no. 1), with which the present sheet shared the same provenance from 1814 to 1965.}
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of Pitcairn Knowles (L. 2643)

Technical notes

watermark: Fleur-de-lis; close to Heawood, no. 1761 (Schieland: 1592).^[According to Steland, p. 208, the same watermark is found on a drawing from the same series in the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome (inv. no. FN 503); Ibid., no. 136; J.C.N. Bruintjes and N. Köhler, Da Van Heemskerck a Van Wittel: Disegni fiamminghi e olandesi del XVI-XVII secolo dalle collezioni del Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, exh. cat. ’s-Hertogenbosch (Noordbrabands Museum)/Rome (Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe) 1992-93, no. 51.}

Condition

Some light brown stains

Provenance

…; sale, W. Pitcairn Knowles (1820-94), Rotterdam and Wiesbaden (L. 2643), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25 June 1895, no. 12 with pendant, fl. 42 to Peter Vischer-Burchardt (1869-1947), Basel and Schloss Wildenstein, near Basel;¹ …; sale, Anton Wilhelmus Mari Mensing (1866-1936, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 27 April 1937 sqq., no. 8 with pendant, fl. 40, to Willy van der Mandele (Bloemendaal) (?);² Mrs A.C.R. van de Mandele-Vermeer, Bloemendaal; her sale, Amsterdam (Mak van Waay), 17 December 1968 sqq, no. 238a with pendant, fl. 2,350, to the dealer Colnaghi, London;³ from whom, fl. 1,455, to the museum, 1969.

Object number: RP-T-1969-14

The artist

Jan Asselijn (Dieppe c. 1614 - Amsterdam 1652)

In 1631 the Huguenot Abraham Asselin (1609-1697), a maker of gold wire, stated that he had been living in Amsterdam for ten years and that his parents were dead. He had three brothers living in the city: the painter Jan, the poet Thomas Asselin (c. 1620-1701) and Steven Asselin (?-?). They were from Dieppe in Normandy and were members of the local Walloon Congregation. Jan’s date of birth is not known, but it must have been around or just before 1614, because his earliest painting is from 1634 and he would not have signed as an independent master before he was twenty.

Nothing is known for certain about his training, but possible teachers were Esaias van de Velde (1587-1630) and Van de Velde’s nephew Jan Martszen II (c. 1609-after 1647), who was living in Amsterdam in 1633. Asselijn followed their example by specializing in cavalry battles, many of them illustrating episodes from the Thirty Years’ War. There are at least five dated works from 1634 and 1635 representing Gustav Adolf at the Battle of Lützen, 16 November 1632, including one from 1634 in the Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig (inv. no. GG 348),⁴ one from 1635 in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (inv. no. 1581),⁵ and another from 1635 that appeared on the Cologne art market in 2016.⁶ Asselijn was still documented in Amsterdam at the end of 1635, but he must have left for Rome shortly afterwards, where he joined the Bentvueghels artists’ society and was nicknamed Crabbetje (‘Little Crab’) because of his deformed hand. According to Baldinucci, he also spent some time in Florence, where he befriended the French artist Jacques Courtois (1621-1676). He was probably in Venice as well, where there were several of his works, according to Von Sandrart.

While in Rome, Asselijn came under the influence of Pieter van Laer (1599-1642), who returned to the Netherlands in 1639, and possibly also that of the brothers Andries Both (1611/12-1642) and Jan Both (1618/22-1652), who lived there until 1641. It is not known when Asselijn returned home, but on the way he certainly paused for a while in Lyon, where he married Antoinette Houwaart [Huaart] (?-after 1652), an Antwerp merchant’s daughter, around 1644-45. Houwaart’s older sister married the Nijmegen painter Nicolaes van Helt Stockade (1614-1699) at around the same time. In 1645 both painters and their wives travelled to Paris, where Asselijn, Herman van Swanevelt (1603/04-1655) and others painted several landscapes for the hôtel particulier of the financier Nicolas Lambert (?-1648) on the Île Saint-Louis, including Asselijn’s three canvases now preserved in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. nos. 984, 985 and 986).⁷ While he was in Paris, Asselijn also made designs for three print suites etched and marketed by Gabriel Perelle (1604-1677), based on first-hand sketches made in Italy.⁸ The Paris interlude did not last long, for in August 1646 Willem Schellinks (1623-1678) and Lambert Doomer (1624-1700) looked for Asselijn and Van Helt Stockade there, only to discover that they and their families had already left for home. The two couples travelled by way of Antwerp, where Van Helt Stockade is documented in the autumn of 1646. Asselijn is first recorded back in Amsterdam on 14 April 1647. From 1650, he adopted a Dutch spelling of his surname, and he became a citizen of the city in 1652. He made his will on 28 September that year and was buried in the Nieuwezijds Kapel five days later.

