Vincent Geldersman
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Vincent Sellaer (1490–1564), 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 ...
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
painter known for his mythological and religious subjects. His works stand out through their monumentality of form and their mixing of Italian and northern styles.Karl T. Johns. "Sellaer, Vincent." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 29 October 2016


Life

Very few biographical details of this artist are known with any level of certainty. Nothing much is known about the artist other than that he flourished in
Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...
around 1538. While there is still no consensus among scholars, a majority believe that Vincent Sellaer should be identified with the artist to whom the early 17th century biographer
Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander IKarel van Mander
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
...
referred as ''Vincent Geldersman''. Van Mander described Sellaer as a good painter of allegories, such as Leda with two eggs, Susanna and the elders, and Cleopatra with the asp. Van Mander mentioned him in his ''Life of Frans Minnebroer'' as one of the notable painters of
Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...
.Vincent Geldersman
in
Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander IKarel van Mander
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
...
, ''
Schilder-boeck or is a book written by the Flemish writer and painter Karel van Mander first published in 1604 in Haarlem in the Dutch Republic, where van Mander resided. The book is written in 17th-century Dutch and its title is commonly translated into En ...
'', 1604
While many known versions of a ''Leda and the Swan'' have been attributed to Sellaer, none has survived that depicts a Leda with eggs.Stephan Vaerewyck, ''Vincent Sellaer, Onderzoek naar zijn mythologische, bijbelse en christelijk-geïnspireerde thematiek''
master thesis, Ghent University, 2009-2010
Some art historians such as G.J. Hoogewerff have speculated that Sellaer worked for some time in
Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...
and may have visited other Italian cultural centres. This Italian stay would be situated in the years 1521 to 1524.Vincent Sellaer
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 ...
Scholars believe that Sellaer was the foremost painter in Mechelen, and his patrons were likely members of the court and the city's Great Council.Vincent Sellaer, ''The Holy Kinship''
at Sphinx Art


Work

To date only a single signed and dated painting by Vincent Sellaer is known. It is the work entitled ''Christ blessing the Children'' now in the
Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pin ...
in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
. Based on the characteristics of this panel a whole series of works has now been attributed to Sellaer. Many of these works depict half-length central figures, with a mythological or Christian-inspired theme. Based on his presumed Italian residence, roughly two large spheres of influence are distinguished. First, the influence of the leonardesque- Lombardian school and in particular that of da Vinci and Brescia masters such as
Moretto da Brescia Alessandro Bonvicino (also Buonvicino) (possibly 22 December 1554), more commonly known as Moretto, or in Italian Il Moretto da Brescia (the Moor of Brescia), was an Italian Renaissance painter from Brescia, where he also mostly worked. His da ...
and
Girolamo Romani Girolamo Romani, known as Romanino ( – ), was an Italian High Renaissance painter active in the Veneto and Lombardy, near Brescia. His long career brought forth several different styles. Biography Romani was born in Brescia. His early trai ...
. Secondly, a Florentine-Roman influence, particularly by Andrea del Sarto and the school of
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 ...
. Especially the later works, including the numerous versions of the ''Holy Family'' attributed to Sellaer, combine both influences. A third influence is that of the Venetian school as shown in the use of a typical Venetian colour scheme peculiar to Titian, Romani and Veronese. Sellaer's numerous depictions of
putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University ...
call to mind the work of Moretto da Brescia. Typically Italian style characteristics such as
sfumato Sfumato ( , ; , i.e. 'blurred') is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. It is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissan ...
and clair-obscur are used in Sellaer's work. The monumentality of form of Sellaer's paintings was almost unseen in the
Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...
at the time. His works usually include a half-length central figure facing forward while subsidiary figures at the back help clarify the story. A theme to which Sellaer returned regularly was that of the ''Madonna and Child with Saints'', also referred to as the ''Holy Kinship''. An example is ''The Madonna and Child with Saints Elizabeth and other Members of the Holy Family'' (At Sotheby's on 28 January 2010 in New York, lot 253). As in many compositions of Sellaer, children play an important role in this painting by animating it with their movement and round smiling faces. The motif of a child climbing onto the back of the central female figure was one of Sellaer's favoured devices in these compositions. This is also reflected in another favourite theme of Sellaer, the depiction of the virtue of Charity, which in the sixteenth century was typically represented by a woman surrounded by infants.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sellaer, Vincent 1490 births 1564 deaths Flemish Renaissance painters Painters from Mechelen