Museum of Art
View of the Aurelian Walls of Rome (a); sketch of exterior wall (b)
Artist: Bartholomeus Breenbergh (Dutch, 1598-1657)
Medium: brush and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk on paper
Dimensions: 10 1/4 in. x 13 9/16 in. (26.1 cm. x 34.4 cm.)
Credit Line: Bequest of the Honorable James Bowdoin III
Accession Number: 1811.132.a.&.b
- "no. 14 Bishop"
Type: inscription
Location: verso of old mount
Materials: pen and ink
- James Bowdoin III( Collector, Boston) - 1811.
- Bowdoin College Museum of Art( Museum, Brunswick, Maine) 1811- . Bequest
- Old Master Drawings at Bowdoin College
- Bowdoin College Museum of Art. ( 5/17/1985 - 7/7/1985)
- Clark Art Institute. ( 9/14/1985 - 10/27/1985)
- University of Kansas. ( 1/19/1986 - 3/2/1986)
- Art Gallery of Ontario. ( 5/17/1986 - 6/29/1986)
- Drawing on Basics
- Bowdoin College Museum of Art. ( 10/14/1993 - 12/19/1993)
- Old Master Drawings from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art
- Timken Museum of Art. ( 5/13/2005 - 8/14/2005)
Type: catalogue Author: Henry Johnson Document Title: Catalogue of the Bowdoin College Art Collections Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine Reference: no. 57 Remarks: (as Corneille Bishop [sic]) Publisher: Bowdoin College Section Title: Pt. I, The Bowdoin Drawings Date: 1885 Type: catalogue Author: Bowdoin College Museum of Art Document Title: Bowdoin Museum of Fine Arts, Walker Art Building Edition: 4th Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine Reference: no. 57 Remarks: (as corneille Bishop) Publisher: Bowdoin College Section Title: Descriptive Catalogue of the . . . Date: 1930 Type: exhibition catalogue Author: David P. Becker Document Title: Old Master Drawings at Bowdoin College Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine Location: pp. 48-49, 51 Reference: no. 21 Publisher: Bowdoin College Date: 1985
Perhaps receiving his early training in Amsterdam, Breenbergh went to Rome in 1619 and stayed at first with Paul Bril. He was one of the founders in 1623 of the Schilderbent, a group of Dutch painters working in Rome, which included Cornelis van Poelenburgh. Breenburgh left Italy by 1629 and settled in Amsterdam. His innovative use of brush and ink wash to define form and shadow was perhaps an influence on Claude Lorrain's draughtsmanship. The two artists probably knew each other during the later 1620s.1 Breenbergh's oeuvre includes about 200 drawings, the majority of which are studies of landscapes and classical ruins.
Based on the verso inscription on the old mount, this sheet was first attributed to Cornelis Bisschop, although the reference was probably to Jan de Bisschop (see 1811.111 and 1811.112), some of whose Italian landscapes resemble Breenbergh's. It was given to Breenbergh by Sir Robert Witt, and this attribution has been generally accepted by scholars, including Roethlisberger.2 Occasionally the name of van Poelenburgh has been suggested, because of the similarity of these two artists' drawing styles when they were working in Rome, often depicting the same monuments. The Bowdoin drawing, however, exhibits the stronger contrasts of light and shade and slightly greater freedom of brushwork characteristic of Breenbergh. Comparable sheets are those in the Uffizi, the Louvre, and the van Leeuwen Collection.3 The ruins have been identified by John Herrmann as a portion of the Aurelian city walls of Rome, built between 270 and 310 A.D.4 The place is more specifically localized to a spot inside the walls near the Porta Metronia by another drawing in the Albertina attributed to Breenbergh of exactly the same site, which additionally shows the church of Santo Stefano in Monte Celio (Santo Stefano Rotondo) in the far left distance.5 No paintings for which the Bowdoin and Albertina drawings are specific models can be determined. As Roethlisberger points out, Breenbergh freely used certain features from his drawn studies while completely eliminating or changing others. He is convinced, however, that Breenbergh's drawings are topographically accurate views.6
1. H. D. Russell, Claude Lorrain, 1600-1682 (exh. cat.) (Washington, 1982), p. 53.
2. Letter to the Museum, 9 January 1966.
3. M. Roethlisberger, Bartholomäus Breenbergh Handzeichnungen (Berlin, 1969), nos. 9, 108, and 139, repr.
4. In conversation with the author, 1984; I am grateful to Dr. Herrmann for his aid in identifying the location.
5. Inv. no. 9368, repr. in Bernt 1957–1958, no. 125.
6. M. Roethlisberger, Bartholomeus Breenbergh–The Paintings (Berlin and New York, 1981), p. 48.
Artist Biography:
Perhaps receiving his early training in Amsterdam, Bartholomeus Breenbergh traveled to Rome in 1619, first working in the studio of the Flemish landscape specialist Paul Bril (c. 1554-1626). Breenbergh was one of the founders in 1623 of the Schilderbent, a group of Dutch painters working in Rome, which included Cornelis van Poelenburgh (1594/95-1667). He was one of the first generations of the Dutch Italianates, or artists whose work was influenced by the Italian landscape and light. Breenburgh left Italy by 1629 and settled in Amsterdam as one of the only Italianates in the city, working in a style closer to that of the Pre-Rembrandists, producing landscapes populated by biblical, historical, and mythological figures set within the Roman countryside. His innovative use of brush and ink wash to define form and shadow was perhaps an influence on Claude Lorrain's draughtsmanship. The two artists probably knew each other during the later 1620s. Breenbergh's oeuvre includes about 200 drawings, the majority of which are landscapes and studies of classical ruins.
Commentary credited to David P. Becker (or not otherwise captioned) appeared in his catalogue Old Master Drawings at Bowdoin College (Brunswick: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 1985).