Although there are drawings by Asselijn on paper with Italian watermarks, presumed to have been executed by him in Italy, there are very few dated paintings from his period in Italy and France (1636-46). He produced little apart from Italianate landscapes after his return, the only exceptions being a couple of animal pieces and a few history scenes, such as the breach of the St Anthony’s Dike near Diemen in March 1651, one depiction of which is in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. SK-A-5030),⁹ and the dike’s rebuilding in 1652, as seen in a painting in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (inv. no. 58.2).¹⁰ In 1647-49 he collaborated at least once with Jan-Baptist Weenix (1621-1659), with whom he jointly signed the Seaport with a High Tower in the Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna (inv. no. 761).¹¹ In 1647-48 Rembrandt (1606-1669) etched Asselijn’s portrait as a gentleman posing at his easel (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-553). Asselijn’s last known works are from 1652: the abovementioned Repair of the St Anthony’s Dike in Berlin; Italianate Landscape with a Horse Drinking from a Spring, whose present whereabouts are unknown;¹² and View of Rome with the Ponte Rotte, whose date was discovered when it appeared on the New York art market in 2010.¹³ Houbraken says that Frederic de Moucheron I (1633-1686) was apprenticed to Asselijn. No other pupils are known, but he certainly had a great influence, among others, on Nicolaes Berchem (1621/22-1683), as well as on Schellinks, who may have secured drawings and other works from his studio estate.

E. de Groot, 2011

References

J. von Sandrart, Joachim von Sandrarts Academie der Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Ku¨nste von 1675: Leben der beru¨hmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister, Nuremburg 1675 (ed. and commentary by A.R. Peltzer) Munich 1925 (orig. edn. 1675), pp. 182, 258-60; F. Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, 6 vols., Florence 1681-1728; facs. edn. of I-V ed. by F. Ranalli, Florence 1845-47 (reprinted 1974), VI-VII, ed. by P. Barocchi, Florence 1975, IV (1686/ed. 1974), p. 331, V (1728/ed. 1974), p. 205; A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 327, III (1721), pp. 64-65; P. Scheltema, Rembrandt. Redevoering over het leven en de verdiensten van Rembrand van Rijn, met eene menigte geschiedkundige bijlagen meerendeels uit echter bronnen geput, Amsterdam 1853, p. 69; A. Bredius, ‘Het schildersregister van Jan Sysmus, stads-doctor van Amsterdam’, Oud Holland 8 (1890), pp. 231-32; H. Gerson, Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1942, pp. 50-51; A. Blankert, Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende landschapschilders, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1965 (rev. edn. as Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende landschapschilders/Dutch 17th-century Italianate Landscape Painters, Soest 1978), pp. 129-31; M.J.E. Spits-Sanders, ‘Abraham Asselijn’, Maandblad Amstelodamum 63 (1976), pp. 109-11; A.C. Steland-Stief, Jan Asselijn (nach 1610-1652), Amsterdam 1971 (documents); A.C. Steland-Stief, Die Zeichnungen des Jan Asselijn, Fridingen, 1989; A.C. Steland-Stief, ‘Jan Asselijn’, in D.A. Levine and E. Mai et al., I Bamboccianti: Niederländische Malerrebellen im Rom des Barock, exh. cat. Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum)/Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1991-92, p. 114; A.C. Steland-Stief, ‘Jan Asselijn’, in A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, V (1992), pp. 458-59; A.C. Steland, ‘Jan Asselijn,’ in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, London/New York 1996, II, pp. 614-15 (2003 Grove online edn. at https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T004627); J. Briels, Peintres flamands au berceau du sie`cle d’or hollandaise, 1585-1630, avec biographies en annexe, Antwerp 1997, p. 294

Entry

This is one of 12 known preparatory studies for the series of 18 Italian views by Jan Asselijn etched in reverse by Gabriel Perelle (1604-1677).¹⁴ The others include two examples in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, Italian Landscape with a Fountain near Loreto (inv. no. P 92) and Italian Landscape with the Colosseum (inv. no. P 093);¹⁵ two in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, View of the Porta S. Paolo and the Pyramid of Cestius (inv. no. MB 295a) and the unidentified Roman Ruins (inv. no. MB 295b);¹⁶ two in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Ruins of the Palatine in Rome (inv. no. 1963-114) and Ruins of the Nympheum Acqua Julia in Rome (inv. no. 1963-115);¹⁷ Waterfall at Tivoli with the Temple of the Tiburtine Sibyl (Temple of Vesta) in the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome (inv. no. FN 503);¹⁸ one in the Printroom at Windsor Castle, Ruins of the Colosseum in Rome (inv. no. RCIN 906578);¹⁹ one in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, View of the Colosseum or the Amphitheatre of Marcellus in Rome (inv. no. 4060/88);²⁰ the companion piece to the present sheet, in the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, the View of the Aqueduct at Frascati (inv. no. 1969.8);²¹ and one work in a private collection, View of the So-called Villa of Cicero in Tusculum.²²

