View of the Ponte Rotto in Rome, Seen from the East

? Rome, c. 1636 - c. 1644

Object data

point of brush and black ink, with grey wash, over black chalk; later additions in dark grey wash, with some opaque white and green watercolour; framing line in brown ink

height 199 mm × width 313 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso of lining paper: centre, in pencil, Thomas Wyck / Ponte Rotto und Tiberinsel, Pinsel, Lavis. / Vergleiche für Darstellung: Eggers, Römische Vedutten, Tafel 66 (Zustand 1665) / Lugt Ziffer 2987, Sammlung Goll van Frankenstein. In der Versteigerung dieser Sammlung Amsterdam 1833, S. 119 Kunstbuch HH. Nr. 15 […] Für die Zuschreibung an Th. Wyck vergl. Lugt, Louvre Zeichnungen Tafel 90 Nr. 953 […]; lower left, by Johan Goll van Franckenstein, in brown ink, N3814 (L. 2987); lower centre, in pencil, 10040; below that, in pencil (lower edge partially concealed), P. Paris nuestra 9 lineas oudis [?] 5 […] 7 VB – perla 8000 frisa 8001 – oro VR; above this, possibly in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, N2 x
stamped on verso of lining paper: lower centre (with the sheet turned upside down), with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

Watermark: None

Condition

Lined; some light-brown stains; some holes left and lower centre; tear repaired at lower left corner; some abrasion of colour and some overpaint lower right corner

Provenance

…; ? sale, J.G. Cramer, Amsterdam (J.M. Cok), 13 November 1769 sqq., no. 1334 (‘T. Wyk. Een Gezicht binnen Rome aan den Tiber, met O.I. inkt’);¹ …; ? sale, Jan van Dijk (1730-90, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 14 March 1791 sqq., Album M, no. 7 (‘Gezicht van Ponte Rotto te Rome; Meesterachtig met zwart Kryt en Oostind. Inkt, door T. Wyk.’), with no. 8, fl. 52, to ‘Van Heemskerk’;² …; ? sale, Louis Philipsz Metayer (1728-99, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 16 December 1799 sqq., Album H, no. 9 (‘T. Wyck. Twee stuks, een Ruïne van binnen en een antique gebroken Brug, beiden met beelden en ander stoffagie; fraai van licht, en meesterlyk met roet; door T. Wyck’), fl. 25:10:-, to the dealer C.S. Roos, Amsterdam;³ …; ? sale, Jacobus Johannes Lauwers (1753-1800, Bruges and Amsterdam) et al., Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 13 December 1802 sqq., Album C, no. 47 (‘Een vervallen Brug, en andere Gebouwen, aan de Tyber, breed met O.I. Inkt, door T. Wyck’), fl. 8:10:-, to the dealer ‘Roos’, Amsterdam;⁴ …; ? sale, Jan Coenraad Pruyssenaar (1748-1814, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 27 December 1814, Album M, no. 10 (‘Eene Ruine van een Brug. Met ditto [o.i. inkt], door denzelven [T. Wijck]’), fl. 13:10:-, to Cornelis Apostool (1762-1844), Amsterdam;⁵ …; collection Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1756-1821), Amsterdam and Velzen (L. 2987); his son, Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1832), Amsterdam and Velzen; his sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 1 July 1833 sqq., probably Album HH (‘kleine ongekleurde Teekeningen, door oude Meesters’), no. 15 (‘Eene Brug met een Italiaansch gebouw. Fraai met o.i. inkt, door Th. Wyck’), fl. 16:25:-, to the dealer ‘Roos’, Amsterdam;⁶; …; sale Maurice Delacre et al. [section anonymous], Bern (Gutekunst & Klipstein), 21 June sqq. 1949, no. 699, as Thomas Wijk, to Dr Zdenko Bruck, Berne and Buenos Aires;⁷ ...; anonymous sale, Amsterdam (Mak van Waay), 6 November 1978, no. 92, fl. 9,600.00;⁸ …; with the dealer C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, 1979; …; collection Franziskus Cornelius Butôt (1906-92), Amsterdam and St Gilgen, Austria; from whom, fl. 25,000.00, to the museum (L. 2228), 1991

Object number: RP-T-1991-3

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),⁹ one from 1635 in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (inv. no. 1581),¹⁰ and another from 1635 that appeared on the Cologne art market in 2016.¹¹ 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).¹² 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.¹³ 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 already had 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),¹⁴ and the dike’s rebuilding in 1652, as seen in a painting in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (inv. no. 58.2).¹⁵ 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).¹⁶ 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;¹⁷ and View of Rome with the Ponte Rotte, whose date was discovered when it appeared on the New York art market in 2010.¹⁸ 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, 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, Rembrand: 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

The Pons Aemilius – constructed in 179 BC by the ancient Roman consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (c. 230-152 BC) and rebuilt in 142 BC – is Rome’s oldest stone bridge across the Tiber. After being damaged by floods for centuries, its eastern part finally collapsed in 1598. The remains then became known as the Ponte Rotto (‘Broken Bridge’). Its picturesque quality attracted many artists and draughtsmen. The present view is taken from the east bank of the Tiber, looking west towards the Trastevere quarter, with the Torre degli Anguillara and the church of S. Salvatore de Pede Pontis.¹⁹ This church, as well as two arches of the bridge, were demolished in 1886 to make way for the river embankment and the Ponte Palatino, leaving one remaining arch in the middle of the Tiber today.

