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111-588: Michiel Sweerts or Michael Sweerts (29 September 1618 – 1 June 1664) was a Flemish painter and printmaker of the Baroque period, who is known for his allegorical and genre paintings, portraits and tronies . The artist led an itinerant life and worked in Rome , Brussels , Amsterdam , Persia and India ( Goa ). While in Rome Sweerts became linked to the group of Dutch and Flemish painters of low-life scenes known as

222-432: A "picturesque place", the travellers also unconsciously degraded Italy as a place of backwardness. This unconscious degradation is best reflected in the famous verses of Lamartine in which Italy is depicted as a "land of the past... where everything sleeps." In Rome, antiquaries like Thomas Jenkins were also dealers and were able to sell and advise on the purchase of marbles ; their price would rise if it were known that

333-450: A Catholic missionary organization, who were followers of Vincent de Paul and committed to proselytizing in the East. He was a lay brother and became a devout Christian. A Lazarus priest who met Sweerts in 1661 reported that Sweerts had apparently experienced a 'miraculous conversion' and had stopped eating meat, fasted daily, had given away his possessions and took communion three or four times

444-779: A Venetian masked ball. Material relating to this can be found in the Brian Sewell Archive held by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art . In 2009, the Grand Tour featured prominently in a BBC/PBS miniseries based on Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens . Set mainly in Venice, it portrayed the Grand Tour as a rite of passage. Kevin McCloud presented Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour on Channel 4 in 2009 with McCloud retracing

555-457: A classical setting. It is clearly an attempt by the artist at proving his talent both in the depiction of a historical scene of epic proportions that encompasses a broad range of emotional and psychological states in imitation of the grand classicizing style of his older French contemporary and fellow-resident in Rome, Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665). Art historians have proposed various theories about what

666-539: A full set of the prints in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum were squared up in pencil to facilitate copying. The set was published in Brussels in 1656, the same year that Sweerts established a drawing academy in the city. Very few drawings have been attributed with certainty to Sweerts. A portrait in black chalk of Jan van den Enden (c. 1651, National Gallery of Art ) is a very powerful portrait drawing of

777-510: A more daring manner. Vermeer further shows the young girl wearing an exotic turban and a pearl earring that appears too big to be real. Sweerts prefers to show the girl as a simple maidservant without frills. Some of Sweerts' tronies can be traced back to the "low life" studies of characters in the Spanish Netherlands through Adriaen Brouwer and his followers to Pieter Bruegel the Elder in

888-571: A number of mannerist structures, and Willem van den Blocke also has sculpted multiple lavishly decorated epitaphs and tombs in Poland. Flemish people also emigrated at the end of the fifteenth century, when Flemish traders conducted intensive trade with Spain and Portugal , and from there moved to colonies in America and Africa . The newly discovered Azores were populated by 2,000 Flemish people from 1460 onwards, making these volcanic islands known as

999-565: A part of this historical county, as well as parts of the medieval duchy of Brabant and the medieval county of Loon , where the modern national identity and culture gradually formed. The sense of "Flemish" identity increased significantly after the Belgian Revolution . Prior to this, the term " Vlamingen " in the Dutch language was in first place used for the inhabitants of the former County of Flanders. Flemish, however, had been used since

1110-550: A period of study at the universities in Ingolstadt or Heidelberg . From there, travellers could visit Holland and Flanders (with more gallery-going and art appreciation) before returning across the Channel to England. Published accounts of the Grand Tour provided illuminating detail and an often polished first-hand perspective of the experience. Examining some accounts offered by authors in their own lifetimes, Jeremy Black detects

1221-621: A return to Roman paganism against the Christian faith. The plague during Julian's reign was regarded in Sweerts' time as a punishment for Julian's anti-Christian policies. In the composition Sweerts was likely commenting on the contemporary struggle of the Catholic Church against Protestantism. The historical, religious, artistic and archeological allusions of the composition would not have been evident to ordinary lay viewers but only to small group of

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1332-525: A significant number of its residents left after the Great Flood of 1993 . Grand tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe , with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tutor or family member) when they had come of age (about 21 years old). The custom—which flourished from about 1660 until

1443-482: A skull and an hourglass. The message of the painting may be that faith is available everywhere. This painting could foreshadow Sweerts' conversion to a more fanatical immersion in his faith that would finally compel him to travel to the East. A number of compositions deal with subjects, which appear to have an allegorical meaning. Many of these works still escape full understanding by contemporary scholarship. Some of his portraits carry an allegorical meaning and stand in

1554-418: A soldier plundering a violin, paintings and sculpture. Sweerts' monumental Plague in an Ancient City (ca. 1652-54, Los Angeles County Museum of Art ) is regarded as Sweerts' most ambitious work in terms not only of compositional complexity and technical achievement, but also of historical and archeological erudition. The composition depicts a haunting, dramatic vision of the ravages of the bubonic plague in

1665-400: A trip to Italy, with a spinster aunt as chaperone , was part of the upper-class women's education, as in E. M. Forster 's novel A Room with a View . British travellers were far from alone on the roads of Europe. On the contrary, from the mid-16th century, the grand tour was established as an ideal way to finish off the education of young men in countries such as Denmark, France, Germany,