Perhaps commissioned by the French publisher Pierre Ferdinand (1617-1665)²³ or inspired by the example of other Dutch Italianates such as Herman van Swanevelt (c. 1600-1655),²⁴ Asselijn decided to spread the records of his Italian sojourn via etchings by Perelle. Since both the publisher and the printmaker were residents of Paris, and since some of the drawings are on paper with a French watermark,²⁵ it is assumed that Asselijn made the designs during his stay in the French capital in 1645-46. Three sets of etchings, one of vertical format and two of horizontal format, each consist of six views of Roman monuments in a landscape setting.²⁶ Precisely rendered with clear outlines in graphite and the point of the brush to record the tiniest detail, the present design anticipates the accuracy of the print, no. 2 in the series by Perelle.²⁷ The drawing’s verso was blackened and the outlines indented with a stylus for transfer the design to the copper plate.

In both print and drawing, the round building is labelled as the Temple of Marcus Curtius (TEMPLE DE MARCVS CVRSVS in the print; Tempio di Marco Curtio in the drawing). However, such a temple never existed. What is actually represented is the sixth-century church of S. Teodoro al Palatino, located south of the Roman Forum, which in 1643 was renovated under Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679).²⁸ The motif was popular with seventeenth-century Dutch draughtsmen. Earlier examples include compositions by Leonaert Bramer (1596-1674) in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 3922),²⁹ and Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598-1657) in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 23351),³⁰ both of which differ in style and perspective. In addition, there are four brush drawings showing the subject from the same angle: one each in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (inv. no. RSA 53); the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (inv. no. Z 351/1957); the Special Collections, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-AW-1161); and the Herzog Anton-Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig (inv. no. Z 515).³¹ Of these, Steland considered the Stockholm drawing as a first-hand study in situ by Asselijn.³² However, given its direct correspondence with the drawing in Leiden, with even the shadows matching, one is tempted to assume that both drawings are copies of a lost original.³³

Like most of the surviving designs for Perelle’s etchings, the present drawing bears an old inscription probably once written below the image but later cut and pasted onto the verso, perhaps by the same hand as wrote the numbering on the verso.³⁴

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Literature

Exhibition of Old Master and English Drawings, exh. cat. London (Colnaghi) 1969, one of a pair in no. 33; ‘Keuze uit aanwinsten’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 17, 1969, pp. 151, 152 (fig. 18); ‘Keuze uit aanwinsten’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 18, 1970, p. 76; J.D. Burke, Jan Both: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, New York 1976 (PhD diss., Harvard University), p. 267; F. Stampfle, Rubens and Rembrandt in their Century: Flemish and Dutch Drawings of the 17th Century in the Pierpont Morgan Library, exh. cat. Paris (Institut Néerlandais)/Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/London (British Museum)/New York (Pierpont Morgan Library) 1979-80, p. 122, under no. 94; A.C. Steland-Stief, ‘Zum zeichnerischen Werk des Jan Asselijn: Neue Funde und Forschungsperspektiven’, Oud Holland 94 (1980), pp. 216, 220 (fig. 1); K. Andrews, Catalogue of Netherlandish Drawings in the National Gallery of Scotland, 2 vols., coll. cat. Edinburgh 1985, I, p. 2; A.C. Steland, ‘Beobachtungen zu frühen Zeichnungen des Jan Both und zum Verhältnis zwischen Jan Both und Jan Asselijn in Rom vor 1641’, Niederdeutsche Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte 27 (1988), pp. 115-38 (esp. p. 124); A.C. Steland, Die Zeichnungen des Jan Asselijn, Fridingen 1989, pp. 19, 205, 208-9, 244, no. 5 (fig. 16); J.C.N. Bruintjes and N. Köhler, Da Van Heemskerck a Van Wittel: Disegni fiamminghi e olandesi del XVI-XVII secolo dalle collezioni del Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, exh. cat. ’s-Hertogenbosch (Noordbrabands Museum)/Rome (Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe) 1992-93, no. 51; M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem 1997, p. 39, under no. 6; P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 105 (fig. C); J. Shoaf Turner, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, 2 vols., coll. cat. New York 2006, p. 21, under no. 1; A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1800, 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, vol. 2), I, p. 74, under no. 19 (n. 6); B. Magnusson, Dutch Drawings in Swedish Public Collections, exh. cat. Stockholm (Nationalmuseum) 2018, n.p., under no. 1

Citation

(accessed 20 September 2024 13:30:06).