Fenway Court: 1984 by Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Fenway Court

Fenway Court 1984

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Publi hcd by th e Tru tee of th e I abell a rewa rt a rdner Mu seum , Inco rpo ra ted 2 Palace Roa d Bo to n, Ma sachu err opy n ght 1985 De 1gned by Helen H adley Photograph by G reg Hein s Typog ra ph y by M o no t ype o mpo iti o n Printed by La Vi gne Pre Inc.

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Contents

A New Loo k at The Landscape with an Obelisk Cynthia Schneider

Chi arosc uro D rawin g by Paolo Veronese: The Mys tic Marriage of St. Catherine 23 Terisio Pigna tti Percepti o ns of the Troj a n Wa rs in th e Fenway: th e Creeping Odysseus Co rnelius C. Vermeu le, III

To ry Sy mp athi ze r : Two Bostonians Pay th e Pri ce of All egia nce to the Crown Francis L. Coolidge Cha rl es M a rtin Loeffl er and th e Eberle Viola d'a more Jenn ie H ansen A Note o n the Fa ns in the Collectio n Ellen D ennis

The I abell a Stewa rt Gardner Mu seum , Incorpo rated Si xtieth Annu al Repo rt for the Yea r N ineteen Hundred and Eighty Four Repo rt o f the Pres ident

M alcolm D. Perkins

Repo rt of the Director

Rollin van N. H adley

Repo rt of the Curato r

Kristin A . Mortimer

Membership Progra m

Memb ership

Publi ca ti ons

Repo rt of the Treas urer Trustee a nd raff

Govaert Flinck, The Landscape with an Obelisk, 1638, o il on wood, 54 .5 x 71 cm., Inv. No. P21 w24, Dutch Room, Isa bell a Stewa rt Ga rdner Museum .

A New Look at The Landscape with an Obelisk 1

l a The Landscape with an Obelisk, detail of signature.

1b The Landscape with an Obelisk, diagram of signature .

The work of the great masters invites a nd provokes continu a l thought a nd th erefore re-evaluation. Since the publi cation in 1836 of the first ca ta logue ra isonn e of Rembra ndt's painting by Jo hn Smith, the size a nd na ture of th e arti t's painted oeuvre has been the subj ect of debate. Over th e la t twenty years, fir t with the publi cat io n in 1971 of Gerson's rev ised ed iti on of Brediu 's fundamental catalogue, 2 and second w ith th e preparati o n of th e multi-vo lume corpu by the Rembra ndt Research Project in Amsterdam ,3 writers have whittled away a t the master's producti o n, with ever y ubsequ ent catalogue reducing its number. Apparently, the more we lea rn , the less he pa inted . The process of definin g Rembra ndt's painted oeuvre invo lves mo re th a n just a stud y of th e master's work. Greater knowledge of th e artistic person aliti es of Rembrandt's pupil s and contempora ri es makes it possible to identify p aintings traditionall y attributed to Rembrandt as works by th ese less well-known figures. The Rembrandt School has been studi ed in depth only in the last thirty yea r . Werner Sumowski's ca talogues, th e products of deca des of research, assemble and reproduce for th e first time th e drawings and paintings of the Rembrandt School. 4 Thanks to the diligence of Sumowski and others, 5 our knowl edge has significantly increased about the work of Rembrandt's pupil s, both when they emulated the master's st yle, a nd when they broke away to develo p their own. Equipped with this new information, we can examine afresh Rembrandt's oeuvre, particularly paintings whose authenticity has been doubted. Attributes that before might have appeared to be atypical of Rembrandt, now may appear to be characteristic of Flinck, or Aert de Gelder, or Nicolaes Maes.

The Landscape with an Obelisk (figure 1) in the Isa bell a Stewart Gardner Museum 6 is among those paintings whose a ttributi o n to Rembran dt recently have been re-assessed. Styli ti c co mpa risons to wo rks by Rembrandt and other a rti sts, techni ca l exa min ation of th e picture, and a rchi va l re earch into its provena nce indicate th at it was painted by o ne of Remb ra ndt' pupil s of th e mid-1630's, Govaert Flinck. 7 The ev idence to suppo rt th e a ttributi o n to Flinck i conclu sive: the paintin g bea rs Flinck 's signature; 8 it is li sted in eighteenth-centur y inventories as by Flinck ; it is si mil a r in st yle and techniqu e to a signed a nd dated la ndsca pe by Flinck (figure 2 ); a nd st ylisti c comparison shows it to be both deri ved from Rembrandt's st yle, and rela ted to Flinck's ow n landsca pe backgrou nds.

The Landscape with an Obelisk is accepted as a Rembra ndt in ever y catalogue of the artist's paintin gs beginning with Hofstede de Groot, 9 but doubts about its a uthenticit y have been rai sed in print twice before. Eugene Du tu it in his catalogue of Rembra ndt's paintings and drawings, a supplement to his 1885 catalogue of the etchings, noted simply th a t the painting was not by Remb randt. 10

l e The Landscape with an Obelisk, derail.

l d T he Landscape with an Obelisk, detail.

In an a rticle of 1925 publi shin g Berlin's newly acquired Landscape with a Bridge o f a bout 1636- 37 (Gem aldega lerie, Berlin-Dahl em ; Br. 445) by Rembrandt, Wilhelm von Bode, director o f th e Berlin mu seum , noted th a t The Landscape with an Obelisk was mista kenl y a ttributed to Rembrandt. 11 Bo de's challenge to th e attribution of the Gardner p ainting refl ected a cha nge o f mind ; w hen he attempted to purcha se the paintin g fo r the Berlin museum he beli eved it was by the master. Bode made no secret in the article o f hi s fru stration th a t M rs. Gardner had secured th e pi cture, a nd fo r wha t he beli eved to be a n exorbita nt pri ce. N either Du tu it nor Bode expl ained or substanti ated his reasons fo r doubting the a uthenti city o f the Ga rdner pa intin g.

the left o f the R (fi gure l a) . In resp o nse to Scha tbo rn's discove r y, the Mu seum exa mined the p ainting in the conservati on studi o. 14 In ra king li ght a nd under magnifi ca ti on, o ne ca n see th a t th e final letter of Flin ck 's na me has been t ra nsfo rmed to m ake the R. To th e left of th e k /R, a G a nd a n Fa re visibl e; between the first a nd last letters o f Flinck 's na me th e writing is diffi cult to discern, but the n a nd care legible (fi gures l a, lb ). At some po int in the past, the flouri sh was added to the last letter of Flinck 's na me to turn it into a n R, thus di sguisin g Flinck 's p ainting as a Rembrandt. A simila r tra nsform a tio n, cl earl y visible on the p ainting tod ay, has occurred in the signature on Flinck 's Portrait o f a M an o f 1637 in the Ma uritshui s (fi gure 3). 15

Authors prev iously have noted the unu sual cha racter o f the signa ture of The Landscape w ith an Obelisk, a sin gle R in the lower ri ght corner. 12 Rembra nd t's signature va ried durin g the first eight yea rs o f hi s career bet ween fo rma t ions o f the monogra m RHL (sta ndin g fo r " Rembra ndt H a rmensz. Leydensis"), a nd th e signature RHL van Rijn a nd Rembrandt, but after 1633 he consistentl y signed his paintings Rembrandt. After 1629 the single letter R is not fo und on a ny pa intin g other th a n The Landscape with an Obelisk. 13 In 1981 Peter Schatborn detected traces of a nother signature to

The bi ogra phy o f Flin ck in a Dutch equi valent o f Vasari 's L ives o f th e Artists (Arnold H o ubra ken's De G roote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstchilders en Schilderessen o f 1719 ) rep o rts th a t within a yea r o f Fl inck's a rrival in Rembra ndt's studi o, whi ch was in about 1633, the pupil h ad learn ed to emulate the popul a r st yle o f hi s m aster so well th at paintin gs by Flinck were sold as authenti c Rembra ndts. 16 The Ga rdner la ndscap e, howeve r, was not immediately passed o ff as a Rembra ndt. On th e contra ry, the ca talogues a nd invento ri es of the ducal collecti on at Kassel , to which 8

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rhc pJ111r111g bclongeJ unril I 16, wn1 renrl) 11 .,reJ 1r J'> J \\ork b, (,cl\,1err JtnLk . 1 HO\\ rhen, J1J rhe LOn fu 1011 ,rn.,e? I lo" d1J The I . 111dsc.1pe ll'tlh an ( )/Jcltsk b, Flinck .1cqu1re rhe R 111 rhe lower nghr co rn er, Jn<l the .nmbuuon ro Rem bran<lr" 11orJr1011 (" H1 eron1mm Bon.1parre" ) on rhe KJ cl 1menroq compileJ 111 abour I l - 1 9p rO\1d e~ a clue. '1 denrl rh e Flinck lanJ cape numbered am ng rh c Ka el p1crure~ raken Junng rh apo leon 1c a r ~ b) Jere me Bon.1p rte, then ruler of the K1ngJom of e~ rph a li a. Mo r of the pa111r111g la1m ed b) Jerome Bonaparre \\ere ~ub eq uen rl y old 111 Pans. Probabl) the 1gnarure a nd th e 1Jenm y of 7 he Lmdscape with an Obelisk were changeJ 111 Pa n 111 ord r to fer h a better pn e. In a ny venr, Flin k\ name 1 ~ nor attached to th e pi cture 1n a ny en umg publ1 anon or documenr. 1H Ironically, th tra tegy did not work well; when the la nd ca p was pre~ented at auction 111 Pa n in th 1880' 1t did nor sell , and wa bought in at two sa l s of the co ll ection of Baron E. de Beurnonvi lle (M ay 9, 188 1, no. 434 ; and M ay 21, 1883, no. 84) befor it was finally so ld for a relatively low pn ce. 1• A qualify111 g note in the ca ta logue of I 88 4 assured th e rea d r that th e experrs in charge of th e ale were convinced that the landscape

.111J the four ,ub'>L'quenrl ) 11.,reJ p.11nr111g., \\ere h\ Ru11br.rn<lr, bur 111'1n\ ot reu:nr Jeb ,He'> 011 the . . ub1eu, the) \HJulJ onh ~t .He their op111mn, .rnd ll'h th l' re'>o lur1011 of the problun up to rhe publi1... Ap1 .ne11rh rhe .lllrhenu Ir) ot the C, ,nd ner l.rn<l~LJPL " ,,., que'>floned '><>on ,1trer 1r rramtorm ,H1011 111ro .1 RunbrJnJr. nh one of rhe orher "Runbr,rndh" 111 rhl' l 4 .1k 1...nalo 'LIL, rhL He//011 1 ol 1633 1\lerropolir,111 .\ lu cum ot rr, e\\ ork · Br. 46~ , h H1..rJ111eJ rhe Jrmbuuon ro RembranJr, anJ en:n ir hJ been JebJreJ. 1