1776-633: A very pretty Venetian of two and twenty — with great black eyes — she is married — and so am I — we have found & sworn an eternal attachment ... & I am more in love than ever... and I verily believe we are one of the happiest unlawful couples on this side of the Alps." Many tourists enjoyed sexual relations while abroad but to a great extent were well behaved, such as Thomas Pelham, and scholars, such as Richard Pococke , who wrote lengthy letters of their Grand Tour experiences. Inventor Sir Francis Ronalds ' journals and sketches of his 1818–20 tour to Europe and

1887-613: A week. In 1658, Sweerts made for the Guild of Saint Luke of Brussels a self-portrait as a farewell gift. He perhaps spent time in Amsterdam, probably as early as 1658. It is documented that he was present in Amsterdam for a number of months in the year 1661 just prior to setting off on his trip with the Missions Étrangères to the Far East. During his time in Amsterdam he helped supervise the building of

1998-461: A young man in a melancholy pose. It was previously believed that the sitter's mood was connected to his financial difficulties. The current view is that the painting is a pensieroso (pensive) portrait, a motive going back to the fifteenth-century Neoplatonic concept that melancholy is the distinguishing feature of the creative character. The allegorical significance of the objects in the painting such as old books, empty purse, gold coins, and inkwell

2109-457: A young man. It is one of the first drawings attributed with any reasonable certainty to Sweerts. Flemish people Flemish was historically a geographical term, as all inhabitants of the medieval County of Flanders in modern-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands were referred to as "Flemings" irrespective of their ethnicity or language. The contemporary region of Flanders comprises

2220-529: Is based on the Gospel of Matthew, 25: 31-46. These verses announce the Last Judgment, the event during which Christ is said to judge man by his works. Sweerts depicted the good works in a contemporary Roman environment and incorporated topographical elements from the neighborhood in which he lived at the time. Sweerts shows in these scenes his preference for dark night skies and backgrounds, which dramatically light up

2331-485: Is considered the founder of the Bamboccianti . By the time Sweerts arrived in Rome van Laer himself had already left the city. The Bamboccianti brought existing traditions of depicting peasant subjects from sixteenth-century Netherlandish art with them to Italy. They created small cabinet paintings or etchings of the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside. In Rome, Sweerts painted genre paintings in

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2442-449: Is consistent with this interpretation. The portrait also has a moralizing inscription, RATIO QUIQUE REDDENDA (Every man must give an accounting). This allegorical strain is characteristic of Sweerts' art. Another painting that doubles as a self-portrait is the Penitent reading in a room (Marco Grassi Collection, New York), showing a man reading a sacred book amidst vanitas symbols such as

2553-532: Is likely a portrait of a simple maidservant, also shows Sweerts' interest in portraying common people. The painting has been compared to the Girl with a Pearl Earring painted by Vermeer some five years later. The young girls in both compositions are depicted with a combination of realism and idealisation. There are important differences between the two works. Vermeer's composition is more compact, his light reflections are more subtle and Vermeer uses yellow and blue tones in

2664-648: Is not always easy to determine the level of Sweerts' involvement (if any) in the making of these copies. For instance, there exist at least four early copies, of varying quality, of his Artist’s studio with a woman sewing (one copy at the Collection RAU - Fondation Unicef, Cologne). None of his paintings produced after he left Europe is known to survive. The majority of his output falls into two categories: ' genre scenes " of low-life subjects of country and street life and portraits or tronies . A third category are allegorical works, which are regarded as enigmatic and are

2775-696: Is not likely to provide them with a Grand Tour, since they have been expelled from college again. Brent is not concerned, remarking, "What is there to see in Europe? I'll bet those foreigners can't show us a thing we haven't got right here in Georgia". Ashley Wilkes , on the other hand, enjoyed the scenery and music he encountered on his Grand Tour and was always talking about it. In 1998, the BBC produced an art history series Sister Wendy's Grand Tour presented by British Carmelite nun Sister Wendy . Ostensibly an art history series,

2886-489: Is on showing the artist as a virtuoso who possesses an aristocratic posture, learning and esteem. Sweerts made a mirror image reproduction of this self-portrait in an etching bearing the inscription Michael Sweerts Eq. Pi. et fe. In another self-portrait, probably painted about 1655, the artist points to a skull as a vanitas reminder. Another presumed self-portrait is the Portrait of a young man (1656, Hermitage ), which shows

2997-776: Is primarily based on the Hollandic dialect (spoken in the northwestern Netherlands) and to a lesser extent on Brabantic, which is the most dominant Dutch dialect of the Southern Netherlands and Flanders . Approximately 75% of the Flemish people are by baptism assumed Roman Catholic , though a still diminishing minority of less than 8% attends Mass on a regular basis and nearly half of the inhabitants of Flanders are agnostic or atheist . A 2006 inquiry in Flanders showed 55% chose to call themselves religious and 36% believe that God created

3108-512: Is recorded in Brussels in July 1655 at the baptism of a child of his sister. In Brussels he joined the local Guild of Saint Luke in 1659. He opened an academy in Brussels where his students could work after live models and the Antique. He also created a series of prints of various human expressions, which were used in the training of his students. Sweerts joined around this time the Missions Étrangères ,

