Theatrum Pictorium
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''Theatrum Pictorium'', or ''Theatre of Painting'', is a short-hand name of a book published in 1660 in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
by
David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile artist ...
for his employer, the
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (5 January 1614 – 20 November 1662), younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand III, was an Austrian soldier, administrator and patron of the arts. He held a number of military commands, with limited success, a ...
. It catalogs 243 Italian paintings in the Archduke's collection of over 1300 paintings. The paintings are reproduced by engravings made by various engravers after reduced-size copies (modelli) created by Teniers. David Teniers' brother
Abraham Teniers Abraham Teniers (1 March 1629 – 26 September 1670) was a Flemish painter and engraver who specialized in genre art, genre paintings of villages, inns and monkey scenes. He was a member of artist family Teniers which came to prominence in the 1 ...
was involved in organizing the publication of the work.''Theatrum pictorium''
at the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
A second edition with page numbers was published in 1673.


Background

During the years 1646-1656 when he was stationed in Brussels as governor of the
Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands were the parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. This rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797. ...
, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm assembled one of the greatest art collections of his age. Teniers effectively became its curator after
Jan van den Hoecke Jan van den Hoecke (baptised on 4 August 1611 – 1651) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and designer of wall tapestries. He was one of the principal assistants in Rubens' studio in the 1630s. He later traveled to Italy where he resided for a ...
, a court painter and curator of the collection in Brussels died in 1651. The collection included works by
Hans Holbein the Elder Hans Holbein the Elder ( , ; ; – 1524) was a German painter. Life Holbein was born in the free imperial city of Augsburg (Germany), and died in Issenheim, Alsace (now France). He belonged to a celebrated family of painters; his father wa ...
,
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; – 9 September 1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaking, printmaker, known for his landscape art, landscape ...
,
Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( ; ; – 9 July 1441) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Nort ...
,
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...
,
Giorgione Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (; 1470s – 17 September 1510), known as Giorgione, was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, ...
,
Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana (Veronese), The Wedding ...
and more than 15 works 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 ...
. Before moving back to Vienna in 1656, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm kept his art collection in his palace in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
. Teniers depicted the galleries in which the collection was displayed in various compositions which are now spread across various collections. At the end of his governorship in 1656, the Archduke and his collection relocated to the
Stallburg The Stallburg is a renaissance-style building in the Vienna city center located between Josefsplatz and Michaelerplatz. It is part of the Hofburg Palace. Formerly the living quarters of Archduke Maximilian , later Emperor Maximilian II, it was bu ...
. This archducal collection now forms the heart of Vienna's
Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien ( "Vienna Museum of art history, Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, i ...
.


Scope of the project

During his tenure as keeper of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's collection, Teniers undertook the preparation and publication of the first ever illustrated catalog of old master paintings.Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen (editor), ''David Teniers and the Theatre of Painting'', Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, 2006 His brother
Abraham Teniers Abraham Teniers (1 March 1629 – 26 September 1670) was a Flemish painter and engraver who specialized in genre art, genre paintings of villages, inns and monkey scenes. He was a member of artist family Teniers which came to prominence in the 1 ...
was involved in organizing the publication of the work. The first official publication of the work in bound book format was published by Hendrick Aertssens in Brussels in 1660 (although the title page states the date as 1658). The title page of the book refers to it as 'Hoc Amphiteatrum Picturarum' ('This amphitheatre of pictures'). The publication is now often referred to as '' Theatrum pictorium'' ('Theatre of Paintings'). The cover of the ''Theatrum pictorium'' shows a bust portrait of the Archduke with a dedication to the Archduke as well as introductions in Latin, French, Spanish and Dutch. The title page clarifies that Teniers funded the publication project out of his own pocket. The ''Theatrum pictorium'' was published in four languages (Latin, French, Dutch, and Spanish) and further editions appeared in 1673 and 1688 and in the 18th century. The last edition was published in 1755.