Fl1nd... pJ111reJ rhe GarJ11er l.111J.,1.ape 1n I 38, ~oon Jfrer he h.iJ lefr Rernbr.111Jr\ ~ruJ10. Born 1n 16 1' 111 le\e, G0\.1err l1nck ~ruJ 1 eJ "1rh RembrJndr 1n m rer<lam from .ibour 1631 to 16 %, 111 the com pan) of Jacob Ba1..ker, !-erd111.111d Bol, and po~~1bl) Gebr,111Jr \Jn Jen Ee khout, among rhcr . horn 16 36, when h ~1gned and dJted h1~ earl1e r known pa1nr1ng;,' until rhe earl) 1640's, Fl111ck modelled hi; n le anJ r ch111qu e afte r h1~ ma~rer. Indeed, mJn} of Flinck\ pa111ung~ from the 16 30\ w re directly 1nsp1rcd b) compo;mon\ by Rembrandt. 1 ' During the ne'r decade, Flinck adopted rhe li ght palcrre of Jrtr,1ct1 ve color a nd the leganr ~t} le of figure painting, bas don an D} ck\ c' ample, th en popular 111 Holland. Fl111ck\ crit ical 9

3 Govaert Flinck, Portrait of a Man, 1637, o il on wood, 75 x 59 cm., M auritshui s, T he H ague.

a nd finan cial success grew steadily, culminating in 1659 in the most presti gious commission o f seventeenth-century H olland, the decoration of the civi::: h all of the newly built Town H all of Amsterda m. Only when Flinck di ed in 1660, and the commi ssion was divided a mong several a rti sts, was Rembra ndt invited to participate. Like Rembra ndt, Flinck did not sp ecialize; he tried his ha nd at religious, histori cal, a nd allegori cal subj ects, portra itu re, and la ndscape. Figure pa intin gs do mi nate the production o f both a rti sts. Their surviving works indica te th at Rembrandt's interest in la ndscape p ainting was short-li ved, and th a t Flinck only flirted with it. Rembrandt's landsca pe p aint ings sp a n just over a decade o f his fi fty-fo ur year career; they date fro m a bout 1636 to 1647.24 They ma ke up a distinctly minor portion o f hi s painted oeuvre: fewer than twenty o f some 570 p aintin gs. 25 T he small group o f landscapes by Rembrandt shows a restless sea rch for new form s o f express ion. Almost as soon as he experimented with one t ype o f composition or subj ect matter, he abandoned it for another. Beginning w ith a deceptively simple ri verscape Th e Stone Bridge (Rijksmuseum , Am sterda m, a bout 163 6-37; Br. 440), Rembrandt soon moved on to ambiti ous compos it ions that place ordin ar y scenes o f rural life in expansive, d ramati c settin gs containing rocky mountains and exoti c bui ldin gs, and are enlivened by stormy weather (fi gures 4 , 5, 6). During the 1640's, refl ecting a nd sharing the interest a pparent in his prints a nd drawings, Rembra ndt turned increas ingly to his surro undin gs in his p ainted la ndscapes, as demonstrated by The Mill (Na ti onal Ga ller y of Art, Washington, D. C., a bout 1643-46) and The W inter Landscape (Gema ldega lerie, Kassel, 164 6; Br. 4 52).

Flinck eviden tly w as attracted to the dra mati c aspects of Rembra ndt's exoti c la ndsca pes of the late 1630's, ra ther th a n to his qui eter na tive scenes o f H olla nd . For in stance, The Landscape with an Obelisk (fi gure 1) by Flin ck relates to those Rembra ndts of the la te 163 0 's that comb ine rea li st ic a nd im agin a r y elements - The Landscape with a Coach (figure 4 , 1637; Wa ll ace Collecti on, Lo ndo n; Br. 4 51), The Stormy Landsca pe (fi gure 5, 1637- 38; H erzog Anton Ulri ch-Museum , Bra un schweig; Br. 441), a nd most pa rti cula rl y, T he Landscape with the Good Samaritan (fi gure 6, 163 8; Cza rtorys ki Coll ecti on, Nationa lmu seum , Kra kow; Br. 442). By the 164 0's la ndscap e p aintin g no longer seems to have interested Flinck, a nd he reli ed o n Rembra ndt less a nd less for in spirati on in hi s fi gure p aintings. Flinck had begun to fo llow a different p ath th at would ma ke him one o f the most sought a fter artists o f his day. Wolfga ng Stechow 's bea utiful descripti on o f The Landscape w ith an Obelisk (fi gure 1) captures the sp irit o f this landscape, and those o f the la te 163 0 's by Rembra ndt th a t in spired it: The vi tality of th e lan dscape depends on the magn ificent tens ion between the obelisk, th e distant mounta in, and the wi ld cluster of trees whose bra nches on the left, like the arms of a ghost, grope towa rds th e center and weirdly adj ust themselves to th e shape of th e mou ntai n; the sky is reminiscent of th e waves of the rough sea, and rap id brushstro kes create movement on the grou nd .2â&#x20AC;˘ 10

4 Rembrandt, The Landscape with a Coach, 1637, oil on wood , 47 x 67 cm., Wallace Collection, London. 5 Rembrandt, Stormy Landscape, 1637-38, oi l on wood, 52 x 72 cm., Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig.

The obelisk, an unlikely companion to the scene (lower left) of farmhouses by a watermill and a carter urging his horse onward, probably was prompted by a road marker near Amsterdam. 27 Flinck might have known two obelisks in the vicinity of Amsterdam-one in Sloten, and one ha lfway between Amsterdam and Haarlem. 28 Since Flinck does not

specify the architectura l details of the obeli sk, his actual model cannot be identified, if indeed he had one. The function of the obelisks near Amsterdam as border markers may relate to the significance of the motif in Flinck's painting; the obelisk separates the cultivated landscape of the everyday from the exotic, imaginary scenery beyond. 29

As Stechow correctly states, Th e Landscape with an Obelisk " ex hibits the same drama in nature" as does Rembrandt's Landscap e with th e Good Samaritan in Krakow (figure 6).30 In fact, the Krakow painting, dated in the sa me year as Flinck's la ndscape, appears to have provided the model for the pupil. That a religious subject led Flinck to paint a landscape is not surprising in this case. Nature comp letely dominates the Krakow painting, which has been rightly catalogued among Rembrandt's la ndscapes throughout this century. Comparison of the Gardner landscape to others by Rembrandt, in particular the Krakow Good Samaritan (figure 6), points out its differing style, despite its simil a r composition. Following Rembrandt's example, Flinck ou tlined a town in the distance beyond the sun-flooded plain, and even included in his painting the double-arched bridge situated at the bend in the road in the Krakow panel (figure 6a). Both artists used the compositional design and the distribution of light and dark to distinguish the diverse areas of the landscape, but Rembrandt devoted more atten ti on to a clear articulation of the various parts of the scene. In the Gardner painting the distant town merges with the foothi ll of the mountain. Moreover, the rounded, genera li zed contours of the mountain itself contrast with the crags a nd ridges in the cliff in the Krakow painting. Variations in technique and brushwork help to differentiate the exotic and the everyday in Rembrandt's landscapes in Krakow (figure 6), the Wall ace Collection (figure 4 ), and Braunschweig (figure 5 ). Flinck may well have relied upon the obeli sk to stress the distinction between the contemporary and the historical landscapes within his composition . The figures in Th e Landscape with an Obelisk (figure le) differ sharply in

handlin g from those in Rembrandt's

Landscape with th e Good Samaritan (figure 6b ) and Landscape with a Coach (figure 4 ), where they correspond closely to Rembrandt's st yle as a drau ghtsman. Pronounced dark outlines designate form and posture, and color fill s in the contours; simil a r o utlines do not defi ne Flinck's figures (figure le). Like Rembrandt in the Krakow composition, Flinck made a tall , gn arled tree the foca l point of the la ndscape. But his softer, fine lines (figure ld ) contrast with the incisive ca lligraphi c strokes of Rembrandt's Krakow panel (figure 6c). Where Rembrandt used varied brushwork and relief to describe the wrink les and knots in the tree (figures 6b, 6c), Flinck used hi ghlights (figure ld). In place of Rembrandt's mass of thin washes punctuated with da bs of paint to indicate leaves (figure 6c), Flinck has networks of differently colored, thin lines (figure ld). The protruding branch in the Gardner la ndscape demonstrates well Flinck's more delicate, feathery touch. That the paint surface in the Gardner la ndscape is slightl y worn partly accounts for the confused handling of space both in the midd le distance and in other areas of th e composition .3 1 T he condition of the Gardner la ndscape, however, explai ns neither its distinctly different st yle nor the presence of colors unknown in Rembrandt's landscapes, such as the pale greens and blues in the middle distance. In sum , the Boston panel is closely linked in conception to Rembrandt's la ndscapes of the late 1630's, but clearly is painted by another hand. In 1983 another la ndscape by Flinck (figure 2; Alex Wengraf, Ltd., London), signed a nd dated 1637 and previous ly unrecorded, surfaced in London. 32 The Landscape with a Bridge and Ruins (figure 2 ) compares with the Gardner pa int12

6 Rembrandt, The Landscape with the Good Samaritan, 1638, oi l on wood, Nationalmuseum, Krakow, Cza rtor yski Collection .

6a The Landscape with the Good Samaritan, detail. 6b The Landscape with the Good Samaritan, detail. 6c The Landscape with the Good Samaritan, deta il.

ing (fi gure 1) in style, techniqu e, and in the adaptati on of aspects of Rembrandt's landscape paintings. Th e overall design of the London picture, combining an assortment of exotic, ancient structu res with ordin ar y fa rmhouses, and encompassing a view across fi elds into th e di stance, reca ll s the fu sion of im agin ar y and reali stic elements in Remb ra ndt's landscapes of the late 1630's (fi gures 4, 5, 6), and in Flinck's Landscape with an O belisk. In parti cul ar, The Landscape with a Bridge and Ruins (fi gure 2) relates to Rembrandt's Landscape with a Coach (fi gure 4 ; Wall ace Collecti on, London), painted in 1637, both in its general design and in its detai ls. Each landscape is dominated by architecture in the middle ground of the compositi on; in each, sunlit fi elds stretch into th e di stance on th e left, and towers loom on th e fa r hori zon. Like Rembrandt in the Wall ace Coll ection panel (fi gure 4), Flinck tu cked a farmhouse into the lower left corner of The Landscape with a Bridge and Ruins (fi gure 2 ).

the ochre, green, and blu e fo und ation of Rembrandt's landsca pes in Krakow (figure 6) and Londo n (fi gure 4 ), but added li ght green and blue highlights, and touches of pin k in the architecture. In both pa intin gs Flinck summ arily sketched in the fo rms of the figures and animals, but witho ut the bold outlines characteristi c of Rembrandt's fi gures (fig ures 4, 6b). The dogs in Flinck's two paintings (fi gures l e, 2) have simil ar schemati c shapes, with pointed heads, slopin g backs, and curved tail s.