3219-493: Is the majority language in Belgium, being spoken natively by three-fifths of the population. Its various dialects contain a number of lexical and a few grammatical features which distinguish them from the standard language. As in the Netherlands, the pronunciation of Standard Dutch is affected by the native dialect of the speaker. At the same time East Flemish forms a continuum with both Brabantic and West Flemish . Standard Dutch

3330-523: The Bamboccianti . Sweerts' contributions to the Bamboccianti genre display generally greater stylistic mastery and social-philosophical sensitivity than the other artists working in this manner. While he was successful during his lifetime, Sweerts and his work fell into obscurity until he was rediscovered in the 20th century as one of the most intriguing and enigmatic artists of his time. Michiel Sweerts

3441-620: The Congregazione Artistica dei Virtuosi al Pantheon . The Congregazione was a corporation of artists who organised annual exhibitions of their own paintings on the metal railings in front of the Pantheon. There is no evidence that Sweerts became himself a member of the Virtuosi . Sweerts lived from 1646 to 1651 in the Via Margutta where many foreign artists resided. While in Rome, Sweerts was

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3552-646: The Alps ), or he could opt to make the trip by riverboat as far as the Alps, either travelling up the Seine to Paris, or up the Rhine to Basel . Upon hiring a French-speaking guide, as French was the dominant language of the elite in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, the tourist and his entourage would travel to Paris . There the traveller might undertake lessons in French, dancing , fencing , and riding . The appeal of Paris lay in

3663-490: The Holy Land , which he chronicled in his highly popular satire Innocents Abroad in 1867. Not only was it the best-selling of Twain's works during his lifetime, it became one of the best-selling travel books of all time. Margaret Mitchell 's American Civil War -based novel, Gone With The Wind , makes reference to the Grand Tour. Stuart Tartleton, in a conversation with his twin brother, Brent, suspects that their mother

3774-617: The Netherlands , but are still host to people of Flemish descent and some continued use of Flemish Dutch. Namely, these are Zeelandic Flanders and the Arrondissement of Dunkirk (historically known as French Westhoek ). The people of North Brabant also share related ancestry. There were migrations of Flemish people to medieval and early modern Poland. The Flemming noble family of Flemish origin first settled in Pomerania and modern Poland in

3885-409: The ethical (by the opportunity of drawing moral instruction from all the traveller saw), and the political . As a young man at the outset of his account of a repeat Grand Tour, the historian Edward Gibbon remarked that "According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman." Consciously adapted for intellectual self-improvement, Gibbon

3996-525: The seal of Philip d'Alsace , count of Flanders of 1162. As of that date the use of the Flemish coat of arms ( or a lion rampant sable ) remained in use throughout the reigns of the d'Alsace, Flanders (2nd) and Dampierre dynasties of counts . The motto "Vlaanderen de Leeuw" (Flanders the lion) was allegedly present on the arms of Pieter de Coninck at the Battle of the Golden Spurs on July 11, 1302. After

4107-534: The "Flemish Islands". For instance, the city of Horta derives its name from Flemish explorer Josse van Huerter . Prior to the 1600s, there were several substantial waves of Flemish migration to the United Kingdom . The first wave fled to England in the early 12th century, escaping damages from a storm across the coast of Flanders, where they were largely resettled in Pembrokeshire by Henry I . They changed

4218-546: The 'Collector' Earl of Arundel , with his wife and children in 1613–14 that established the most significant precedent. This is partly because he asked Inigo Jones , not yet established as an architect but already known as a 'great traveller' and masque designer, to act as his cicerone (guide). Larger numbers of tourists began their tours after the Peace of Münster in 1648. According to the Oxford English Dictionary ,

4329-431: The 'cultural extremes' of both Northern and Southern culture. Alongside this overarching political and social affiliation, there also exists a strong tendency towards regionalism , in which individuals greatly identify themselves culturally through their native province , city, region or dialect they speak. Flemings speak Dutch (specifically its southern variant , which is often colloquially called ' Flemish '). It

4440-617: The 'vulgar' subject to a higher level. Sweerts painted more compositions depicting male nudes such as the Bathing men ( Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg ). It has been demonstrated that Sweerts moved in a milieu in Rome from which women were generally excluded. The question remains whether some of his paintings of male nudes should be interpreted as denoting a message relating to homosexuality. Sweerts' genre scenes include several compositions depicting artists training or at work in their studios or outdoors. They provide valuable visual evidence on

4551-483: The 13th century with the village of Buk becoming the first estate of the family in the region. The family reached high-ranking political and military posts in Poland in the 18th century, and Polish Princess Izabela Czartoryska and statesman Adam Jerzy Czartoryski were their descendants. There are several preserved historical residences of the family in Poland. Flemish architects Anthonis van Obbergen and Willem van den Blocke migrated to Poland, where they designed

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4662-545: The 14th century to refer to the language and dialects of both the peoples of Flanders and the Duchy of Brabant . In 1830, the southern provinces of the United Netherlands proclaimed their independence. French-dialect speaking population, as well as the administration and elites, feared the loss of their status and autonomy under Dutch rule while the rapid industrialization in the south highlighted economic differences between