Execution of the project

In the preparation of this project, Teniers first painted reduced ''modelli'' after the original works on panels of roughly 17 by 25 cm in dimensions. Of these modelli, 120 were auctioned off as part of the estate of
John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, (2 June 18224 July 1883), styled Earl of Sunderland from 1822 to 1840 and Marquess of Blandford from 1840 to 1857, was a British Conservative cabinet minister, politician, peer, and noble ...
in 1886. The modelli are now spread among various collections. The
Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...
Gallery holds 14 of these works, the largest group in any public collection.David Teniers and the Theatre of Painting, 19 October 2006 – 21 January 2007
exhibition press release on codart
These were then engraved on the same scale by a pool of 12 engravers. The principal engravers were: Jan van Troyen, Lucas Vorsterman II, Pieter van Lisebetten, Coryn Boel,
Theodor van Kessel Theodor van Kessel, Theodoor van Kessel or Theodorus van KesselTheodoor van Kessel
at Ecart ...
. Other engravers included
Jan van Ossenbeeck Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...
,
Franciscus van der Steen Franciscus is a Latin given name, originally an epithet meaning "the Frank, the Frenchman". It was applied to Saint Francis of Assisi (1181/82–1226). Francis had been baptized Giovanni (John); his father was Italian and his mother Proven ...
, Nikolaus van Hoy, Remoldus Eynhoudt, Coenraad Lauwers, Dominicus Claessens and Jan Popels. Teniers used full colour in the modelli, rather than
grisaille Grisaille ( or ; , from ''gris'' 'grey') means in general any European painting that is painted in grey. History Giotto used grisaille in the lower registers of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua () and Robert Campin, Jan van Ey ...
. This could mean that he intended these reproductions to function as independent records of some of these Italian paintings in the Archduke's collection. From the many modelli, which have been preserved, it is obvious that Teniers's copies constitute a true record of the originals even while he left out details and painted them in his typical fluid and transparent manner. The engraving of the catalog by engravers who worked after the modelli, not the originals, was started by 1656.Charles Sterling, ''Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-century European Paintings: France, Central Europe, the Netherlands, Spain, and Great Britain'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, p. 129-137 In the 17th century there existed no efficient method for inverting images. As a result, most of the prints in the catalog are reverse images of the originals.David Teniers’s ''Theatrum Pictorium'' and the John G. Johnson Collection
at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Each print gives the name of the author of the original work on the left hand side (indicated by the letter 'p' for 'pinxit', Latin for 'painted by') and the engraver of the print on the right hand side (indicated by the letter 's' for 'sculpsit', Latin for 'engraved by'). Some editions also indicated the original dimensions of the paintings.Maria H. Loh, ''Titian Remade: Repetition and the Transformation of Early Modern Italian Art'', Getty Publications, 2007, p. 156


Selection of works

The publication comprised 243 engravings of important Italian paintings in the art collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm. While the project was initially planned to include the entire collection of the Archduke, the Archduke returned to Vienna before the project was completed. As a result, ultimately only a series of 246 plates was produced, of which 243 depicted about half of the Italian paintings then owned by the Archduke). Teniers made a list of the painters in the collection as part of the forward to his 1673 catalog: File:Theatrum Pictorium gri 33125009347911 0012.jpg File:Theatrum Pictorium gri 33125009347911 0013.jpg Of all the painters,
Michaelina Wautier Michaelina Wautier, also Woutiers (1604–1689), was a painter from the Southern Netherlands. Only since the turn of the 21st century has her work been recognized as that of the outstanding female artist of Flemish Baroque painting, her works hav ...
(who was not an Italian painter) and Madonna Fitta de Milano are the only women whose work is documented in the Archduke's collection. Teniers's modelli and the ''Theatrum pictorium'' serve as a record for some important paintings the whereabouts of which are currently unknown. For instance, the modelli in 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 ...
of the ''Old Age in Search of Youth'' attributed by Teniers to
Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...
and the ''Adam and Eve'' after
Padovanino Alessandro Leone Varotari (4 April 1588 – 20 July 1649), also commonly known as Il Padovanino, was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerist and early-Baroque Venetian school, best known for having mentored Pietro Liberi, Giulio Carpioni, an ...
are the most important records of these lost paintings. The ''Theatrum Pictorium'' had an important impact on the manner in which collections were organised, appreciated and published and continued to be used as a reference book during the 18th century.


Surviving works

The works listed in the ''Theatrum pictorium'' that survive are generally in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, while the modelli or small models for the engravings have been lost or are in other collections. The engravings and the modelli were inscribed with the dimensions of the original paintings, though their characteristics were often adjusted to take advantage of the maximum illustration possibilities of the album page size. The dimensions were in the form "4 alta 3 lata", which means 4 palm-widths high and 3 palm-widths wide, such as the case with the engraving after Bassano's ''Boy with a Flute'': File:Francesco Bassano - Boy with Flute GG 8.jpg, Example of a painting by Francesco Bassano the Younger in the Kunsthistorisches Museum File:Teniers - Boy with a Flute GG 9708.jpg, Example of a modello by David Teniers the Younger after Bassano, also in the Kunsthistorisches Museum File:Arolsen Klebeband 13 035.jpg, Example of an engraving from the first, 1660, edition of the ''Theatrum Pictorium'' by Jan van Troyen after the Bassano painting


List of engravings (matched to painting or modello)


References


External links

*
Complete set of images
from the 1660s version with associated metadata listing titles (not in the 1673 book), original artist names (note that the engravings reflect the period attributions by Teniers, while some paintings have since been reattributed), page numbers, and engravers in the
Slovak National Gallery The Slovak National Gallery (, abbreviated SNG) is a network of galleries in Slovakia. It has its headquarters in Bratislava. The gallery was established by law on 29 July 1949. In Bratislava, it has its displays situated in Esterházy Palace (' ...

Copy of the 1673 book
in the
Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".
on
archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

Le Grand Cabinet Des Tableaux De L'Archi-Duc Leopold-Guillaume &c. &c. &c.
record for a later version published in Amsterdam and Leipzig by Arkstée & Merkus, 1755

called ''David Teniers's Theatrum Pictorium and the
John G. Johnson John Graver Johnson (1841, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – April 13, 1917, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American corporate lawyer and art collector. The Philadelphia law firm that he founded in 1863 continues under the name Saul Ewing. ...
Collection'', June 12, 2010 – January 2011, at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
{{Authority control (arts) 1660 non-fiction books 1673 non-fiction books 17th century in Brussels Visual arts exhibitions Art collections in the Netherlands Art collections in Germany Paintings in the collection of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria Catalogues David Teniers the Younger Illustrated books