Livio Mehus
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Lieven Mehus or Livio Mehus (1630, in
Oudenaarde Oudenaarde (; ; in English sometimes ''Oudenarde'') is a Belgium, Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders. The municipality ...
– 7 August 1691, 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 ...
) was a
Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...
painter, draughtsman and engraver of the
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
period, who trained and worked in Italy. He was mainly active 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 ...
where he was court painter of Prince
Mattias de' Medici Mattias de' Medici (9 May 1613 – 11 October 1667) was the third son of Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici of Tuscany and Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria. He was governor of Siena, with interruptions, from 1629. He never married. Biogr ...
. During his lifetime he enjoyed a high reputation for his allegorical and mythological scenes, landscapes, religious works and portraits.Lieven Mehus
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 ...


Life

Livio Mehus was born in
Oudenaarde Oudenaarde (; ; in English sometimes ''Oudenarde'') is a Belgium, Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders. The municipality ...
in Flanders in 1630 as Lieven Mehus. In the 16th century Oudenaarde had been a prosperous city thanks to its tapestry industry but had since suffered from a long-time economic slump mainly caused by the wars ravaging the Southern Netherlands regularly. Livio Mehus' father left Oudenaarde to seek his luck abroad. He went to Milan leaving his young son behind in the care of family. When Livio was 10 years old he was called by his father to join him in Milan.Frederik Antoon Spyers, ''Lieven Mehus'', In: Belgisch museum voor de Nederduitsche tael- en letterkunde en de geschiedenis des vaderlands. Deel 3 (1839), J.F. Willems, Belgisch Museum, pp. 54–77 In
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
Livio trained with an obscure Flemish or Dutch battle and landscape painter who is known by the name Carlo Fiammingo. Some art historians have identified this artist with Karel Philips Spierincks, a Flemish landscape painter from Brussels who achieved a measure of success but died young in Rome. At the age of 15 Livio left on his own for a trip to
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, ...
. Before reaching Rome he passed through
Pistoia Pistoia (; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about north-west of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typic ...
where his talent was recognized. He was introduced to a powerful patron, Prince
Mattias de' Medici Mattias de' Medici (9 May 1613 – 11 October 1667) was the third son of Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici of Tuscany and Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria. He was governor of Siena, with interruptions, from 1629. He never married. Biogr ...
, the governor of
Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...
. Prince Mattias was the third son of the ruler of Florence Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici of Tuscany and
Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria Maria Maddalena of Austria (, ; 7 October 1589 – 1 November 1631) was Grand Duchess of Tuscany by her marriage to Cosimo II in 1609 until his death in 1621. With him, she had eight children, including a duchess of Parma, a grand duke of Tus ...
. In Siena he took drawing classes with the local painter Guiliano Periccioli. After working in Siena for some time, Prince Mattias allowed Mehus to accompany him to Florence when he moved there temporarily with his court. In Florence the prince arranged for Mehus to work with the important painter
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 ...
who had been in charge of the decoration of the
Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...
for a few years. After working and studying with Pietro da Cortona for some time, Mehus suddenly left Florence, possibly because of a conflict with his fellow artists in da Cortona's workshop, and set out on a return trip to Milan without even notifying Prince Mattias. According to the 17th century Italian biographer
Filippo Baldinucci Filippo Baldinucci (3 June 1625 – 10 January 1696) was an Italian art historian and biographer. Life Baldinucci is considered among the most significant Florentine biographers/historians of the artists and the arts of the Baroque period. ...
, Mehus served for about three years as a soldier in the wars against Spain in
Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
and
Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...
. He returned finally to Milan where he reunited with his family and worked for a while.Hermann Van Duyse, ''Liévin Mehus''] in: Biographie Nationale de Belgique, Volume 14, pp. 293–300 Here he was traced by Prince Mattias who invited him to return to Florence to work in his service. Back in Florence, Mehus got to know the Florentine engraver
Stefano della Bella Stefano della Bella (18 May 1610 – 12 July 1664) was an Italian draughtsman and printmaker known for etchings of a great variety of subjects, including military and court scenes, landscapes, and lively genre scenes. He left 1052 prints, and sev ...
who had just returned from a long-term stay in France. In 1650 he was with della Bella in Rome where he again worked for some time with Pietro da Cortona and made studies after the Antique. He spent about 18 months in Venice from 1650. Other visits to Rome (1655-1656 and 1661), Venice (1660) and Parma in 1673. He is recorded in Florence from 1678 until the date of his death in 1691. He helped in the decoration of the cupola of the church of La Pace at Florence.


Work

A majority of Mehus' works representing battles and landscapes are in private collections while various altarpieces and canvases with religious and mythological subjects are on display in churches and museums. He is also known for a few self-portraits and the ''portrait of the blind sculptor Giovanni Francesco Gonnelli'', called the Ciego de Gambazo, demonstrates his strengths as a portrait painter and the portrait of Gambazo anticipates the best of what
Giacomo Ceruti Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (13 October 1698 – 28 August 1767) was an Italian late Baroque painter, active in Northern Italy in Milan, Brescia, and Venice. He acquired the nickname Pitocchetto (the little beggar) for his many paintin ...
produced a generation later.Piero Pacini, ''La memoria che nutre le immagini (alcune note su due notturni di Livio Mehus'', In: Miles L. Chappell, Mario Di Giampaolo, Serena Padovani, 'Arte, collezionismo, conservazione: scritti in onore di Marco Chiarini', Taylor & Francis, 2004, pp. 301–304 Livio Mehus was also sought out as a figure painter and painted the staffage in the landscapes of
Crescenzio Onofri Crescenzio Onofri or Crescenzio d'Onofri (Rome, 23 May 1634 – Florence, 1712/1714) was an Italian landscape painter, draughtsman and engraver who worked in Rome and Florence. A presumed pupil of Gaspard Dughet he collaborated with many speci ...
, a pupil of
Gaspard Dughet Gaspard Dughet (15 June 1615 – 25 May 1675), also known as Gaspard Poussin, was a French painter born in Rome. Life Dughet was born in Rome, the son of a French pastry-cook and his Italian wife. He has always generally been considered as a Fr ...
. An example is the ''Landscape with gulf and port'' (Italian House of Representatives in Rome). His best-known works are the pair of ''Genius of painting'' (
Museo del Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...
, Madrid) and ''Genius of sculpture'' (
Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...
, Florence) both painted c. 1650. The pair of paintings demonstrate his notions of excellence in art. When the ''Genius of painting'' was acquired by the Prado in 2000, it was attributed to
Velazquez Velázquez, also Velazquez, Velásquez or Velasquez (, ), is a surname from Spain. It is a patronymic name, meaning "son of Velasco". References to "Velazquez" without a first name are often to the Spanish painter, Diego Velázquez. Notable peop ...
. In the first work, the youthful genius of painting is depicted making a copy of the now destroyed ''Martyrdom of Saint Peter'' by
Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...
. The child is thus learning his craft from Titian, in Mehus' time regarded as the epitome of the Venetian school of colourists. In the ''Genius of sculpture'', the genius of sculpture is drawing a classical statue, thus extolling the primacy of ancient sculpture and the skill of drawing. In both works Mehus included a portrait of himself looking straight at the viewer, clearly associating himself with the qualities he most admired in art. Mehus was also known as a landscape painter. His landscapes often include mythological or genre scenes. Examples are the ''Wrestlers in a Landscape'' and the ''Huntresses Resting'' (both in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...
).Livio Mehus works
at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehus, Livio 1630 births 1691 deaths Flemish Baroque painters 17th-century Italian painters Painters from Tuscany People from Oudenaarde