4773-536: The 1560s. Sweerts succeeded in making these subjects look freshly observed. An example is the Man holding a jug ( Metropolitan Museum of Art ). In this depiction of a tavern habitué Sweerts succeeds in displaying his remarkable gifts for describing character as well as physical substances and light effects. Sweerts painted a number of self-portraits and some of his portraits are regarded as being self-portraits. The earliest known self-portrait of about 1648-50 ( Uffizi ) shows

4884-613: The 1870s, when Saint Boniface proved a popular destination for work in local flour mills, brick yards and railway yards. Similarly, Flemish were drawn to smaller villages in Manitoba , where jobs in farming were available. In the early 20th century, Flemish settled in significant numbers across Ontario , particularly attracted by the tobacco-growing industry, in the towns of Chatham , Leamington , Tillsonburg , Wallaceburg , Simcoe , Sarnia and Port Hope . The original County of Flanders encompassed areas which today belong to France and

4995-570: The 1870s. However, with the rise of industrialization in the United States in the 19th century, American Gilded Age nouveau riche adopted the Grand Tour for both sexes and among those of more advanced years as a means of gaining both exposure and association with the sophistication of Europe. Even those of lesser means sought to mimic the pilgrimage, as satirized in Mark Twain 's enormously popular Innocents Abroad in 1869. The primary value of

5106-561: The 19th century.) From there the traveller would endure a difficult crossing over the Alps (such as at the Great St Bernard Pass ), which required dismantling the carriage and larger luggage. If wealthy enough, he might be carried over the hard terrain by servants. Once in Italy , the tourist would visit Turin (and sometimes Milan ), then might spend a few months in Florence , where there

5217-750: The British tourist usually began in Dover , England , and crossed the English Channel to Ostend in Belgium , or to Calais or Le Havre in France . From there the tourist, usually accompanied by a tutor (known colloquially as a " bear-leader ") and (if wealthy enough) a troop of servants, could rent or acquire a coach (which could be resold in any city – as in Giacomo Casanova 's travels – or disassembled and packed across

5328-426: The Grand Tour derided its lack of adventure. "The tour of Europe is a paltry thing", said one 18th century critic, "a tame, uniform, unvaried prospect". The Grand Tour was said to reinforce the old preconceptions and prejudices about national characteristics, as Jean Gailhard 's Compleat Gentleman (1678) observes: "French courteous. Spanish lordly. Italian amorous. German clownish." The deep suspicion with which Tour

5439-513: The Grand Tour lay in its exposure to the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance , and to the aristocratic and fashionably polite society of the European continent. It also provided the only opportunity to view specific works of art, and possibly the only chance to hear certain music. A Grand Tour could last anywhere from several months to several years. It was commonly undertaken in

5550-624: The Grand Tour, especially portraits of the traveller painted in continental settings, became the obligatory emblems of worldliness, gravitas and influence. Artists who particularly thrived on the Grand Tour market included Carlo Maratti , who was first patronised by John Evelyn as early as 1645, Pompeo Batoni the portraitist , and the vedutisti such as Canaletto , Pannini and Guardi . The less well-off could return with an album of Piranesi etchings. The "perhaps" in Gibbon's opening remark cast an ironic shadow over his resounding statement. Critics of

5661-403: The Grand Tour. From Venice the traveller went to Rome to study the ancient ruins and the masterpieces of painting, sculpture, and architecture of Rome's Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Some travellers also visited Naples to study music, and (after the mid-18th century) to appreciate the recently discovered archaeological sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii , and perhaps (for

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5772-569: The Grand Tour. Boswell notes "Yesterday morning with her. Pulled up petticoat and showed whole knees... Touched with her goodness. All other liberties exquisite." He describes his time with the Italian women he encounters and shares a part of history in his written accounts. Lord Byron 's letters to his mother with the accounts of his travels have also been published from the early 19th century. Byron spoke of his first enduring Venetian love, his landlord's wife, mentioning that he has "fallen in love with

5883-569: The Near East have been published online. The letters written by sisters Mary and Ida Saxton of Canton, Ohio in 1869 while on a six-month tour offer insight into the Grand Tour tradition from an American perspective. Immediately following the American Civil War U.S. author and humorist Mark Twain undertook a decidedly modest yet greatly aspiring "grand tour" of Europe, the Middle East, and

5994-619: The Netherlandish tradition of depicting the five senses. An example is the series of five portraits of boys and girls representing the five senses, which are now dispersed over various collections. Two of them of a boy and a girl respectively representing Smell and Feeling are in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen . Another allegorical composition is his Mars Destroying the Arts (Private collection) in which Sweerts portrayed

6105-409: The Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. In spite of this the bulk of research conducted on the Grand Tour has been on British travellers. Dutch scholar Frank-van Westrienen Anna has made note of this historiographic focus, claiming that the scholarly understanding of the Grand Tour would have been more complex if more comparative studies had been carried out on continental travellers. Recent scholarship on

6216-512: The Swedish aristocracy has demonstrated that Swedish aristocrats, though being relatively poorer than their British peers, from around 1620 and onwards in many ways acted as their British counterparts. After studies at one or two renowned universities, preferably those of Leiden and Heidelberg, the Swedish grand tourists set off to France and Italy, where they spent time in Paris, Rome and Venice and completed