Flinck, like Rembrandt, app a rently invented the architecture in his landscapes. This is evident both in the amorphous shapes in the distant town in the Gardner painting (fi gure 1), and in the ruins in the London panel (fi gure 2), whi ch combine disparate parts as do many of Rembrandt's structu res (fi gures 4, 5 ). 33 M aster and pup il approached the description of architectural fo rm s differently, however; Rembrandt emph ati call y outlined the buildings in hi s paintings, while Flinck used hi ghlights to trace the architectural shapes, both in the case of the obelisk (fi gure 1), and in th e structure next to the bridge (fi gure 2) in the London painting.

Despite hi s debt to Rembra ndt fo r the concepti on, and , to some degree, the des igns o f these two landscape p aintings, Flin ck noneth eless evolved in them a distincti ve st yle - one th at is lighter in to uch and more colorful in palette tha n th at of Rembrandt. Furthermo re, motifs in Flinck's pa intings can be deceiving in their apparent dependence upon Rembra ndt. In the Ga rdner landscape's towering tree (fi gures 1, ld ), composed of an intri cate web of fin e lines, th e brushwork di ffers fro m Rembrandt's exa mple, but the shape appears to derive fro m th e tree in Rembrandt's Landscape w ith the Good Samaritan (fi gure 6 ) of 1638 . X-rays of Flinck's Landscape w ith a Bridge and Ruins of 1637 suggest otherwise. They revea l th at th e tall tree on the right of Flinck's London panel (figure 2) once stretched twice its present height and brea dth , and like the domin ant motif in th e Gardner panel (figures 1, ld), extended fea ther y branches towards the center.34 Ev idently, in 1637, before Rembrandt painted The Landscape with the Good Samaritan, Flinck had experimented with a tree co mp arable in size and shape to the one that domin ates Th e Landscape with an O belisk.

Flinck's colo r scheme and his handling of the fi gures are simil ar in hi s two landscapes, and in each case diverge fro m Rembra ndt's treatment. Flinck adopted

Thus in The Landscape with an Obelisk (fi gure 1) and The Landscape with a Bridge and Ruins (fi gure 2 ), Flinck both looked to Rembrandt's exa mple, and 14

7 Govaert Flinck, Portrait of Dirk Graswinckel and Geertruyt van Loon, 1646, oil on ca nvas, 107.5 x 91 cm., Museum Boymans-van Beu ninge n, Rotterdam.

began to develop hi s ow n vision of la ndscape. Did th at visio n come to fruition? Or, did other ea rli er teps precede these two pictures? To date, The Landscape with an Obelisk and The Landscape with a Bridge and Ruins are the on ly known documented landscapes by Flinck, but the artist may well have painted others. 35 Records of paintings seen by or known to Hofstede de Groot and hi s ass ista nts-the " fiches" at the Rijksburea u voor Kun sthi stori sche Documentati e in the Hague -list about thirty landscapes by the ar tist. Even a ll owing for inev itab le errors in attribution in sa le catalogues (which ma ke up th e bulk of the RKD " fiches"), the records stron gly suggest that Flinck pa inted more th an two landsca pes. Flinck's surviving works also indi cate that his interest in landscape extended beyond these two pictures. The backgrounds of his figure pa intings suppl ement our scanty knowledge of hi s approach to landscape. The Landscape with an Obelisk compares in its details and handling with settin gs in Flinck's fi gure paintin g from the 1630's and 1640's. Stylistic characteristics of hi s la ndscapes emerge in the Portrait ofJa cob Dirksz. van Loon (Doopsgezinde Gemeente Pastorie, Amsterdam ), one of three paintings dated 1636, the year Flinck left Rembrandt's studio.36 Behind van Loon stretches a tall tree, whose trunk and branches merge into a mass of fine, interwoven lines; Flinck's description of the

tree in the Ga rdner painting has its beginnings here. The motif of a large tree, painted with superimposed, sinewy lines and punctuated by fine touches of highlight, continued in the backgrounds of Flinck's figu re compos iti ons well into the 1640 's. In the Portrait of Dirk Graswinckel and Geertruyt van Loon (figure 7, 1646; Museum Boymans-van Beunin gen, Rotterda m), 37 the subj ects stand before a tall , gnarled tree a nalogous in both its style and appearance to th at in the Boston painting, a nd Flinck has deco rated the foregrou nd with si mil ar summary notat ions of vegetation, flecked with highlights. Drawing by Flinck, such as The Landscape with a Pollard Willow (figure 8; Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterd am) signed and dated 1642, 38 translate the netwo rk of thin, looped lines delinea tin g the trees in Flinck's paintings into pen and ink.39 A number of paintings from the late 1630's and ea rl y 1640's, includin g The Sacrifice of Manoah (Agnes Etheri ng Art Centre, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario ) of 1640, attest to Rembrandt's infl uence at thi s time on Flinck's elabora ti on of a landsca pe background , as well a hi s cho ice of subj ect in hi stori ca l works. 40

Other Artists Influenced by Rembrandt's Landscape Paintings In emulating Rembrandt's st yle and conception of landscape pa inting for a brief period, Flinck stood in good company. A number of other pupils and contempora ries of the master, including Jan Li evens, Ferdinand Bol, Philips Koninck, and Adriaen and Isaa k van Ostade, experimented briefl y with landscapes in spired by Rembrandt. Without the signature and date, Jan Lievens's Panoramic Landscape of 1640 (fi gure 9; Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasaden a) would be diffi cu lt to recognize; it differs signi ficantly from the 15

ar ti st's later richly colored la ndscape paintings, inspired by Adriaen Brouwer and Peter Paul Rubens. In The Panoramic Landscape the combin ation of mountains, plains, and architectura l inventions in a la ndsca pe painted primarily in warm tones of brown, green, a nd yell ow with blue and grey in the sky appears to be modelled after Rembrandt's work, but a lso shows the influence of H ercules Segers, whose la ndscapes, in turn, were ad mired and em ulated by Rembrandt. 41 Although he resided abroad from 1632-44, first in London a nd then in Antwerp, Lievens, Rembrandt's friend from their early years together in Leyden, eviden tl y kept up with events in Amsterdam. Rembrandt's experiments with landscape painting in the late 1630's made a strong, if not a lasti ng, impression on him. Ferdinand Bo!, a hi story painter a nd portrc.itist who studi ed with Rembrandt durin g thi s same period, also dabbled in landscape painting; Rembrandt's alliance of ordi nary rura l scenes with exoti c buildings and la ndscape elements seems to have affected him as well. Albert Blanken includes on ly one la ndscape by Bol, The Woody Landscape with Cows (formerly on loan to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, from the collecti on of Mrs. Edwin Brewster), in hi s monograph a nd cata logue raisonne on the art ist, but notes that other la ndscape paintings by Bol are mentioned in the artist's inventory. 42 Landscape speciali sts also fell under the spell of Rembrandt's paintings in this genre. The master of the panoramic la ndscape, Philips Koninck, who knew Rembrandt a nd probably studied with him in Amsterdam in the ea rl y 1640 's, looked to Rembra ndt's works of the 1630's, and to the examp le of Hercules Segers, when he began his career. Gerson's convincing reattribution of The

8 Govae rt Flinck, The Landscape with a Pollard Willow, 1642, pen and brown ink, 18.9 x 19.3 cm., Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam .

Landscape with a Distant Town (Baron H . Thyssen-Bornesmisza Collection, Lugano, abo ut 1645-46), from Rembrandt to Philips Koninck, demonstrates how profoundly Rembra ndt's dramatic contrasts of li ght a nd shad ow, and hi s rendering of fantastic architecture in conjunct ion with ordinary la ndscap e motifs, influenced Koninck's ea rl y works. 43 Ironicall y, both Flinck's Landscape with an Obelisk in the Gard ner Museum a nd Koninck's Landscape with a Distant Town appeared in the London sa le of the es tate of Samuel Woodburn in 1854 as paintings by Rembrandt. 44 The influ ence of Rembrandt's la ndscapes spread beyond Amsterdam. In their ea rly land scape paintings, two Haarlem artists, Adriaen an d Isaa k van Ostade, adopted the predominan tl y ea rthen color scheme, the stark contrasts of li ght and dark, a nd the drama tic rendition of the sky in Rembrandt's early riverscapes, The Stone Bridge (Rijksm useum, Amsterda m, abo ut 1636; Br. 440 ) a nd The Landscape with a Bridge (Gemaldega lerie, Berlin-Dahlem, a bout 1636-37; Br. 445 ). 45 The Landscape under a Cloudy Sky of 1639 (Museum Boymansvan Beuningen, Rotterdam), former ly 16

9 Jan Li even , Panoramic Landscape, 1640, oil on wood, 38.7 x 49.5 cm., Norton Si mon Mu eum of Art, Pasa dena.

given to Adri aen va n Osta de but convincin gly rea ttri buted to h is brother Isaak by Bern a rd Schn ackenburg, o ffer a pa ra ll el case to The Landscape w ith an O belisk; th e first initi a l in th e signa ture has been cha nged fro m a n I to a n A. 4 6 N either Isaa k no r Adri aen pursued thi s st yle o f landsca pe pa intin g a fter th e ea rl y

1640's. If no t a m as terpi ece by Rembra ndt, The Landscape with an Obelisk nevertheless sta nds o ut as o ne of th e o utsta nding la ndsca pes produ ced in hi s wa ke. In hi s bri ef ex pl o ra ti o n o f la ndscape pa intin g in 1637- 38, Flin ck evolved a di stincti ve st yle, so fter in its contrasts of li ght a nd d a rk , li ghter a nd mo re va ri ed in its colo r sch em e, a nd mo re deli ca te in its techniqu e th a n th a t o f hi s m as ter. Flinck m ade signifi ca nt ad va nces in just one yea r. In The Landscape with an Obelisk (fi gure 1), he undertoo k a more a mbi tious compositi o n th a n in The Landscape w ith a Bridge and Ruins (fi gure 2), a nd w as mo re successful in unitin g th e heterogeneous pa rts o f a complex design . Regretta bl y, as w as tru e with Rembrandt, la nd scape did no t lo ng sustain Flinck's interest. We ca n o nl y specu la te a bo ut ho w he mi ght have furth er develo ped as a la nd sca pe pa inter.

Be renson's sti rring wo rds, penned in a letter to M rs. Ga rdn er urging her to buy The Landscape with an Obelisk, may a ppea r overl y zea lo us to us to day: Yo ur eyes w ill tell yo u better than my poo r prose w hat a poe m it is, of w hat exq uisitely int ima te fee ling, how it contain withi n itself th e gracious ness of C la ude Lor ra in, the magi of Tu rner, the idy lli c charm of Corot, but a ll ra ised to a h igh power, constituting a work of art of exq ui ire, swee t pathos, and profound fee ling. 47

Yet the sensiti vit y to na tura l pheno mena a nd the a pprecia ti o n of the gra nd iose a nd sublime as pects o f natu re th a t Be renson summo ns by menti o nin g great la ndsca pi srs o f the seve nteenth to nineteenth centuri es still reign in th e pa intin g. At a time a nd pl ace w hen a r t ists strove mo re th a n eve r befo re to capture in pa int the na tura l as pect of th eir urro undings, Fl inck 's Landscape with an Obelisk, like most o f Remb ra nd t' la nd sca pes a nd a ha nd fu l of wo rks by hi s fo llowe rs a nd contem porar ie , ra nd s o ut fo r its powe rful visio n of na tu re's gra ndeur, tempered by a sy mp a th y for her humbler fea tures .

