A Capriccio of the Campo Vaccino with the Castel Sant’Angelo Beyond
Signature
inscribed, recto, on the fountain: ‘MCXX’
Provenance
Mrs. J.S. Braddel; sold at
Christie’s, London, Important Pictures by Old Masters, 2 July 1965, lot 2 (as Bartholomeus Breenburgh); acquired by
Edward Speelman, London; sold to
Sir Charles Clore (1904–1979), London; sold at
Sotheby’s, London, Old Master Paintings, 11 December 1985, lot 122 (as Cornelis van Poelenburgh)
with Norbert Pokutta, Munich, 1986
Christie’s, London, Important Old Master Pictures, 8 December 1989, lot 27 (as Cornelis van Poelenburgh); sold to
Jacqui Safra, New York; sold at
Sotheby’s, New York, Important Old Master and 19th Century Paintings from the Collection of J.E. Safra, 26 January 2011, lot 7 (as Cornelis van Poelenburgh), sold for $422,500 to
Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna
Private Collection, United States
Bibliography
Albert Blankert, Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende landschapschilders, Utrecht, 1965, exh cat., pp. 64-65, no. 11 (as Cornelis van Poelenburgh).
Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée, Le siècle de Rembrandt: tableaux hollandais des collections publiques françaises, Paris, 1970, exh. cat., p. 156, no. 157 (as Cornelis van Poelenburgh).
Marcel Roethlisberger, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, The Paintings, Berlin and New York, 1981, p. 30, no. 16 (as Cornelis van Poelenburgh).
Nicolette Sluijter-Seijffert, Cornelis van Poelenburch, 1594/5–1667: The Paintings, Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 2016, p. 367, under no. 231.
Exhibitions
Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, long-term loan F.22, before 2011
Essay
This precious oil on silvered copper represents a daily life scene that took place among the Roman ruins of Campo Vaccino which owes its name to the cattle market held here. Although some of the monuments are real, these are recomposed in an imaginary way forming a capriccio in which the buildings of Campo Vaccino are placed around a modern fountain with Castel Sant’Angelo in the background. The warm, sun-bathed light freezes the scene in time. In the foreground, three men discuss the price of a cow and to the right a merchant leads his donkey loaded with goods. A little further behind, a shepherd checks on his herd of cows, while a woman washes clothes in the same fountain basin where a traveler is watering his horse and the artist put the inscription ‘MCXX’ implying the year the painting was executed (1620). Created by the Dutch painter Cornelis van Poelenburgh, this successful composition portraying the humblest of contemporaries in the glorious remnants of a bygone era was like a fancy postcard coveted by discriminating collectors. Marcel Roethlisberger catalogued six versions of the painting, five of which he considered to be painted by the artist although none of them are signed.[1] Among the autograph works he included the one presented here and one preserved at the Musée du Louvre (inv. 1084; fig. 1).[2] Of the latter, the museum also owns the possible pendant representing Ruins of Ancient Rome with a bas-relief depicting the sacrifice of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (inv. 1086; fig. 2).[3]
Poelenburgh, one of the most important of the first generation of Dutch Italianates, was known for his landscapes inspired by the Roman countryside. After completing his training in Utrecht under Abraham Blomaert, he traveled to Rome where he is first recorded in 1617 and became one of the founding members of the Schiledersbent with the nickname of Satyr. Our composition is symptomatic of the Bambocciate fashion that was emerging in Rome thanks to Northern artists who were part of this association and called themselves the bentvueghels, such as Pieter Van Laer, known as Bamboccio, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, and Poelenbugh himself. ‘The Satyr’ spent close to eight years in Rome and stayed some time in Florence between 1620 and 1621 receiving commissions form the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo II. Before 1627 Poelenburgh returned to Utrecht, starting a successful workshop that would become a real school for numerous artists after his stay in London at the court of King Charles I between 1637 and 1641.
This capriccio of the Campo Vaccino fits perfectly into Poelenburgh’s early Italian production, as confirmed by the date inscribed on the fountain. In her monograph, Nicolette Sluijter-Seijffert described all the known versions of the composition as copies with the exception of the one in the Louvre.[4] It should be noted, however, that our example has always been considered an original, which also shared with the Louvre version the initial misattribution to Bartholomeus Breenbergh (Christie’s, London, 2 July 1965, lot 2) corrected in favor of his friend Poelenburgh during the 1960s.[5].
Firstly, the quality of the Louvre painting does not seem to be superior to this version which is painted on an even more valuable medium: not just simple copper but a silvered one. In addition, there are other small differences between this and the Parisian copper, among them the cloud formation and the distribution of black and white birds in the sky. Furthermore, the early date of this work also argues for its autograph status, since Poelenburgh had no studio assistance in his Italian years. Sluijter-Seijffert in recent correspondence (February 2, 2025) noted the differences with the Louvre painting and the changes made in the recent cleaning. While still believing in the primacy of the Louvre painting, she allowed that this was probably an autograph version, saying ‘I think you can very well follow your own eyes and judgment…by the way, Poelenburch (sic) probably had no workshop during the time he worked in Italy’.
While the enameled surface is a feature that recurs throughout Poelenburgh’s oeuvre, the warm light that suffuses all the landscape elements in the golden tones of an eternal noon is typically Italian. Back in Netherlands, the Satyr will produce paintings with more prominent figures and cooler colors, especially landscapes with mythological subjects (such as Diana Bathing with her Nymphs; fig. 3) in which he used instead the golden light to suggest a sunrise or a sunset. ❖