6327-572: The Tourists were interested. Coins and medals , which formed more portable souvenirs and a respected gentleman's guide to ancient history were also popular. Pompeo Batoni made a career of painting the English milordi posed with graceful ease among Roman antiquities. Many continued on to Naples , where they also viewed Herculaneum and Pompeii , but few ventured far into Southern Italy , and fewer still to Greece , then still under Turkish rule . After

6438-506: The acquisition of Flanders by the Burgundian dukes the lion was only used in escutcheons. It was only after the creation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands that the coat of arms (surmounted by a chief bearing the Royal Arms of the Netherlands ) once again became the official symbol of the new province East Flanders . The first sizeable wave of Flemish migration to Canada occurred in

6549-415: The advent of large-scale rail transport in the 1840s and was associated with a standard itinerary—served as an educational rite of passage . Though it was primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry , similar trips were made by wealthy young men of other Protestant Northern European nations, and, from the second half of the 18th century, by some South and North Americans. By

6660-417: The advent of steam-powered transportation around 1825, the Grand Tour custom continued, but it was of a qualitative difference — cheaper to undertake, safer, easier, open to anyone. During much of the 19th century, most educated young men of privilege undertook the Grand Tour. Germany and Switzerland came to be included in a more broadly defined circuit. Later, it became fashionable for young women as well ;

6771-510: The adventurous) an ascent of Mount Vesuvius . Later in the period, the more adventurous, especially if provided with a yacht , might attempt Sicily to see its archeological sites, volcanoes and its baroque architecture, Malta or even Greece itself. But Naples – or later Paestum further south – was the usual terminus. Returning northward, the tourist might recross the Alps to the German-speaking parts of Europe, visiting Innsbruck , Vienna , Dresden , Berlin and Potsdam , with perhaps

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6882-443: The area during this era, who would lay their cloths out in the sun to bleach them. These waves of settlement are also evidenced by the common surnames Fleming , Flemings, Flemming and Flemmings. In the United States , the cities of De Pere and Green Bay in Wisconsin attracted many Flemish and Walloon immigrants during the 19th century. The small town of Belgique was settled almost entirely by Flemish immigrants, although

6993-419: The art market in Italy. Sweerts further acted for the Deutzes as an agent on the Italian art market. It is believed that the Portrait of Man with a Red Cloak (c. 1650, Wallace Collection ) is in fact a portrait of Jean Deutz who was likely then in Rome on his grand tour . Despite enjoying the patronage of the highest echelons in Rome, Sweerts left Rome for unknown reasons sometime between 1652 and 1654. He

7104-512: The artist wearing a beret with a plunging feather giving him a distinctly 'bohemian' air. His Self-portrait of 1656 ( Allen Memorial Art Museum ) shows the artist in a confident pose. This self-portrait stands in a long-established line of self-portraits by Netherlandish artists, showing themselves with the tools of their craft. His elegant, aristocratic appearance also brings to mind the artist portraits in Iconography of Anthony van Dyck , published in Antwerp between 1636 and 1641. The emphasis

7215-705: The artists themselves, the elite considered travel to such centres as necessary rites of passage. For gentlemen, some works of art were essential to demonstrate the breadth and polish they had received from their tour. The Grand Tour offered a liberal education , and the opportunity to acquire things otherwise unavailable, lending an air of accomplishment and prestige to the traveller. Grand Tourists would return with crates full of books, works of art, scientific instruments, and cultural artefacts – from snuff boxes and paperweights to altars, fountains, and statuary – to be displayed in libraries, cabinets , gardens, drawing rooms , and galleries built for that purpose. The trappings of

7326-422: The chaos to rob the man in blue. Other genre paintings by of Sweerts depict low-life scenes mainly placed in the Roman Campagna or on Rome's streets in a style close to that of the Bamboccianti. An example is A man delousing himself and a sleeping boy (c. 1650 - 1654, Mauritshuis ). Sweerts' compositions differ, however, from those of the other Bambocciante painters by his preference for antique sculpture and

7437-473: The company of a cicerone , a knowledgeable guide or tutor. Rome for many centuries had already been the destination of pilgrims, especially during Jubilee when European clergy visited the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome . In Britain, Thomas Coryat 's travel book Coryat's Crudities (1611), published during the Twelve Years' Truce , was an early influence on the Grand Tour but it was the far more extensive tour through Italy as far as Naples undertaken by

7548-418: The composition depicts and its interpretation. Some see in it a generic depiction of the effects of the plague with no specific historical, moral or narrative meaning. The art scholar Franco Mormando has recently argued that the Plague in an Ancient City depicts a specific plague that according to Christian sources took place in Rome in 361–63 during the reign of emperor Julian . Emperor Julian had sought

7659-582: The creation of the de jure social, political and linguistic equality of Dutch from the end of the 19th century. After the Hundred Years War many Flemings migrated to the Azores . By 1490 there were 2,000 Flemings living in the Azores. Willem van der Haegen was the original sea captain who brought settlers from Flanders to the Azores. Today many Azoreans trace their genealogy from present day Flanders. Many of their customs and traditions are distinctively Flemish in nature such as windmills used for grain, São Jorge cheese and several religious events such as

7770-411: The cultural elite who delighted in such painted puzzles. Sweerts etched a small number of plates, 21 in total. These were issued in small editions making his prints exceptionally rare. He engraved a series of 13 plates with a Latin title, Diversae facies in usum iuvenum et aliorum ('Various faces for use by the young and others'), which served as drawing models for his academy students. For this reason