Cyn th ia Schneider

1 Much o f th e resea rch for this a rticl e was ca rri ed o ur in conn ec ti o n with my doctora l disse rta ti o n fo r H arva rd University, " Rembrandt's La nd cape Paintings " (198 4 ). The suppo rt and helpful co mments of Profe sor Seymour Slive and John Walsh , Jr. on that proj ect a lso have co ntributed to this art icle. In addition, I have benefited from the encouragement a nd genero us advi ce of Professor Egbert H ave rk am p-Bege ma nn . 2 A. Bredius, Rembrandt: the Complete Edition of th e Paintings (rev. H . Gerson ), Lo nd o n and New Yo rk, 1971 (abb rev iated as Br.). 3 The first volume, cove rin g the year 1625-31, was published in 1982: J. Bruyn, B. H aak, S.G . Levie, P.j.J. va n Thiel, E. van de Wetering, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, The H ague, Bo ton a nd Lo nd o n, 1982 (a bbrev iated as Corpus ). 4 W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, New Yo rk, 1979- ; idem, Gema/de der Rembrandt-Schuler, La nd a u and Pfa lz, 19835 W M a rrin , Gerard Dou, Londo n, 1908; WR. Valentiner, Nicolaes Maes, rurrgart, 1924 ; ].W. von M o ltke, Govaert Flinck 1615 - 1660, Am rerd a m, 1965; A. Blankert, Ferdinand Bo! (1616-1680) : Rembrandt's Pupil, Doornspijk (Davaco ), 1982; Rembrandt After Three Hundred Years, Art Institute of Chicago, 1969; Rembrandt and His Pupils, Montrea l Museum of Fine Arts and Art Ga llery of Toronto, 1969, a re exa mpl es of publications th a t exa mine problems rela ted to th e Rembrandt School. 6 P. Hend y, European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Bos to n, 1974 , 204-206, repr. ; Br. 443. 7 Dr. P.J.J. van Thiel o f th e Rembra ndt Resea rch Proj ect sugges ted an a ttributio n to Flinck for th e Gardner la ndsca pe in a letter of Februa ry 1975 to Gabrielle Kopelm a n, who restored th e paintin g in 1974. Va n Thi el no ted th at he a nd hi colleagues were se ri o usly weighin g the documentation of The Landscape with an Obelisk as a Flinck in the eighteenth-century inventories of th e du ca l collecti on at Kassel, a nd planned to invesri-

ga te thoroughly its relation hip to works by Flinck. The letter is preserved in the Gardner Museum curatorial file . 8 Peter Scharborn of the Rijksp rentenkab iner, Amsterdam, discovered the o ri gina l Flinck signa ture in 1981. H e ge nero usly sha red his mate ri al with me, a nd encoura ged me to publi h it. 9 C. Hof rede de Groot, A atalogue Raisonne of the Works of th e Most Eminen t Dutch Painters of th e even teen th Cen tury, VI, Rembrandt and Nico laes Maes, Lo ndon , l916 (trans. E.G. H aw ke), no. 9 41 (ab brev ia ted as Hd G). Moltke, 257, no. 154, li sts th e Ga rdn er land cape as a painting "wrongly attribu ted to Flinck." Sum owsk i has published The Landscape with an Obelisk as by Flinck in Gema/de, II , 1983, no. 719 . He notes that Peter Scharborn alerted him to th e Flinck ignature, a nd sugges ted th e a ttribution to Flinck.

10 E. Duruir, Tableaux et dessins de Rem brandt: Ca talogue historique et descriptif, Pa ri , 1885, 22. 11 W Bo de, " Rembra ndts La ndscha fr mit der Brii cke," jahrbuch der Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XLVI, 1925, 159.

12 W Bo de, ass isted by C. H ofsrede de G root, The Comp lete Work of Rembrandt, IV, Pa ris, 1897, no. 230 (signa ture R. 1638, " added by a la te r ha nd " ); WR. Va lentiner, Rembrandt: Des Meisters Gema/de (Klassiker der Kun st), Stuttgart a nd Leipzig, 1909, 566 (signed later R. 1638), repr. 231; HdG 941 (sign a ture R . 1638 is " la ter"); G. Knurrel, Rembrandt: de Meester en zijn Werk, Amsterdam, 195 6, 113, 279 (signature probabl y a later additi o n); K. Bauch, Rem brandt Gema/de, Amsterdam, 1966, no. 546 ("signed [fa lsely] ' R 163 [9]' ") ; B. H aa k, Rembrandt: His Life, His Wo rk, His Time, New York , 1969, 148 ("s igned with monogram and d a red 163 [9], a uthentically? ").

13 For a thorou gh disc us ion of Rembrandt 's signa tures from 1625-31, see Bruyn's discussion in Co rpus, 53-59. 14 I a m gra teful to Debora h Gribbon and Ja ck Sou Ira ni a n for a llowing me to study the pa inting in the Gardner Mu eum , for having 18

photogra ph made, and for arranging to send the la nd cape to th e la bora tory o f th e Museum of Fine Art for further stud y. 15 See Mau ritshuis: Illu strated General Catalogue, The H ague, 1977, no. 866, 91. Sumowski (Gem a/de, 11 , no. 687) refute th e trad ition al identifica tion of th e po rtrait as S_a mu,el Ma_nasseh Ben Isra el, a rguin g th a t th e sitter s age 1s marked 44 , but th a t Manasseh Ben Israel was 33 in 1637. The identifica ti on was b~sed o n the phy ical similarity between Flinck sttter and Rembrandt's etched portrait of his friend Mana sseh Ben Israel dated 1636 (Barrsch, 269 ). 16 H oubraken, II , Amsterd a m 1719 20-21 cited by S. Sli ve, in Rembrandt ~nd H'is Crit- ' '.~s 1630 -1730, The Hagu e, 195 3, 184 . Maar alzoo te d1er t yd de handeling van Rembrandt in ' t algemeen geprezen we ird, zoo dat al le op die leest moe t geschoeit wezen, zouw het de Waerlt behagen; vond hy zig geraden een Jaar by Rembrandt te gaan leeren ; ten einde hy zig die beha ndeling der verwen en wyze van schilderen gewendde welke hy in dien kortent yd zoodanig heef~ weten na te bootzen dat verscheiden van zy ne stukken voor echte penceelwe rken van Rembrandt wierden aangezien en verkocht. ..." 17 The Landscape with an Obelisk is listed as by Flinck in the inventories of the Kassel collection , In ventarium B of about 1775 (no. 390) a nd th e 1st Supplement of th e Inventory of 1 ~49 (no. 390), compiled ca. 1817 -19. By the time th e Supplement wa written, the Flinck landscape no longer was in Kassel. The first printed ca talogue of the collection, the Verzeichnis der hochfurstlich-h essischen Gemalde-Sammlung in Cassel of 1783 a lso lists th e landscape as by Flinck (177, no. 46 ). I am grateful to Wolfgang Adler, Curator of Prints a nd Drawi ngs at Kassel , for his helpfu l comments and a nal yses of the Kassel inventones. 18 The Landscape with an Obelisk is nex t recorded as a Rembrandt in the Woodburn sale of 1854 in London (Christie's, May 15-19, 1854, no. 77, w here it sold for the low price of nine pounds ; Lugt, Repertoire des catalogues de ventes, 11 , The H ague, 1953, no. 21919 ).

19 H f rede de Groot (no. 941 ) note th a t th e painting sold fo r FF. 10,000 a t the 1883 sa le. The entr y in th e sa le ca talog ue in the Frick Art Reference Libra ry is anno tated with that um, but the reappearance of the la ndsca pe in the de Beurnonvtlle sa le the fo llowin g yea r suggests th at th e bidder (" Du pin") did not pa y, o r more likely th a t th e painting wa bought in . In 188 4 th e painting sold fo r FF.4690 to A. Poso nyi of Vienna. In a ll three sa les, th e da te was rea d as 1668. 20. " Le ex perts charges de la vente, conva 1ncus que ce paysage et les quarre tab lea ux Ut va nts so nt des oe uvres au rh entique de Rembran dt, les o nt ca talog ue o us le nom du gra nd malrre de la Holl a nde .... lls o bserve nr cepend a nt que les tab lea ux et le oe uvres d 'a rt a ncien , voir moderne , ont pa rfo is l'ob1er d 'a pprecia ti o n di ver es et meme di a mfaralement opposees de la pa rt de perso nn e aya nt renom de competence. Par consequ ent er en raison de ce rrains deba rs qui se ,ont recemment eleves, ils ne peuvent a cet ega rd qu e donner leur opinion en route ,incer.ire et, declinant route responsab ilire effective sur des oeuvres d ' un e au i haure importa nce, il s s'en re mettent a u juge ment ecl aire du publique. ..."(Ba ro n E. de Beurno nville ale, Paris, 3 June e.j.s., 1884, 90路 Lugr, Repertoire, 111, 1964, no. 44102 ). ' 21 The other three paintings are th e following : A Sybil (Metropolita n Muse um of Art N ew York ), no. 293 of th e sa le, rejected b/ Gerson (Br. 438 ); An O ld Woman Plu cking a Chicken (National Gall ery of Art, Washin gton, D.C.; HdG 298 ), no. 295 of the sa le路 An O ld Man Reading (HdG 229 ), no. 296 o'f the sale. The latter two were not included by Brediu in his 1935 ca talogue of Rembrandt' paintings. 22 Moltke, no. 140, a nd Sumowski Gema/de, no. 65 6, Shepherdess ( He~zog Anton Ulnch-Museum, Braunschweig); Moltke, no. 224 a nd Sumowski , no. 658, Rembrandt with a Feath er Cap and Gorget (formerly, A. van Weezenbeck, Lausanne); ~o lr ke, no. 407 a nd Sumows ki, no. 685, 1ortrart of Jonas Jacob Leeuwen Dircksz. (Doopsgezinde Gemee nte, Pasto ri e, Amsterdam ). The Sacrifice of Abraham of 1636 (Aire P1n a korh ek, Muni ch ; Moltke, no. 6,

umow,k1, no. 611, 111,LnbcJ "Rl·mbr.rndr 1crandcrr n cl\ er gl',(hilJl'rr 1616': pnll 1dl', an c ample of Rl'111br.111Jr p.1111t1ng 01l'r .111d 111.1k111g alrerJt1011' 111 .1 (c>111po"r1011 b1 JinLk.

the c..irJnl'r , 1U\l'll111. rhc cffl'C(\ of m crLic.1n1ng .m: p.Htl<.ul.irh not1tl'ahle on rhc lcir 1Je oi dlL merhJnk .rnJ 111 rhe Jcn'>l' th1d,l·t bl'h111J .rnd ro rhi: nghr of rhi: Luge trl'l'.

