Roelandt Savery: from Flowers to the Dodo

30 Friday Nov 2012

Tags

Balthasar van der Ast, Bosschaert dynasty, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Gillis d'Hondecoeter, Gillis van Conninxloo, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Mannerism, Netherlands, the dodo, Utrecht

Stilllife (130x80cm, 1624) the largest painting he ever made, with 44 different species of animals and 63 species of flowers.[3]

Still life (130x80cm, 1624) the largest painting [Roelandt] ever made, with 44 different species of animals and 63 species of flowers.

Still-Life Paintings

Roelandt Savery (1576 – buried 25 February 1639), was a friend of Balthasar van der Ast and Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder. Roelandt Savery bought a house in Utrecht where he joined the Guild of St Luke. The house had a large garden visited by fellow artists. Not only could fellow artists observe flowers, many of which were new to the Netherlands, such as tulips, but they could also examine little animals and incorporate them in their still-life paintings.

Before moving to Utrecht, Savery had owned a house in Amsterdam that he did not sell and which also had a large garden for artist friends to visit and from which to drew their inspiration.

The above painting is Savery’s most famous still life. Given, however, that it represents 44 species of animals and 63 species of flowers (see the caption), it is difficult to call it a still-life. It is brimming with life.

Bouquet of Flowers (detail),

by Roelandt Savery, 1612

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Gillis d’Hondecoeter and Gillis van Conninxloo

As a student, Savery had traveled to Prague around 1604, where he became court painter of the Emperors Rudolf II (1552-1612) and Mathias (1557-1619), who had made their court a center of Mannerist art. Between 1606-1608 he traveled to Tyrol to study plants.

Moreover, Savery met Gillis d’Hondecoeter (Antwerp, ca. 1575-1580 – Amsterdam, buried 17 October 1638) and became his student. Gillis d’Hondecoeter painted landscapes, trees, fowl and birds. Savery also studied under Gillis van Conninxloo (1544 – 1607) a landscape artist.

Therefore, although Roelandt Savery painted a number of still-life paintings resembling the still-lives of Balthasar van der Ast, he was interested in both flora and fauna and, particularly, in the dodo.

The Dodo

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Gillis d’Hondecoeter had painted the now extinct dodo, a former inhabitant of the island of Mauritius, and so would Savery and his student and nephew Jan Savery (1589, Haarlem – bur. 7 August 1654, Utrecht).

November 30th, 2012

WordPress

Photo credit: Wikipedia

and Web Gallery of Art

One of the most famous paintings of a dodo, from 1626. The image came into the possession of the ornithologist George Edwards, who later gave it to the British Museum.

One of the most famous paintings of a dodo, from 1626. The image [by Roelandt Savery] came into the possession of the ornithologist George Edwards, who later gave it to the British Museum.

Mannerism

Savery’s style is associated with Mannerism. As mentioned above the court Emperors Rudolf II and Mathias were centers of Mannerist art. Mannerists paint figures with elongated and at times distorted limbs. Their paintings are very busy and meticulous. The movement was a reaction against the harmonious realism of High Renaissance artists: Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Michelangelo (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) and Raphael (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520). Yet, Michelangelo was an early Mannerist.

Conclusion

(click on the picture to enlarge it)

The Paradise (detail), by Roelandt Savery, 1618

Roelandt Savery went bankrupt in 1638, because of heavy drinking, and died a few months later. He was a still-life painter, but he also painted landscapes, trees, fowl, animals and, among animals, the dodo. So his legacy is immense and varied.

We will therefore look at paintings by members of the Bosschaert “dynasty,” by Jan Davidszoon de Heem, by artists who also studied under Balthasar van der Ast, and still-life paintings by other more traditional Dutch Masters.

Yet, Savery’s still-life painting, featured at the beginning of this post, is an epiphany and the model for many, albeit less abundant, still-lives of his age.

Still-life Paintings: Vanitas Vanitatum (michelinewalker.com)

_________________________

[1] “Mannerism”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2012 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/362538/Mannerism>.

[2] “Dodo”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2012
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/167601/dodo>.

Jan Savery, 1561

The Art of Dionisius

09 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Boris Christoff, Byzantine Empire, Dionisius, El Greco, Hodegetria, Mannerism

Hodegetria of Smolensk by Dionisius (ca. 1440 – 1502)

Dionisius led the Moscow school of icon painters at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. Dionisius painted very much in the manner of Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541 Crete – 7 April 1614), a Spanish Renaissance painter, sculptor and architect known as “El Greco” because of his Greek origin.

Icons are religious works of art practiced by the Eastern Church and dating back to the early days of Christianity. By and large, these icons are stylised. Icons portraying the Virgin and Child resemble one another. In the Eastern Church, the Madonna is called the Theotokos, meaning the Birth-Giver of God. Before the Fall of Constantinople, on 29 May 1453, several icons were made in Constantinople, the capital of the Christian Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine Empire, however, fell to the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, Greek scholars fled to the West, inaugurating the Renaissance, while others fled East, to Russia, hence the Moscow school of icon painters.

It would appear that Mannerism, a style characterized by the elongated limbs of the subjects it portrays, exerted an influence on the art of Dionisius who is referred to as manneristic, “Muscovite mannerism.” However, a better example of mannerism is Parmigianino‘s Madonna with the Long Neck, painted in the 1530s (1534-1540).

Madonna with the Long Neck, by Parmigianino

Under Wikipedia’s picture of Parmigianino’s Madonna, the author writes that mannerism “makes itself known by elongated proportions, highly stylized poses, and lack of clear perspective.” (Mannerism, in Wikipedia). We have now left the sober art of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and the early art of Michelangelo.

In short, Dionisius may have brought to Russian icons the mannerism of certain late Renaissance works of art, but it could be that icons associated with “Muscovite mannerism” resemble earlier icons of the Theotokos, such as the very famous Theotokos of Vladimir, shown below. Given the length of the child’s neck, one suspects a significant degree of continuity.