7881-504: The culture and accent in south Pembrokeshire to such an extent, that it led to the area receiving the name Little England beyond Wales . Haverfordwest and Tenby consequently grew as important settlements for the Flemish settlers. In the 14th century, encouraged by King Edward III and perhaps in part due to his marriage to Philippa of Hainault , another wave of migration to England occurred when skilled cloth weavers from Flanders were granted permission to settle there and contribute to

7992-584: The element of literary artifice in these and cautions that they should be approached as travel literature rather than unvarnished accounts. He lists as examples Joseph Addison , John Andrews, William Thomas Beckford (whose Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents was a published account of his letters back home in 1780–1781, embellished with stream-of-consciousness associations), William Coxe , Elizabeth Craven , John Moore , tutor to successive dukes of Hamilton, Samuel Jackson Pratt , Tobias Smollett , Philip Thicknesse , and Arthur Young . Although Italy

8103-478: The figures. These compositions represent the scenes in a frozen movement in a dreamlike setting almost like a film still. In this work Sweerts expresses his compassion and empathy with the suffering of his subjects and his support for the charitable acts performed for them. Sweerts developed new themes such as that of the Roman wrestlers. In his Wrestling match (1649, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe ) Sweerts depicted

8214-457: The first recorded use of the term (perhaps its introduction to English) was by Richard Lassels ( c. 1603–1668), an expatriate Roman Catholic priest , in his book The Voyage of Italy , which was published posthumously in Paris in 1670 and then in London. Lassels's introduction listed four areas in which travel furnished "an accomplished, consummate Traveller": the intellectual , the social ,

8325-613: The followers of Caravaggio such as card and dice players and the procuress . Examples are the Draughts players and the Card players (both in the Rijksmuseum , Amsterdam). The latter composition depicts a group of people whose card game is interrupted by a brawl. Their eyes send the gaze of the viewer to the right, in the direction of the pointing arm of the man in the front. This painting possibly symbolizes laziness. A cunning boy takes advantage of

8436-404: The form of genre paintings. His subject matter is close to that of Dutch genre painters such as Pieter de Hooch and Vermeer. His Head of a Woman (ca. 1654, J. Paul Getty Museum , Los Angeles) is a noteworthy example of his ability to capture the lively and distinctive humanity of even his most humble, anonymous subjects. His Portrait of a young woman (c. 1660, Kremer Collection), which

8547-597: The imperios and the feast of the Cult of the Holy Spirit . Within Belgium, Flemings form a clearly distinguishable group set apart by their language and customs. Various cultural and linguistic customs are similar to those of the Southern part of the Netherlands. Generally, Flemings do not identify themselves as being Dutch and vice versa. There are popular stereotypes in the Netherlands as well as Flanders which are mostly based on

8658-406: The inconsolable Mary Magdalene. Sweerts is an enigmatic and difficult artist to categorise, since he absorbed a variety of influences to create an eclectic style that adapted Netherlandish genre painting to early tenebrist styles as well as blended Baroque and classicist tendencies. A large portion of the output of Sweerts consists of genre scenes. Some of these reprise the subjects popular with

8769-551: The journey takes her from Madrid to Saint Petersburg with stop-offs to see the great masterpieces. In 2005, British art historian Brian Sewell followed in the footsteps of the Grand Tourists for a 10-part television series Brian Sewell's Grand Tour . Produced by UK's Channel Five, Sewell travelled by car and confined his attention solely to Italy stopping in Rome, Florence, Naples, Pompeii, Turin, Milan, Cremona, Siena, Bologna, Vicenza, Paestum, Urbino, Tivoli and concluding at

8880-673: The lack of it". Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Italian women, with their unfamiliar methods and routines, were opposites to the western dress expected of European women in the eighteenth and nineteenth century; their "foreign" ways led to the documentation of encounters with them, providing published accounts of the Grand Tour. James Boswell in the 18th century courted noble ladies and recorded his progress with his relationships, mentioning that Madame Micheli "Talked of religion, philosophy... Kissed hand often." The promiscuity of Boswell's encounters with Italian elite are shared in his diary and provide further detail on events that occurred during

8991-417: The library in the composition highlights that painters are not craftsmen, but learned artists. In his portraits Sweerts proved himself on a par with the leading contemporaries in the field. Sweerts is believed to have painted his tronies in Brussels or Amsterdam, i.e. between 1655 and 1661. He showed an interest in depicting ordinary people and exploring character and different expressions. In his Clothing

9102-409: The main principles and stages of studio practice, starting from drawing after casts and anatomical figures in plaster and then from the live model. The prominence given to the plaster models in the right front of the composition show the importance in the artistic training and practice of contemporary artists of the study of casts of not only Antique but also modern sculptures. In another composition on

9213-461: The mid-18th century, the Grand Tour had become a regular feature of aristocratic education in Central Europe as well, although it was restricted to the higher nobility. The tradition declined in Europe as enthusiasm for classical culture waned, and with the advent of accessible rail and steamship travel—an era in which Thomas Cook made the "Cook's Tour" of early mass tourism a byword starting in