21 l:.'\ampJl'., of ch" .Hl' rhl hr'r C\\u p.11nc 111g' url'd 1n rhc prl'11ou' notl', .111J l l1n'-k' pc>rtrJI{ Of J6 J9 I .HIOll.lJ (,_1JJl'r\, l onJon. ,\!olrkc, no. 2_6 .111d 'iumo11,k1, C1n11.1/dt , no. 666 , (On\IJcreJ .1 porrrJ1r of Rc.:111hr.111J1 b1 ,\!olrkc, JnJ .1 df -porrr.11t of 11111..:k h~

32 u111m1 \Kl h,1, pubJi,hl'J thl' pJllH111g Ill (,c111,i/de, no. -1 .

UnlO\\\kl.

24 Ger .. on Br. 4 q JnJ other J .1tl Rem brJnJr\ Tht R11"l"r \,i//n· with Ruw: 1u11.1l dcgJil'rtl', 1\..1 d. Br. 4'4. rn rhl c.irh 16 ·o· , but 1n 1111 op1n1on. 1t J.uc, from rhL cJrh 164 l' .ind 11J re11orkl·J b1 .1mnha Jrrl\r. 'il'l '>LhnuJer, "Rn11br.111J1\ l .1nJ ;cape PJ1nt1ng.,; · Ph.l. J1 ' ·· 22- - 21 , 32'-Jrn.

1cr.,011 Br. .urribur1:> "rccn IJnd".Jpe pa1nt1ng> to Rcmbr.:inJr. chnl'1Jcr op. ut artnburl'' tl'n ro the Jrtl\L 26 \\. SrcLhcl\\, Du1,J I .111dsc-.1{Jt' /',1111t111g <J/ the ~e1 e11tee11th (e11t11n. lth.1u, e11 )ork, 19 I 1-,c pJplrbJck l'J., 136, 11 here !hl pa1nr111g 1' g11l'n ro Rc.:111brJnJr.

HenJ1, 204.

2 F. Luge ;\lit Ru11br,111d1111 \111 tad,1111. Berlin, 1920, I S2-I J"'-ll"l'' rhe obd"k' near 111 .. rl'rJam, Jnd 1Jent1hl'' thi: obd"k 111 RcmbrJnJc\ erch1ng l he ()/1e/isk o/ //J//11·,•g Barr ch, 11- of about 16'0.

29 Th1; 1Jea "a' ugge .. rl'J b1 Prok"or gberr Ha1erkamp-Bege111Jnn, 11 ho men r1oned n 111 :i lecture Jd11eri:J 111 Bo,ron \l'I cral year ago. 30

recho11, I 36.

31 Hendy, 204, noted rhar rhl· <lark color<, 111 rhe p1crure are worn, anJ thJr other~ h.111.' grown more rramparcnr \\1th r1111e. In her rcporr made before undcrrak111g rhl' rc~ror.1 non of rhe land cape 111 1974, Gabndlc Kopelman nored rhar rhe pa 111nng hJ; been overclcancd, cspcc1ally 111 rhe dark area,. The reporr 1; pre erved 111 the con\ervJt1011 fi le\ o(

13 1 he prime t '\.1111ple of .1budd1ng111.1 Jl' up ol 1111.1g1ll.HI 111d d"pJrJtl' pJrr," Ill RcmbrJndt\ I J11ds<Jf't' with ,1 C Jstle jcJ 1640, l ou1 re, PMI\, Br. 4 )() . 34 I ht '\ -r.11' Jl,o rlll'Ji chJngl'' m thl' building 1n the \.enti:r. \\ hLrt thl' .. unlir gJte11 .n \tJnJ, ncm, 11111 .. k .1ppl'Jr' ro hJ1l' ong111.1lh pl.111ncJ .1,hc.:J"1rh .1 bro.1d ,Jop111g rool, n' lighr outline 1 11,1blc w thl' lcit of d1l g.lte\\,J\ Ill th<. p.1111t111g mJ.11.

1' '>un11111 ,k1, (,t'mJ/de. publ"he, onh thc,c {\\() p.lllltlng' J\ IJnJ,LJPl'' h1 1 lin.-k. r110 mhl·r, .lrL menr1olled h1 :.. tolrke nm. 4~8, 4- , ho\\e1l'r, rhe,e \1Crl' kmm n whim onh through rl'kn.:n<.e,. In .1 ll'rtcr of 1962 .1JJrc.: ,i:J m h.1rJi:, unn111gh.1111 Jt the \\Jd\\1orrh \thl'nl'um, \ lol1ki: "rc>rl', ··.1 tJr J' I L.111 'el', rhl'rl'" nor J 'tngle IJnJ,upl' p.111mng 11 h11..h ·311 bl' Jtmhuri:J "nhour .1m doubt ro th!\ Jrriq" rhi: lenl'r" prl',l'n l'd 1n thl' cur.Hon.11 Jr h11l', of rhi: \\Jd,11orrh \rhcn..:um . .\, nmi:J h1 :..tolckc 2 s~. no. IS 1 , I he I J11dsc,1pe with J-.1r11ilui11se ,111d BndR<' Ill thl' 1111 \\l'll olll'Lt10111n LugJno" 111'-orre<.th .irmbutl'J 10 I lin1..k. Rembr.111Jt ..chool IJnd,1..Jpe, publl\hl'J .1, J Ri:mbrJndr h1 j. '· 1.111 ,l'idl'r 111 "An nkno\\ ll L111d'LJPl' b1 Rl'mbrJllJt," H11rl111gto11 ,\ 1.1g.1~111L', , 194 , I -21, "h 1'-h no\\ bl' long' ro Spl'nu:r )Jmul'J,, Inc. 1n l'\\ ) ork, mJ1 prmc co be Jn l'Jrh IJnd,tJpl' b1 l l111ck. Ir 11 ill hl' dl\<..ll\\l'd 1n Jnorhl'r .irncil' thJt" il l dl'.11 morc hroJdh "1rl1 IJnJ,LJpc pJ1nr1ng~ 11lflul't1Ll'd b1 Rl'mhralldt. 16 !olrkl', no. 211 ; umo11 ,k1, Ce111.ilde, no. 68S. In Jn Jrt1clr Oil L'.lrh work, b1 rl1ntk, j. C. v.111 Gelder,·· roeg \X'erkrn 1 Jn Ccllt:rt Hinck," K1111stlnstonsche !eededeeli11ge11 u.i11 /Je1 R.11ksl111re,111 uoor /\.1111stl 1stonsche l oc11111e11t.it1e, I, 1946, 26, rcpr., 11icludl'\ .1 l.a11dscupt! 11•1//J the ll1g/Jt 111to

I 'Yflf \t u,ll \tu111l1p.1k, ltl\ l'U • r<port nlh d.ttl·d lh \h \.111 .<."Ider ll<llnl thl ,ir1111i.: 1111lul'l1Ll' ol Runhr 111dr 011 dw H.11l·u p.1111t 111µ. "h1lh hl hd1nnl ro hl rlt< l.trl1l t 111.1 group ol \\Ori.:, h\ l l111lk lrom 16 le,, ,\111ltkl , no. 4 ,, npr. "''i, .n.tloµunl thl ll.11<11 p.1111t II\' ,\\ h\ 1 lllllk, but d1d ll<>t l\ll'lltlOll th.It I[ I d.Hld (.1lrhough hl d.Hl'd 1t 1111 the h.t 1 <>I '" k ro 16 \h \umm\ ,1.;1 (" 111.1/clt') lol 1111t lrtllUdl' thl 11 l\lU p.111d ,Hll<>Jl' 11111 k' p.llllllrtg\. ut h,I\ 111 • nn thl r1 tllrl. I hl I t.Hl' tu 1udge 11\ .1uthor,h1p, p.trt1ll1i.1rh 1n < It .tppc.tr' Imm,\ photo!!rtrh w bl m..-r p.llntl'd on rhe right ,ldl \n notl 22 for other p.11nr111g' d.ttcd lb ln

It r ' p 1111t 111g , tl1t \ lti111111111 I 111.J , '/'' lJlf111, l lorellu , '>q;u ' 11tflll<lh.. l oil Reill I r.111dt h,1, Ion• hltll rtlll 'llltld; l<, Ill p r Lltul H, I . I IJ l'rk.1mp !~lg< 111 . 1u1, //,•rc 11lt· ,.. /,,, \1u ttrd.1111, l'lh , 111d1.lt111,/!tr ult 1/, <1'111/1/d, I r /1111 • • \m tL r d.1m ,111d I h< I l.1gu<. l'J "'~. \tth .1n 111tr< du t1<111 h\ (,,!loon . nd .1 'UJ ( lunlnt b\ Ir .w t d10ldt . 111.1

\- \t oltk<, no. 466, <,unw\"k1, C.c111.ifcl,, no. - 1i

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1 Pao lo Veronese, The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, ink and goua che on paper, 45 x 30 cm., Inv. No. P25 w 3 9, Veronese Room, Isa bell a Stewart Gard ner Muse um .

Chiaroscuro Drawings by Paolo Veronese: The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine

Much attenti o n has been given recently to the analys is of Veronese's procedure in pass in g from draw ing to paintin g, understa nda bl y in the case of an artist recorded as hav in g been a mong the most prolifi c draughtsmen of all time. Paolo left behind tho usa nds of drawings at hi s death , and a centur y later a n inventory listed 1,4 86 of them still in the possession of the family. 1 Such unu sual abund a nce is surely du e not only to th e crea tive facilit y of Paolo, but a lso to th e practices of hi s large stu dio, in which th e " prime idee;' deta il studies, a nd modelli were preserved fo r furth er use. Among them a di stin cti ve function mu st have pertained to the finished draw in gs (chi aroscuri ), executed in pen and bru sh on tinted papers, heightened with white. In th e seventeenth century, Ridolfi mentioned many of th ese in the possess ion o f Paolo's heir Giuseppe Caliari (" molti di segni a chi aroscuro in carte tinte" ) a nd judged them no less va luabl e than the pa intings th emselves ("che no n son meno da preggiarsi che le opere colorate" ).2 Elsewhere Rido lfi was more specifi c, sin glin g o ut three of a group of six ow ned by Francesco and Cristoforo Muselli in Verona (" di segni sopra carte tinte illumin ati di bi acca" ). He al so tra nscrib ed so me inscription s on the versos, attributing th em to Verone e him self.3 These, which Ridolfi called random tho ughts (" pellegri ni pensieri " ), may suggest th e purpose of the drawings of thi s t ype, fo r Rido lfi stated that they were made fo r sendin g to patrons (" inviandogli per aventura a chi gli ene aveva fatta i tanza" ). However, one of the inscripti o ns sugges ts th at the chi aroscuro was made for a possible future commission ("se avero temp o giam ai voglio rappresentare . .." ),whil e anoth er menti ons th a t th e chi aroscuro reco rds a paintin g th at th e a rti st had already carried out (" io fec i gia un quadro. .." ). Schlosser suggested th at a subseq uent

