Cornelis Schut (13 May 1597 – 29 April 1655) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, engraver and tapestry designer who specialized in religious and mythological scenes. Presumed to have trained under Rubens, he treated

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

subjects in a High-Baroque style. After a stay in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, he worked mainly in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

where he was one of the leading history painters in the first half of the 17th century., in Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder, 11 May 2010

Life

Cornelis Schut - Susanna en de ouderlingen - MSK Brussel 25-02-2011 12-46-56

Cornelis Schut was born in

in the

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant, a Imperial State, state of the Holy Roman Empire, was established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant of 1085–1183, and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries. The Duchy comprised part of the Bu ...

as the son of Willem Schut and Suzanna Schernilla. There are no records about his artistic training. He is first mentioned as a pupil of

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...

by the 18th century historian

Jacob Campo Weyerman Jacob Campo Weyerman (9 August 1677 – 9 March 1747) was a painter and writer during the period known as the Dutch Enlightenment. His work encompassed flower and fruit still life paintings, satirical magazines, plays, and biographies of painter ...

. Although the scientific relevance of Weyerman's sources is questioned, it is still assumed that Schut was a pupil of Rubens since Rubens was exempted from registering his pupils with the Antwerp

Guild of St Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Four Evangelists, Evangelist Saint Luke, Luke, the patron sa ...

. Because Schut's early works are closer to the style of the leading Antwerp history painter Abraham Janssens, some connection with the workshop of Abraham Janssens may have existed although it does not prove he was Janssens' pupil. Schut became a master of the Antwerp

in 1618.Cornelis Schut
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

Schut left for Italy shortly after 1618. While in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, he was a founding member of the

Bentvueghels The Bentvueghels (Dutch for "Birds of a Feather") were a society of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome from about 1620 to 1720. They are also known as the Schildersbent ("painters' clique"). Activities The members, which incl ...

, an association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome. It became customary for the Bentvueghels to adopt an appealing nickname, the so-called 'bent name'. Schut took the nickname ''Broodzak'' (bread bag). Cornelis Schut - The beheading of Saint George

Cornelis Schut - The beheading of Saint George

From 13 January 1627 he worked on frescoes in the villa "Casino Pescatore" located in

Frascati Frascati () is a city and in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated with science, ...

, owned by Giorgio Pescatori (aka Pieter de Vischere), a wealthy Italian banker and patron of Flemish descent. He collaborated on this project with the Dutch painter and also Bentvueghels member Tyman Arentsz. Cracht. This commission was instrumental in launching Schut's career in Italy as Pescatori was rich and influential and keen to help his compatriots in Italy. Another important patron in Rome was the aristocratic Italian banker and art collector Vincenzo Giustiniani who commissioned two large religious compositions from him (now in the Abbey of Sainte-Trinité, Caen). This patronage clearly demonstrated the esteem which Schut enjoyed in Rome. He also attracted the attention of the young

Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter who was a leading painter of the Classicism, classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and ...

then residing in Rome in the residence of the Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy. Poussin's early works borrowed some motifs from Schut's works made for Vincenzo Giustiniani. Schut's plans in Rome were disrupted when on 16 September 1627 he was imprisoned for the killing of a fellow artist by the name of Giusto. His jail time was short as on 2 October he was already released thanks to the intervention of the

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca () is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its first ''principe'' or director; ...

, the association of artists in Rome. He then left Rome and was reported in 1627–28 in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. He is known to have designed

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art which was traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical pieces are intended to han ...

for the Arazzeria Medicea, the most important tapestry factory in Italy founded in 1546 in Florence by the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...

grand duke Cosimo I.Hans Vlieghe, "Schut, Cornelis, I" in: Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, access date: 3 December 2013 His movements after this time are unclear. He resurfaced in September 1631 in Antwerp when he appeared before a notary to draw up marital conditions. On 7 October 1631 Cornelis Schut married Catharina Gheenssins, who was from a well-off family. His wife died on 29 September 1637 leaving the artist with three children of whom two died young. The artist remarried the next year with Anastasia Scelliers with whom he had two sons and two daughters.Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, ''Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool'', Antwerpen, 1883, p. 757-765 Schut enjoyed artistic success upon his return to Antwerp where he produced mainly altarpieces for the local churches. He painted in the High-Baroque style that had become popular in Flanders by that time. In particular his ability to produce ceiling decorations in the monumental Italian style, with its typical illusionistic character, was regarded highly by patrons in his home country. An example of this is his ''

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Catholic Mariology#Dogmatic teachings, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of w ...