9324-536: The naked Sweerts portrayed very non-classical (i.e. Netherlandish-looking) figures whose features are emphasized by sideway glances and curious expressions. The beautiful daylight and velvety backgrounds can also be found in works by Johannes Vermeer . Sweerts' tronies of young women with their use of antique props also anticipate Vermeer. This work and another work such as the Anthonij de Bordes and his valet ( National Gallery of Art ) are examples of portraits that take

9435-442: The nephew of the reigning Pope Innocent X . He is said to have painted a portrait of Camillo Pamphilj. Sweerts also painted theatre decors for Camillo Pamphilj and purchased art for him as his agent. It is likely that his patron Prince Camillo Pamphilj involved Sweerts in the organization of an art academy in Rome. At the instigation of Camillo, the pope bestowed upon Sweerts the papal title of Cavaliere di Cristo (Knight of Christ),

9546-469: The noble appearance of his often monumental figures. Sweerts often used chiaroscuro to create a dramatic and mysterious atmosphere. His personal style is clearly manifested in his Seven Acts of Mercy series (ca. 1646-9), a series of 7 canvases which he painted in Rome as genre-style renderings of a religious theme. The canvases are now dispersed over various museums. The subject of the Seven Acts of Mercy

9657-419: The original grand tour on the French countryside. King Gustav III of Sweden made his Grand Tour in 1783–84. The itinerary of the Grand Tour was not set in stone, but was subject to innumerable variations, depending on an individual's interests and finances, though Paris and Rome were popular destinations for most English tourists. The most common itinerary of the Grand Tour shifted across generations, but

9768-415: The popular wrestling matches that took place in Rome's streets and were attended by a large audience. The representation is real, but at the same time somehow unreal. This is not only because of the dramatic lighting, but also by the fact that the movements of the men appear frozen. Sweerts relied for the main characters on classic images. Through the large scale of the nudes in this composition Sweerts lifted

9879-459: The same honor enjoyed by the likes of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini . It is during his time in Rome that Sweerts developed a lifelong relationship with the Deutz family, who were one of the most prominent trading families of Amsterdam. In 1651 Jean Deutz gave Sweerts a power of attorney to act on his behalf in a sale of silk. The Deutz brothers also purchased paintings of Sweerts through

9990-601: The secession; the Roman Catholic majority viewed the sovereign, the Protestant William I , with suspicion and were heavily stirred by the Roman Catholic Church which suspected William of wanting to enforce Protestantism . Lastly, Belgian liberals were dissatisfied with William for his allegedly despotic behaviour. Following the revolt, the language reforms of 1823 were the first Dutch laws to be abolished and

10101-586: The ship that would transport the Missions Étrangères to Alexandretta and then further East. By December 1661, Sweerts had arrived in Marseilles from where his ship left for Palestine in January 1662. Sweerts sailed for Alexandretta with bishop François Pallu , 7 priests and another lay brother. In Syria he is said to have produced some paintings. On the overland portion of the trip in Syria he became mentally unstable and

10212-541: The sophisticated language and manners of French high society, including courtly behavior and fashion. This served to polish the young man's manners in preparation for a leadership position at home, often in government or diplomacy . From Paris he would typically sojourn in urban Switzerland , often in Geneva (the cradle of the Protestant Reformation ) or Lausanne . ("Alpinism" or mountaineering developed later, in

10323-463: The style of the Bamboccianti as well as a series of canvases on the activities and training of painters in their studios, attending classes or working from live models. He resided near Santa Maria del Popolo . In 1647, Sweerts became an associate ( aggregato ) of the Accademia di San Luca , a prestigious association of leading artists in Rome. Sweerts is also recorded as having connections with members of

10434-478: The subject of ongoing interpretation by art historians. Sweerts reportedly painted compositions of Biblical subjects, several of which are mentioned in contemporary inventories. However, none of these are known to have survived. One of his religious paintings, a Lamentation is known from the print, which Sweerts himself made after his own painting. The composition is unusual for the Virgin’s comforting gesture towards

10545-578: The subsequent years would see a number of laws restricting the use of the Dutch language. This policy led to the gradual emergence of the Flemish Movement , that was built on earlier anti-French feelings of injustice, as expressed in writings (for example by the late 18th-century writer, Jan Verlooy ) which criticized the Southern Francophile elites. The efforts of this movement during the following 150 years, have to no small extent facilitated

10656-497: The teacher of Willem Reuter , another Flemish painter from Brussels who spent time in Rome where he was influenced by the Bamboccianti. Despite the fragmentary nature of evidence pertaining to his career in Rome, it would appear that Sweerts succeeded in creating for himself a sufficiently solid reputation to be invited to enter into the service of the ruling papal family, the Pamphili family , and in particular Prince Camillo Pamphilj ,

10767-533: The theme of the Artist studio (1652, Detroit Institute of Arts ), a visitor to an artist studio is examining a cast of a limbless Apollo, which is based on a model by the 17th century Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy , who worked in Rome. Other objects present in the composition include surveying instruments, a lute and sheet music. These objects are a reference to the need for artists to strive for harmony as well as respect accurate size and proportion. The glimpse of

10878-591: The then booming cloth and woollen industries. These migrants particularly settled in the growing Lancashire and Yorkshire textile towns of Manchester , Bolton , Blackburn , Liversedge , Bury , Halifax and Wakefield . Demand for Flemish weavers in England occurred again in both the 15th and 16th centuries, but this time particularly focused on towns close to the coastline of East Anglia and South East England . Many from this generation of weavers went to Colchester , Sandwich and Braintree . In 1582, it