The drawing was long attributed to Thomas Wijck (c. 1616-1677). The attribution to Jan Asselijn was first suggested in 1978 by Zwollo,²⁰ and it was accepted with some reservation by Asselijn expert Steland (1989). With the exception of Oehler (1997), remaining doubts have since vanished – with good reason. Stylistically, the refined, but detailed handling resembles that of Asselijn’s secure designs for the prints by Gabriel Perelle (1604-1677) of circa 1645-46 (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-1969-14), sharing a similar interest in architectural ruins, different textures (stone, wood and vegetation) and the effects of southern sunlight and deep shadows. Steland considered the present sheet to be a finished drawing, similar to the models for Perelle, executed after an earlier study made in situ. However, the fact that it is drawn in a direct and unembellished manner led Schapelhouman (2009) to suggest that it could as well have been made on the spot.²¹ Even so, the repoussoir elements such as the moored boat were probably added by the artist later in the studio, whereas the pilings in the foreground appear to be the work of a later hand.

A larger study of the same view is preserved in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt-am-Main (325 x 477 mm; inv. no. 3805 Z),²² which was previously given to either Asselijn or Jan Both (c. 1615-1652), the name under which it is presently kept. It is probably by the same unknown follower of Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598-1657) as the museum’s inv. no. RP-T-00-316, which was previously assigned to either Asselijn or Thomas Wijck (1616/24-1677). It is drawn on paper with the same watermark as on that sheet,²³ and is closely related in style, though differing slightly in the arrangement of the buildings near the base of the bridge below the church, where, for instance, there is a temporary shed (perhaps related to ongoing repairs of the bridge). This might have reflected the actual scene at some point and later been demolished.

The shed in the Frankfurt drawing also figures in a drawing formerly with Raphael Valls, London (photo RMA), and in a drawing in the Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel (inv. no. 5129);²⁴ the latter, however, is most likely a copy of the Städel version. Another drawing of the site by Asselijn, of even larger format (354 x 576 mm), is in the Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. no. 1972.360);²⁵ it is somewhat different in style and shows a simplified version of the Trastevere buildings. A large and stylistically related View of the Ponte Rotto from the North (385 x 525 mm), formerly in the Van Regteren Altena collection and now in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. no. 2015.T.2), was reattributed to Jan Worst (active c. 1645-1660) when auctioned in 2014.²⁶

Yet another variant view of the Ponte Rotto appears in a signed and dated painting of 1650 by Jan Asselijn in the David Collection, Copenhagen (inv. no. B 272):²⁷ it has a glimpse of the Ponte Cestio in the right distance leading to the Isola Tiberina. A near identical version of the same composition, signed and dated 1652, with additional statues on the bridge, previously in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, appeared on the New York art market in 2010,²⁸ and a third, unsigned and undated reduced version, with a large boat and very different details in the foreground was on the Milan art market in 2003.²⁹ A drawing in the Rijksmuseum, formerly attributed to Asselijn (inv. no. RP-T-1897-A-3398), copies a detail of the ruined bridge, almost certainly from the Copenhagen painting.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Literature

C.G. Boerner, Zeichnungen vor 1900: Die schönsten Neuerwerbungen 1979-1980, Düsseldorf 1980 (Neue Lagerliste, vol. 72), no. 85; L.J. Bol and G.S. Keyes, Netherlandish Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of F.C. Butôt by Little-known and Rare Masters of the Seventeenth Century, London 1981, no. 68; H.-U. Beck, ‘Anmerkungen zu den Zeichnungssammlungen von Valerius Röver und Goll van Franckenstein’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 32 (1981), pp. 115 (fig. 3), 121; A.C. Steland, Die Zeichnungen des Jan Asselijn, Fridingen 1989, pp. 149, 220, 224, 238, 243-44, no. 144 (fig. 163); L. Oehler, Rom in der Graphik des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts: Ein niederländischer Zeichnungsband der graphischen Sammlung Kassel und seiner Motive im Vergleich, Berlin 1997, pp. 134, 136 (n. 18, as Thomas Wijck); G. Luijten and J.P. Filedt Kok (eds.), The Glory of the Golden Age: Dutch Art of the 17th Century: Drawings, Prints, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2000, no. 61; P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, pp. 105, 107 (fig. G); L.B. Harwood, C. Brown and A.C. Steland-Stief, Inspired by Italy: Dutch Landscape Painting, 1600-1700, exh. cat. London (Dulwich Picture Gallery) 2002, p. 126, under no. 25; A.C. Steland, ‘Drawings by Dutch Italianate Painters’, in L.B. Harwood (ed.), Inspired by Italy: Dutch Landscape Painting, 1600-1700, exh. cat. London (Dulwich Picture Gallery) 2002, p. 53 (fig. 49); T. Padon (ed.), Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum, exh. cat. Vancouver (Vancouver Art Gallery) 2009, pp. 142-43, 232 (entry by M. Schapelhouman); sale, London (Christie’s), 10 July 2014, p. 112, under no. 62; P. Schatborn, ‘Drawings by Jan Worst’, Master Drawings 58 (2020), no. 1, p. 41 (fig. 24)

Citation

(accessed 10 November 2024 12:54:07).