phrase indicates th a t Paolo was thinking perhaps of preparing a kind of iconographi ca l handbook (" come meglio nel fine del libro sara dichiarato").4 The Tietzes already had noted th at such wordings imply three different purposes for the chiaroscuri: fo r sa le to collectors, as modelli fo r possible patrons, or as ricordi to be kept in a sor t of Liber Veritatis, as oth er pai nters did at th at time. 5 Recently, Cocke has rejected a ll of the Tietzes' suggesti ons, and prefers to st ick to Schl osser's theory of an iconographica l handboo k, w hi ch might "combine th e sketchbook trad iti o n of the ea rl y Rena issa nce wi th th e mythographi c handbooks that were so popul ar from th e middle of th e sixteenth centur y." 6 Howeve r, I would prefe r to interp ret th e inscriptions on the Muselli draw in gs in the context of the studi o procedure, for Veronese's assistants and heirs would have found modelli and ricordi as necessary- if not mo re so- th an a n iconographi c ha ndb ook. Further evidence for th e use of the chi aroscuri in the studio ca n be fo und if we reconsider even a n approx im ate li st of the ones extant, of which a tentati ve catalogue is offered by Cocke in the above qu oted study. 7 They ca n be di vided rough ly into three categories: a. chi aroscuri by Paolo Veronese, related to hi s identified pa intin gs; b. chiaroscuri by Paolo not refera ble to identifi ab le paintings; c. chi aroscuri whose attributi o n is un ce rtain , among which so me relate to Pao lo's autograph paintings, but others onl y to studi o products. All thi s confirm s th at the chi aroscuri a re closely related to the activity of the stu di o, and it would be in correct to consider onl y th ose squ ared for transfer (i.e., the H arewood Triumph of Venice and the Chatsworth Martyrdom of St. Justina) as tru e model/i for the paintings, for there is

evidence to indi cate that th e tra nsfer to the ca nvas of a draw n im age could occur throu gh intermedia te sheets of _la rger o il bozzetti, which were then possibly preserved as records. The procedure in fact seems to have been much mo re intri ca te th a n has been supposed . Ver y few preparato ry draw ings by Paolo have survived, in the sense of finished studi es: thi s was more a Tu sca n ha bit th an a Veneti a n o ne. It seems th erefore possi bl e that the chi aroscuri often mi ght have ass umed the fun cti o n of such prepa ra to ry drawings. This would become a decisive facto r in di scuss in g their a ttribu ti o n, since confusio n could result from their multiple use, as well as from la ter changes o r additi o ns. I sha ll return to this possibilit y in stud yin g th e Ga rdner chiaroscuro (fi gure 1), whose descripti o n now follows.

The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine Pen a nd bru sh and brow n ink, heightened with white go uache, o n crea m paper with prepared grey-green ground ; cracked a nd rubbed ; pasted to heavy paper with deco rated bo rder; 17 3/ 4 x ll3/4 in . (45 x 30 cm.). A tri a ngul ar patch at the lower left reaches the left hip of th e lower left a ngel; resto ra tion includes the legs a nd feet of thi s angel, pa rt of the steps, a nd a reas along the left edge. Inscripti o ns: at lower right sta mped coll ect ion marks !SC and PL; ] CR in brown ink. At lower left of the mount, No.2, No.11 in pencil; at th e bottom of th e mount, Paolo Veronese (written and erased ). At lower right of the mount, S. Caterin Venise in brown ink; Sir P.Lely in pencil;JSG stamped . On back of the mount, 49 in black penci l. Provenance: Suida suggested that the drawing might come from the collection of Bishop Paolo Coccapani in Reggio

2 Pa olo Veronese, A Sheet of Studies, pen a nd brown wash a nd ink o n paper, 30 x 20 cm. , Museum Boyma ns-van Beunin gen, Rotterda m, Koenigs collection.

Emili a (15 84-1650), beca use a 1640 inventory by Gi useppe Ca mpori mentions such a drawing (see WE. Suida, " Paolo Veronese a nd his C ircl e: Some Unpublished Works; ' Art Quarterly, VIII, 1945, 176). Then in the collection of the Engli sh court painter, Sir Peter Lely (1618-80), w hose mark a ppea rs o n the sheet (F. Lugt, Les marques des collections, Amsterdam, 1921, no. 2093). Then in the collecti o n o f John C h a rles Robinson (1824-1913), at o ne time directo r of the South Kensington Museum in Lo ndo n, whose ma rk appears o n the sheet (Lugt, no. 1433). Ro bin son's collection was a uctioned in different sa les between 1868 a nd 1914, but the Ga rdner drawin g was acquired at the o ne held by Chri sti e's in London, 12-14 May, 1902, no. 49 . The subj ect, St. Ca therine of Alexandria (sometimes confused with the fourteenth-century sa int from Siena), apparentl y was of royal o ri gin , and too k an active p art in the conversion of the Egyptians in the third centur y. In spired by her preaching, the Empress in fact beca me a Chri st ia n, but th e Emperor Maxentius resisted a nd put Catherine to dea th , apparentl y in 305 A.D. H er bi ograp hical sources a re two a ncient G reek manuscripts, Conversio a nd Passio, from w hose different versions o ne ca n extract the main episodes of the sa int's life. Included is the miracul o us visio n th a t she had after her baptism, i.e. th e ap pea rance of the Virgin with the C hri st C hild, who offered her the wedding rin g as a symbol of mystic dedication. 24

era l resembl ance to any kn ow n pa int ing of the sa me subj ect by Veronese o r hi s stud io (see note 8). The second fro m th e top mi ght be linked wi th the Vi enn a ca nvas; th e third w ith the o ne in Montpellier; and th e fo urth wi th the o ne in Ro me. H owever, all those pa intin gs a re datab le w ithin a w ide range of ca. 156585, and even show co ll a bo rati o ns. Thi s th en would be one case o f the wo rkshop usin g a n ea rli er sketch by the master.

3 Paolo Verone e, The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, ca. 1575, oil on canvas, 337 x 241 cm., Accademia, Venice; photograph: Alinari/ Art Resou rce.

A popul a r th eme in Wes tern iconography, th e Mys t ic Ma rri age of St. Ca therine was pa in ted as many as seventeen tim es by Veronese and his studi o. O ne ca n im agine th a t the a rti st enj oyed representin g th at so lemn episode, w hi ch all owed him to intro duce hi s usua l pagea ntr y in costumes and poses .8 Two draw ings also refe r to the subj ect, one bein g th e Gardner exa mple described above. T he o ther is A Sheet of Studies fro m the Koenigs co llecti on and now in th e M use um Boy mans-va n Beun ingen in Rotterda m (fig u re 2). The Ga rdner chi aro curo is defi nitely related to the large pai ntin g (fig ure 3) for merl y in the chu rch of Sta. Ca terin a in Veni ce and now at the Acca demi a . W hile both d rawings listed here came from Peter Lely' col lection, and although the one in Rotte rdam includes perhap four rapid sketche for a Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, it doe not seem to be related to the Accademia painting and the Gardner chiaroscuro. In fact, while the canva is unanimou ly dated ca. 1575 (partly on the strength of it relation to the Martyrdom of t. Justina in Padua ), the Rotterdam ketche appear on the verso of a letter dared 11August1568, which fit stylistically with their apparent dare! In fact, they have only a gen-

T he Ga rdner chi aroscu ro, o n th e other hand , corresponds cl osely w ith the Acca demi a paintin g, a ltho ugh there are some va ri ati o ns. 10 The ca nvas shows an in creased number of putti and mu sicia n angels, a grea ter turn of the hea d of the angel behind St. Ca th erine, and the addi ti o n o f a praising fi gure w ith open a rms. Th e pose o f the Chri st Child and the definiti on o f the steps lea din g to the M ado nn a's throne also are different. All these di screpa ncies suggest a crea ti ve connecti o n bet ween the Ga rdner chi aroscuro and the mo re co mpl ete pa intin g, and therefore th ey have been cited a the princip al ev idence fo r rega rding the drawi ng as an o rigin a l preparator y study. H oweve r, o pini ons have di ffe red about the attributi on of the Ga rd ner draw ing. Altho ugh H endy d id nor hes itate to ca ll it "evidentl y a fi rs t tep fo r th e grea t ca nvas;' 11 th e Ti erzes were less specific, prefe rring to cha racte ri ze it as a "modello, perh aps offe red to the nuns of Sta. Caterina in Venice, to de cribe the paint ing to be:' Suida agreed with th e attribution to Paolo, as did Moschini Ma rconi in the officia l cata logue of the Accademia. 12 Richardson, in turn, wa more cautious when he ca lled the chiarocuro "a wonderfu l though puzzling drawing connected with the world famous altarpiece." 13 In 1977, Cocke (see note 6) rejected the arrnburion to Veronese, finding in the "lack of spontaneity, the claw-like hand , and the

la bored handling" the ha nd of a copy ist; in his recent cata logue of Veronese's drawings, Cocke has maintained this opinion, whi ch also is held by De Grazia. 14 Certainl y th ere are problems in evalu atin g the purpose a nd a uth ors hip of th e Gardner chi aroscuro. First, the variations from th e Accademia ca nvas coex ist rather in congru ously with the correspondence of all th e principal elements of the co mpositi on. One mi ght th erefo re be tempted to expl ain it as a ricordo rather th a n as a prepara tory sketch (Pao lo mi ght have worked a fter anoth er sketch of the canvas, which could have been su mm ary and imprecise on th e outer edges, e.g. the figures a t the left a nd right). In the second pl ace, th e qu ality of the sheet betrays some unevenness, although the best passages a re full y co mpatible with Paolo him self, a nd a re comparable to such outsta nding draw in gs of this t ype as the C ha tsworth Martyrdom of St. Justina (fi gu re 4 ). One di stin ct pec_uliarity is the pen a nd ink " fini shing;' which looks "added after" th e crea ti ve brush strokes of grey a nd white color. Could thi s be a mea ns used by Paolo to make the ricordo more precise or even to give suggesti ons to a possib le etcher? It does seem possible to conclude th at the Gardner drawing is a ricordo, whose basic structure was drawn in brush by Veronese himself, a nd whose other areas were completed in pen a nd ink. Many

4 Paolo Veronese, Th e Martyrdom of St. Justina , pen and ink and was h on blu e pape r, heightened with white, 47 x 24 cm. Reprodu ced by permission of the Tru stees of the Chatsworth Settlement; ph otograph: Co urtau ld In st itute of Art.

pla usible realities of studi o practi ce cou ld suppo rt such a n opi ni on : hurr y, imprecise memory, rela ti on to a lost sketch or bozzetto, mu lti ple interventions. All these p oss ibiliti es, however, a re not sufficient to detract from a fund amenta l a ttributi on to Veronese, given the Gardner chi aroscuro's qu a lit y when compa red to the num erous o bvi o us copies made by Paolo's ass ista nts in the chi aroscuro techniqu e. 1s

Terisio Pignatti

1 H . Tietze and E. Ti etze-Co n ra t The Drawings of.the Venetian Painter; in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, New York, 1944, 334 and ff.