'' in Antwerp Cathedral. Schut played a prominent role in the decorative project at the occasion of the

Royal Entry The ceremonies and festivities accompanying a formal entry by a ruler or their representative into a city in the Middle Ages and early modern period in Europe were known as the royal entry, triumphal entry, or Joyous Entry. The entry centred on ...

of the

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand (also known as Don Fernando de Austria, Cardenal-Infante Fernando de España and as Ferdinand von Österreich; 16 May 1609 – 9 November 1641) was a Spanish and Portuguese prince (Infante of Spain, Infante of Portugal (u ...

in 1635 in both Antwerp (where Rubens was in charge of the overall artistic design) and Ghent. He collaborated with Gaspard de Crayer, Nicolas Roose, Jan Stadius and

Theodoor Rombouts Theodoor Rombouts (2 July 1597 – 14 September 1637) was a Flanders, Flemish painter who is mainly known for his Caravaggism, Caravaggesque genre painting, genre scenes depicting lively dramatic gatherings as well as religiously themed works. ...

on these projects. The Ghent magistrate commissioned Schut to draw and engrave all the decorations that had been made for the Ghent Royal Entry. Schut supplied more than 100 etchings for this commission. In 1643 the headmen of the Antwerp civil militia the Gilde of de Jonge Voetboog wrote out a competition for a new altarpiece for the militia's altar in the Antwerp Cathedral. Schut and Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert were invited to submit for this competition a painting on the subject of the martyrdom of St George. Both works were exhibited and finally a panel of six judges, of which each artist had appointed three, ruled in favour of Schut. Schut died in Antwerp on 29 April 1655 shortly after the death of his second wife. He was buried on 1 May 1655 in the Saint Willibrord Church in Antwerp in a grave shared with his second wife. The grave and its marble

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

are still present in the church. Schut was the teacher of Ambrosius (II) Gast, Jan Baptist van den Kerckhoven, Philippe Vleughels, Hans Witdoeck and his cousin Cornelis Schut III.

Works

General

Schut was a versatile artist who produced oil paintings, frescos, engravings, drawings and tapestry cartoons. He was principally a history painter of religious and mythological subjects. Cornelis Schut - Music

His early work shows the influence of Abraham Janssens. During his Italian sojourn in Rome during 1624 and Florence in 1627 he adopted elements of the High Baroque style of

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as (il) Guercino (), was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous n ...

and classical tendencies informed by Domenichino and

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian Baroque painter, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious works, but al ...

. This style is characterized among other things by a strong sense of animation and pathos, in which light and color play an important role. Elements of late

mannerism Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

are also evident. Schut's style, which is characterized by strong foreshortening, sharp contrasts of light and extreme facial expressions has some affinity with the work of Federico Barocci, who played a major role in the evolution of baroque painting. This is particularly evident in his work in Antwerp starting from c. 1630 (or possibly somewhat earlier) where the style of Barocci is recognizable in the spatial effects, the unstable and emotive poses and the flashing lighting effects. His ''Martyrdom of St George'' painted in 1643 for the competition with Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert is close to Barocci's ''Martyrdom of St Vitalis''. Schut's style hardly changed in his later career, except that his colors became less intense and his brushwork somewhat looser. Other than in some motifs and compositional arrangements, Schut's work displays little stylistic resemblance to that of Rubens. Schut's skill in interpreting the themes of the

led to many commissions for altarpieces in churches and monasteries in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges and Cologne.

Tapestry designs

Schut created some very inventive designs on mythological and allegorical subjects in his cartoons for the ''Seven Liberal Arts'', a series of tapestries. The series consisted of 8 tapestries, seven dedicated to each of the liberal arts plus one depicting their combined apotheosis. Together, the series can be interpreted as an allegory of war and peace. An example of a tapestry in the series is the '' Allegory of Music'' (

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

). In the centre of the upper border of this tapestry is a cartouche with the inscription: Artes Deprifit bellum agvibus sustinatus ("War oppresses the arts which support it"), also designed by Cornelis Schut. The cartoons were woven repeatedly in Bruges between 1655 and 1675. They were also woven in the Brussels workshops.

Collaborations

As was common in 17th-century Antwerp, Schut often collaborated with other artists who were specialist painters. He added figures to the compositions of the painter of church interiors Pieter Neefs the Elder. Schut collaborated with flower painters such as Daniel Seghers and Frans Ykens on so-called 'garland paintings'. Garland paintings are a type of still life invented in Antwerp and whose earliest practitioner was

Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painting, Flemish painter and Draughtsmanship, draughtsman. He was the younger son of the eminent Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, Flemish ...

. These paintings typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait. Garland paintings were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter. An example of a collaboration between Schut and a flower painter on a garland painting is the composition '' Birth of the red rose'' ( Staatliches Museum Schwerin) in which the figures in the center were painted by Schut and the flower garland was painted by Frans Ykens. His compositions were engraved by leading Antwerp engravers including Hans Witdoeck,

Wenceslaus Hollar Wenceslaus Hollar (23 July 1607 – 25 March 1677) was a prolific and accomplished Bohemian graphic artist of the 17th century, who spent much of his life in England. He is known to German speakers as ; and to Czech speakers as (). He is partic ...

and Lucas Vorsterman although he was an accomplished etcher himself. Cornelis made etchings after his own works. For instance, he made a series of etchings on the theme of the liberal arts which are similar to his designs for cartoons on the same subject. He also created many small, decorative etchings of naked children or putti.

Collections

Works by Cornelis Schut are in the collections of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and the Art Museum of Estonia,

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

.Cornelis Schut
in the Art Museum of Estonia

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schut, Cornelis Flemish Baroque painters Flemish history painters 1597 births 1655 deaths Painters from Antwerp Members of the Bentvueghels Artists from Antwerp Flemish draughtsmen