10989-618: The trappings of the Grand Tour—valets and coachmen, perhaps a cook, certainly a " bear-leader " or scholarly guide—were beyond their reach. The advent of popular guides, such as the book An Account of Some of the Statues, Bas-Reliefs, Drawings, and Pictures in Italy published in 1722 by Jonathan Richardson and his son Jonathan Richardson the Younger , did much to popularise such trips, and following

11100-416: The two. Under French rule (1794–1815), French was enforced as the only official language in public life, resulting in a Francization of the elites and, to a lesser extent, the middle classes. The Dutch king allowed the use of both Dutch and French dialects as administrative languages in the Flemish provinces. He also enacted laws to reestablish Dutch in schools. The language policy was not the only cause of

11211-541: The universe. The official flag and coat of arms of the Flemish Community represents a black lion with red claws and tongue on a yellow field ( or a lion rampant sable armed and langued gules ). A flag with a completely black lion had been in wide use before 1991 when the current version was officially adopted by the Flemish Community. That older flag was at times recognized by government sources (alongside

11322-405: The version with red claws and tongue). Today, only the flag bearing a lion with red claws and tongue is recognized by Belgian law, while the flag with the all-black lion is mostly used by Flemish separatist movements. The Flemish authorities also use two logos of a highly stylized black lion which show the claws and tongue in either red or black. The first documented use of the Flemish lion was on

11433-425: The work habits and training of 17th-century artists. Sweerts also depicted a number of drawing schools. He was himself actively involved in art education at academies in Rome and Brussels. His Painter's studio (1648-1650, Rijksmuseum) shows various draughtsmen in an artist studio drawing after various plaster models and probably one live nude. There are also two visitors in the studio. The picture seems to depict

11544-704: Was "revisiting the Continent on a larger and more liberal plan"; most Grand Tourists did not pause more than briefly in libraries. On the eve of the Romantic era he played a significant part in introducing, William Beckford wrote a vivid account of his Grand Tour that made Gibbon's unadventurous Italian tour look distinctly conventional. The typical 18th-century stance was that of the studious observer travelling through foreign lands reporting his findings on human nature for those unfortunates who stayed at home. Recounting one's observations to society at large to increase its welfare

11655-546: Was a considerable Anglo-Italian society accessible to travelling Englishmen "of quality" and where the Tribuna of the Uffizi gallery brought together in one space the monuments of High Renaissance paintings and Roman sculpture . After a side trip to Pisa , the tourist would move on to Padua , Bologna , and Venice . The British idea of Venice as the "locus of decadent Italianate allure" made it an epitome and cultural set piece of

11766-520: Was born in Brussels where he was baptized on 29 September 1618 in the St. Nicholas Church as the son of David Sweerts, a linen merchant, and Martina Ballu. Little is known about the artist's early life and nothing about his training. He arrived in Rome in 1646 where he remained active until 1652 (or 1654). In Rome he became soon linked to the circle of Flemish and Dutch painters associated with Pieter van Laer , who

11877-527: Was considered an obligation; the Grand Tour flourished in this mindset. In essence, the Grand Tour was neither a scholarly pilgrimage nor a religious one, though a pleasurable stay in Venice and a cautious residence in Rome were essential. Catholic Grand Tourists followed the same routes as Protestant Whigs. Since the 17th century, a tour to such places was also considered essential for budding artists to understand proper painting and sculpture techniques, though

11988-727: Was dismissed from the company somewhere between Isfahan and Tabriz in Persia . He then travelled on to the Portuguese Jesuits in Goa where he is reported to have died at the age of 46. The surviving works by Sweerts mostly date to the period of his residence in Rome. Due to the difficulty of attributing works to the artist who rarely signed his works, the number of canvases given to the artist vary from 40 to 100. Some of Sweerts' works were so popular in his time that contemporary copies were made, some by Sweerts himself, others by pupils or followers. It

12099-548: Was estimated that there could have been around 1,600 Flemish in Sandwich, today almost half of its total population. London , Norwich and North Walsham , however, were the most popular destinations, and the nickname for Norwich City F.C. fans, Canaries, is derived from the fact that many of the Norfolk weavers kept pet canaries. The town of Whitefield , near Bury, also claims to owe its name to Flemish cloth weavers that settled in

12210-465: Was viewed at home in England, where it was feared that the very experiences that completed the British gentleman might well undo him, were epitomised in the sarcastic nativist view of the ostentatiously "well-travelled" maccaroni of the 1760s and 1770s. Also worth noticing is that the Grand Tour not only fostered stereotypes of the countries visited but also led to a dynamic of contrast between northern and southern Europe. By constantly depicting Italy as

12321-498: Was written as the "sink of iniquity", many travelers were not kept from recording the activities they participated in or the people they met, especially the women they encountered. To the Grand Tourists, Italy was an unconventional country, for "The shameless women of Venice made it unusual, in its own way." Sir James Hall confided in his written diary to comment on seeing "more handsome women this day than I ever saw in my life", also noting "how flattering Venetian dress [was] — or perhaps

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