5 Tietze a nd Tietze-Co n rat, 335.

2 C. Ridolfi, Le maraviglie dell'arte, 1648. Ed. D. v. H adeln , I, Berlin, 1914, 345.

6 R. Cocke, " Veronese's Indepe nd ent C hi a roscuro Drawings;' Master Drawings 1977

3 Ridolfi, 320-321. Two are surely identifi ed from the inscriptions, the Louvre and the Mooney Madonnas; see note 7.

4 ]. von Schlosser-Magni no, La letteratura artistica (rev. 0. Kurz), Flo rence, 1977, 400.

258-267

7 Idem, 1977, passim, li sts 25 chi arosc uri plus six that he rejects. H owever, by checkin g my cata logue ra 1sonne of Veron ese, Mi la n,

1976 (which appa rentl y was unkn own to Cocke at the time of his article), one can add more chiaroscuri, o ften related to paintings by Paolo o r by the workshop: a. Bayo nne, Musee Bonnat, Th e Crucifixion T. 2031 (painting in Budapest P. 1); b. Chatsworth, Devon hire coll. , The Madonna and Sain ts (painting in Verona P. 266); c. London, British Museum , Allegory of Lepantus (o il ) T. 2092 (painting in Venice P. 283 ); d. New Yo rk, Scholz coll. , Wisdom and Strength (painting in New York P. 243 ); e. Stuttgart, Koeni gs-Fachsenfe ld coll. , The Madonna of the Rosary (painting in Murano P. A 214); f. Paris, Lo uvre, The Madonna T. 2135 (probab ly the one menti oned in the Muselli collection; see Rid olfi quoted above, 321); g. New York, j ohn Mooney coll. , The Madonna (probably the one mentioned in the Muselli coll ection , see Rid olfi quoted above, 321 and see j. Bea n a nd F. Stampfle, Drawings from New York Collections, l, Greenwich, 1965, no. 129). Other chi aroscu ri of less certain attribution to Veronese, but related to hi s workshop ca n also be added: h. Florence, Uffizi, The Marriage of the Virgin (pa inting in H a rtford P. A 126); i. Goleta, Record coll. , The Martyrdom of St. George (pa inting in Verona P. 161); j. New York, H ya tt M ayo r coll. , St. Sebastian (paintin g in Veni ce P. 132); k. Oxford, Christ Church, Venus and Satyr T. A 2129 (paintings in Zurich and Florence P.139 ); I. Par is, Louvre, Study of Count Giuseppe da Porto with his son Adriano T. A 2138 (pa inting in Florence P. 20); m. Par is, Lo uvre, The Madonna and Saints (painting in Dijon P. A 62).

[Above abbreviations: T refers to the Tietzes, 1944, and P. refers to Pigna tti, 1976.] 8 Seven Mystic Marriages of St. Ca therine survive in the fo ll owi ng collections: Detroit Art Inst itute, P. A 60; H a mpton Court, royal coll. , P. A 125; Montpelli er, Musee Fa bre, P. A 210 ; Oxford, Christ Church, P. 319 ; Ro me,

Lincei, P. A 264; Venice, Accademia, P. 183; Vienna Museum , P. A 391. Most of them a re with coll aborations. 9 j. Byam Shaw, " otes on Some Venetian Drawings;' Apollo, LXXXVI/65, Jul y 1967, 47, no. 7. 10 R. va n . H ad ley, Drawings/Isabel/a Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston , 1968, no.11.

11 P. Hendy, Isabella Stewart Gardner Mus eum. Catalogue of th e Exhibited Paintings and Drawings, Boston, 1931, 409. 12 S. Moschini Marconi, Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, Opere de/ sec. XV I, Rome, 1962, no. 139. 13 E.P. Ri cha rdson, " Pao lo Veronese's Mystic Marriage of St. Cathe rin e;' Art Quarterly, Vlll , 1945, 236-237. 14 Cocke, 1977, 267; D. De Grazia Bonlin, Prints and Drawings by the Carracci Family, Nationa l Ga llery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 104 ; R. Cocke, Veronese's Drawings, with a Cata logue Raisonne, Ithaca , New York, 1984, no. 162. 15 A last note abo ut the popularity of the theme: there a re numerous prints th at reproduced the painting now at the Accade mia, many of which are cited in the va lu ab le catalogue by De Grazia (see above ). See also, fo r Veronese's prints: P. Ticozzi, Paolo Verones e e i suoi in cisori, Venice, 1977, nos. 3, 64, 100. Other prints are listed in Moschini Marconi (cited above): a. Aug. Carra cci 1582 (second state, Giaco mo Franco forma ); b. Battista d a Pa rma 1585 (o r 1588 ); c. Le Fev re; d. Jea n Bati ste Bonnart (in reverse); e. J.B. Jackson 1741; f. G. Busato-G. Dala 1852; g. L. Lorenzi; h. Buttazo n 1860; i. W Woernle 1886.

1 Creeping O dysseus, Ro ma n, pro ba bly ca. 25 B. C. o r A.D. 125, ma rb le, 65 x 113 cm., Inv. No. S5s23 , south end o f courtya rd , Isa bell a Stewa rt Ga rdner Museum .

Perceptions of the Trojan Wars in the Fenway: the Creeping Odysseus

2 Coin, Roman , Ilion (Troy), reign of Luci u Verus, A.D. 161-169, bronze, 35 mm., Acc. No. 1983.7, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Odysseus creeping toward an unseen object or adversary has long been a magnifi cent mythological sight at Fenway Court (figure 1). 1 The crafty Greek hero assu med this unusual posture on several occasions during the ten-year siege of Troy. Near the end of the war, he crept into the city on a spying mission. Although disguised as a poor rustic or a beggar in rags, he was recognized by Fa ir H elen. As by then Helen was eager to go hom e to Spa rta with her Greek hu sband King Menelaus, she did not betray t.he rul er of Ith aca to the Trojan authorities. Odysseus also entered the cit y with Diomedes to stea l the sacred im age of Athena, the Palladium. Some sources say Odysseus did the stea ling. Others say he became jealous of Diomedes' success in thi s endeavor a nd crouched just outside th e city to ambu sh hi s accomplice returning over the walls with the small icon. The glint of moonlight on Odysseus' drawn sword is what saved Diom edes from death. 2 This Odysseus is a Roman pedimental figure, mea nt to be seen in the setting of a wide triangle on a small building such as a shrine in the Gardens of Sallust in Rom e where th e statue was fo und in ' . . . September, 1885. The spy in g m1ss1on . seems a n impl ausibl e explanation of hi s pose as Odysseus is not depicted as a beggar. In stead he is shown armed, scabbard in the extended left hand and sword ready for use in the right. Undoubtedly there were other figures present. He could have been adva ncin g to cut down Diomedes but this obscure ep isode lends no credit t~ the tal e of joint theft, in which Odysseus played the leadin g part. The Roman s did not care for " dirty tricks " and vendettas in their art. Moreover, they cl a imed that the Palladium. eventually reached Ital y with the Tro1 a n hero Aeneas and beca me the cult-image of the Temple of Vesta in the Ro man . Forum. A Greek imperial , bronze coin of

Troy in the second century of the Ro.m an Empire shows aged Anchyses clutching the venerable image as his son Aeneas carries him away from the ruined city and leads little Ascanius or lul u , his own son and the ancestor of Romulu and the Julian Gens, a direct line from Troy to the emperors of Rome (figure 2).3 In li ght of thi s scene, it becomes apparent that someone in Troy had foo led crafty Odysseus and nimble Diomedes into stea lin g a replica of the statue. The comp lete composition that included the Fenway Court pedimental statue of Odysseus might have shown the Palladium on an altar or pedestal in the center and Diomedes creeping up from the other angle, at the right. Or perhaps Athena herself stood in the middle of the pediment, as was often the. case in Archaic Greek scu lpture, helping the thieves so as to hasten the ill -fa ted city's fa ll. And was the athletic young Diomedes on the other side, Palladium already in hand ? The arrangement would have pleased a learned Roman of either the Augustan or Hadrianic age (ca. 25 B.C. or A.D. 125 ), when retrospective statues like the Odysseus .were being carved. It wou ld have combined a goodl y bit of Homer and the contemporary writing of Virgil with the pre-genesis of Roman imperial hi story represented in a Rom an imitation of Archaic Greek sculptural style, to convey the visual patina of age. The Creeping Odysseus and the large bronze coin of Troy are both evidence of

how the Ro ma ns of th e Empi re conti nued to be moved by mythologica l ta les of a wa r o r wa rs fo ught in , say, 1400 a nd 1200 B.C., a nd by their own ide nt ity as Troja n sur vivors . Troy was a sma ll , relatively poo r cit y in the rich world of imperi al Ro me, a nd her ci t izens needed to pl ay o n ever y cho rd of Ro man nosta lgia a nd to urism to survive. In the fi na l years of the Ro man Republi c, a legio na ry comma nder na med Fimbria sacked the little city and its templ e of Athena, in mu ch the sa me way as the retrea tin g Nazis burned Emperor Ca li gul a's Lake Nemi ba rges near the end of World War II. Augustus' da ughter Juli a nearly drow ned in a fl as h fl ood of the Ri ver Sca ma nder o n a visit to the cit y of her a ncestor lul us. Her husba nd Agri ppa had in tended to waste the city aga in , but H erod the G rea t, beli ev ing th e Idumeni a ns of the H oly La nd were also descended fro m the Troja n kin g o f the sa me na me, interceded o n behalf of the Troja ns. 4 La ter, a deca de after th e fa ll of Consta ntinop le in 1453, Sultan Mehmet II (the "Conqueror" ) brooded near the wa ll s and the prehi storic mo und below Ro man Troy o n the th eor y th at Tur ks too were descenda nts of Troja ns. 5 T hus, the city 's myth s prov ided a source of in spirati o n and hi sto ri ca l identity for ma ny a ncient peoples, pa rti cul a rl y the Ro ma ns w ho admired tri cky O dysseus in marb le as well as th e fa mil y of Aeneas o n Troy's la rge souvenir coin. T he Ro mans rema ined fascin a ted by th e stea lth a nd violence involved in Troy 's fa ll as well as its visual genea logy. As la te as the reign o f Emperor Ga lli en us (253 to 268 ), w hile H eruli a ns sacked much of Athens and oth er bastio ns of class ica l civili za ti o n to ttered, the island of Sa mos o ff the southern Ioni a n coast struck a large bronze co in show ing the poignan t mo ment w hen Achilles plunged his sword into the neck o f the Amazon Q ueen, Penthesilea (fi gure 3 ).6 At this

3 Coin , Roma n, Sa mos, reign of Ga lli enus, A.O. 253-268, bronze, 32mm .,

Acc. No. 1984.257, M useum of Fi ne Arts, Boston.

