International art dealers, local agents and their clients in seventeenth-century Habsburg Inner Austria

In Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi and the Collecting of Leonardo in the Stuart Courts the ‘Three Salvateers’—Robert Simon, Martin Kemp and Margaret Dalivalle—give a first-hand account of the discovery of the lost Renaissance masterpiece; from its purchase for $1,175 in a New Orleans auction house in 2005, to the worldwide media spectacle of its sale to a Saudi prince for $450 million in 2017. A behind-the-scenes view of the painstaking processes of identification, consultation, scientific analysis, conservation, and archival research that underpinned the attribution of the painting to Leonardo, the book presents a consideration of the place of the painting in Leonardo’s body of work. Exploring the meaning of the painting in terms of Renaissance theology, it considers the identity of its original patron or intended recipient. Unravelling networks of early modern art dealers and collectors in Europe, it traces the emerging reception of Leonardo during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was in Enlightenment Britain that the idea of Leonardo as artist–scientist took hold of the public imagination. This book examines the ‘invention’ of Leonardo through the unique prism of the Stuart courts. The documented presence of three paintings of Christ attributed to Leonardo in the vicinity of the seventeenth-century British Royal Collection is both extraordinary and perplexing. Today, Leonardo’s five-hundred-year-old Salvator has not yet disclosed its secret history.

Download Full-text

Going South: The Space for Flemish Art Dealers in Seventeenth-Century Northern Italy

Moving Pictures - Studies in European Urban History (1100-1800) ◽

10.1484/m.seuh-eb.4.2017009 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 189-219 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Isabella Cecchini

Keyword(s):

Seventeenth Century ◽

Northern Italy ◽

Art Dealers

Download Full-text

Franciscus Hamers, dozijnschilder in Antwerpen

Oud Holland - Quarterly for Dutch Art History ◽

10.1163/187501705x00349 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 118 (3-4) ◽

pp. 203-212

Author(s):

Marijke C. De Kinkelder

Keyword(s):

Seventeenth Century ◽

Economic Recession ◽

Typical Feature ◽

Art Dealers ◽

Art Dealer

AbstractIn I987 a painting with illegible signature was shown at the RKD. When in spring 2002 a painting with similar signature came alight at a Paris art-dealer, it proved possible to read the signature correctly and identify the artist as the Antwerp-based Franciscus Hamers, only known through his membership of the guild in I674. Several other paintings could be attributed to him either on stylistic grounds or by recognising the characteristic signature. The paintings presented here show that he proved to be what was known in the seventeenth century as 'dozijnschilder' (lit: dozen painter), assembling his works by imitating, borrowing and copying from examples by other artists, notably Haarlem painters such as Pieter van Laer, Philips Wouwerman and Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem. This proved to be a typical feature of the artistic climate in the I670s in Antwerp when economic recession forced many artists to produce paintings and copies by the dozen for art-dealers such as Guillaume Forchondt and Bartholomeus Floquet who then exported these paintings to France, Austria, Spain and Portugal.

Download Full-text

De Antwerpse 'witter ende paneelmaker' Melchior de Bout (werkzaam 1625/26-1658): leverancier van 'ready-made' panelen voor de Parijse markt

Oud Holland - Quarterly for Dutch Art History ◽

10.1163/003067212x13397495480826 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 123 (2) ◽

pp. 108-124

Author(s):

Anna Koopstra

Keyword(s):

Seventeenth Century ◽

Art Market ◽

Ground Layer ◽

Art Dealers ◽

Charles Le Brun

AbstractOn the back of several paintings on panel in the oeuvre of Willem Kalf, the panelmakers mark of Melchior de Bout has been found. Like his father Philip, De Bout was registered in Antwerp as a 'witter ende paneelmaker'. He thus seems to have specialised in producing panels that were covered, on both sides of the wooden support, with a preparatory (ground) layer consisting of chalk and glue. Occasionally, an imprimatura was also applied. De Bout's 'ready-made' panels were not only used by Willem Kalf, but also by Sebastian Stosskopf, Charles Le Brun, Jacques Linard, Lubin Baugin and Willem van Aelst. Since these artists were all working in Paris around the middle of the seventeenth century, it seems justified to conclude that for a certain time, the Antwerp panel maker specifically produced his panels for distribution in the French capital. The popularity of the panels of this highly specialised Antwerp panelmaker illustrates the strong appeal that the dynamic art market in Paris had for artists, art dealers and buyers from France and abroad.

Download Full-text