insta nt Achill es supposedl y fe ll in love w ith her, but the savagery here is as intense as if a mara udin g Hun were mu rdering a n Atheni a n phil osoph er's wife. And w hen Ro m a ns of the A nto nine period (14 0 to 190) were buri ed, they cou ld be interred in big m a rble sa rcophagi fea tu ring a ll the myth s of Troy o n the lid a nd body (fi gure 4 ).7 Like the Creeping Odysseus, decepti o n : the great tri ck o f the Wooden H orse th a t bro ught a bo ut Troy 's fa ll was aga in th e subj ect. T he ho rse h as been ro lled o n its w heels into the city, a nd th e G reeks, hav ing th row n their a rms a nd a rmor down in adva nce, a re emerging fro m th e round tu r ret. As Troy's Graeco- Ro ma n tw ili ght co mmenced in the third centur y A. D. , there were mo ments of commemo ra ti o n . Th e Severa n prince Caraca ll a (emperor fro m 198 to 217) ad mired Alexa nder the G reat ext ravaga ntl y. Sin ce Alexa nder was descended fro m Achilles a nd Ca raca ll a fro m the Seleucid successors of Alexa nder, a no ther link was fo rged, prov id in g o ne mo re reason fo r Ro m a ns to vi sit Troy a nd for the little cit y to seek imperial favor. A second la rge bronze co in of Troy nea tl y t ied ever ything together fo r the Ro man mind. Yo un g Ca raca ll a graces the o bve rse, a nd Ro mulu s a nd Remu s, the t win fo unders o f Ro me, a nd the descend a nts o f Asca nius/lulus, Aeneas, Anchyses, Venu s, a nd ult im ately Jupiter, ap pea r nu rsed by their mo th er, th e she-wolf, o n the reverse (fi gure 5 ). s Behind , o n a rockwork co lumn , perches 30

4 Fragment of the lid of a sa rcophagus, Roman, second centur y A.O., ma rble, H. 28 cm., Acc. o. 69.2, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 5 Coin, Roman, Ilion (Troy), reign of youn g Caracall a, A. O. 198-211, bronze, 36.5 mm. , Acc. No. 63.2910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

the eagle of Jupiter wh o ca rri ed the Troja n prince Ga nymede up to be cupbea rer to the gods. O r is it the eagle of Ro man power and pat ro nage? In any situ ati on about the yea r 200, such sy mbo li sm would have pl eased the Ro mans and benefited th e inh abitants of rli o n o r Troy. Thu s, a Rom an versed in H o mer, Virgil , and th e a rchaeology o f Troy could construct a buildin g fo r a myth ologica l scene

1 C.C Ye rm eul e, Ill , W. Ca hn , a nd R. va n N. H adl ey, Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Ga rdner M useum, Boston, 1977, 12, no. 14. 2 M .R. Scherer, The Legends of Troy in Art and Literature, New Yo rk a nd Lo nd o n, 1963, 106. " The Little Ili ad;' 1, ed. Loeb, 311, " The Sack o f Ilium ;' 2, ed . Loe b, 523, tra ns. H .G. Evelyn-White, Ca m brid ge, M ass. a nd Lo ndo n, 1950.

invo lvin g th e Creeping Odysseus in hi s ga rden. He could visit Troy and bring home coi ns w ith th e reignin g emperor on one side and the H o meri c myth s on the oth er, o r wi th sy mbo ls like the Lu pa Ro ma na (Wolf a nd Twin s) to suggest that the Trojans we re still mindful o f what they had spawned when Odysseus made hi s ten-yea r jo urn ey back to Ith aca and Aeneas bega n hi s long trek to Lanu vium o n Italy's western coas t. At oth er ci ti es, such as Sa mos, he would find excerpts from the Il ia d preserved in the convenient fo rm at o f a coi n's reverse. Fina ll y, w hen our literate and travell ed Roma n di ed, he could be laid to rest in the cemeteri es of the etern al city in a ma rbl e sa rcoph agus ca rved w ith the very tales th at he had adm ired a ll across th e M editerranea n fro m the Latin West to th e G reek Eas t.

Cornelius C. Vermeule, III

J. Ra by, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, XXXV ll , 1983, 21.

6 R. Cy ril Lockett Collecti o n, Glendining Sa le Xll , Lo nd o n, 1961, no. 2895. 7 M.B. Co mstock, et al., Sculpture in Stone, Bos ton , 1976, 150, no. 242.

8 A. M . Woodwa rd Collecti o n, Glendinin g Sa le, Lo ndo n, Sept. 27, 1962, und er no. 152.

3 Edwa rd J. Waddell , Ltd ., Aucti o n 1, New Yo rk, Dec. 8, 1982, no. 172. 4 H. Schliema nn , llios, The City and Cou ntry of the Trojans, Ne w Yo rk, 1881, 176-1 83.

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Tory Sympathizers: Two Bostonians Pay the Price of Allegiance to the Crown

Letter from Willi am Va all to John Lowell , Sr. , July 31, 1790: " .. . you in fo rm me of your egotiati ons with M' Jeffrey respectin g my Man ion house in Boston. He has behaved just as l ex pected. His whole conduct in thi s business has been One continu ed Scene of Tergiversa ti on, Shufflin g, Mea nness & base ness, l will not say unb eco min g a Gentleman, but wo uld be Unbecomin g a chimney sweeper, or a Kennel Scraper."

Rela tively few eighteenth- a nd ea rl y nin eteenth-centur y ma nu scripts in th e archi ves o f the Isa bell a Stewa rt Ga rdn er Mu seum co me fro m th e fa mil y of th e foundress o r th a t of her hu sba nd , John Lowell G a rdne r. Among them a re t wo packets o f letters addressed fo r the mo t part to John Lowell , Jr. (1769-1 84 0), o ne con sisting o f seven letters w ritten by William Va ssa ll (1715-1 800 ) a nd th e other containin g fifteen letters fro m Richard Lechmere (1727-1 814). H ow these letters ca me into th e possess ion o f the John L. G a rdners ca n onl y be conj ectured. As both Vassa ll a nd Lechmere were connected , th o ugh ta ngenti all y, with Samuel P. Ga rdner, it m ay well h ave occurred to John Lowell, Jr. (fi gure 1) o r to one of hi s heirs th a t the letters properl y belonged in the G a rdn er line o f the Lowell fa m ii y. 1 Each series of lette rs is concerned with the efforts of th e writer to recl a im property in N ew England owned by him or his famil y prior to the Am erica n Revolu tion and eized by the Government o f Massachu setts after th e owner had left America at the outbreak of the war. In the case of th e Vassall corres pondence, the earliest letter is da ted April 17, 179 0 and written to Dr. James Lloyd (17281810). A moderate loyali st to the C rown, Lloyd remained in Boston , avoided ba nishment or confi scation , and served after the war as agent for several of the emigres who had returned to Engla nd. This letter was shortl y followed by two dated Jul y 31, 1790, one addressed to John Lowell , Sr. , and th e other to hi son. There ensue four letters, dated from 1790 to 1792 and all addressed to John Lowell, Jr. All seven letters were written from C lapham Common, London. The Lech mere corresponden ce is both more numerou s and covers a longer period of time. The series open s with a letter of September 22, 1789 written to

Jo hn Lowell , Sr. a nd is fo llowed by fo u rteen letters to John Lowell , Jr. , da ted Jul y 1, 1790 (includin g a li st o f Mr. Lechmere's de bto rs in M assachu setts) th ro ugh Februa r y 27, 1802 . Almos t all were written fro m Bristol, Engla nd . A readi ng of th e letters qui ck ly indi ca tes th at they const itute onl y a po rti on of th e co rrespondence addressed by Vassa ll a nd Lech mere to one o r a noth er o f th e Lowell s durin g th e peri ods in q ues ti on. The lette rs furth er revea l th a t John Lowell , Sr. had been serv in g a agent a nd lawye r fo r the gentl emen in qu es ti o n pri o r to th e fi rs t entr y in each se ri es. The cho ice of John Lowell , Sr. as agent is no t su rpri in g, as M r. Lowell was well known for loya li st tendencies befo re the Revolut ion. Born in ewbur ypo rt, he gradu a ted fro m H a rva rd in 1760 a nd bega n to rea d law in Boston before returnin g to Newbur ypo rt. In 1774 , as a well -esta bli shed a ttorney, he was one o f t wenty-four law ye rs to address Gove rno r Hutchin o n on the la tter's return to Engla nd . Th at address, a nd simil a r ones fro m other groups within th e Co lo ny, wo uld la te r be u ed a ev idence o f loya li st inclin ati ons a nd become th e bas is for ba ni shment a nd confi sca ti o n in 1778 - 79 . Fo rtun a tely for Lowell , he had th e fores ight o n Dece mber 2 6, 1774 to write th e Essex j ournal and Merrimack Pack et excusing hi s pa rt in th e address a nd profess in g hi s allegia nce to th e ca use of libert y. After th e wa r howeve r, Lowell, Sr. continu ed to serve as agent for ma ny o f his fri ends who had not fa red so well with the new government, a nd hi s record s indica te substa nti a l sums tran smitted by him to England on beh alf o f loya lists who had fled Boston leavin g un coll ected debts. In the autumn of 1789 he was a ppointed a Federal Di st rict Judge by Geo rge Washington , 2 a nd was therefore compelled to tran sfer much of hi s pra cti ce to his son John Lowell , Jr. Indeed ,

1 Gi lb ert Stua rt, j ohn Lowell, Jr. (1769-1840), ca. 1824, oi l on ca nvas, 76.5 x 64 cm., Courtesy of the Ha rva rd Uni versity Po rtrait Coll ection, Gift of the Estate of Ralph Lowell, 1978.

the appointment of the elder Lowell to th e bench coincides with the first letters to hi s son from Vassa ll and Lechmere and is cl ea rl y the reason why John Lowell , Jr. repl aced hi s fa ther in dea ling with the two gentlemen. John Lowell, Jr. , considered by many of his fa mil y to be its most brilliant member, graduated from H arvard College in 1786 at th e age of seventeen and immediately fo ll owed his father into the law readi ng in Boston with hi s fat her, ' H arrison Gray Otis and Rufus Amory until 1790, when he was admitted to the bar and set up hi s own office. From then until the spring of 1803 he not on ly acted as uccessor agent to his father on beha lf

of banished ex il es but, more prominentl y, as a tri al lawyer. A member of the Massachu setts legisla ture in additi on, he beca me a n eminent Federa li st pamphleteer a nd strident Francophobe. In 1801, he a nd H a rri son Gray Otis were appo inted to represent Jason Fairba nks, a high-strun g, infirm youth accused of murdering a neighb or's daughter w ith whom he was in love. Fairbanks was fo und guilty notwithstanding Lowell 's and Gray's efforts a nd was ha nged for his crime th a t autumn . Lowell him self, shocked by the outcome, suffere d a breakdown fro m w hi ch he o nl y recovered in 1803 a nd as a conseq uence of which he abandoned the law. The

2 Henry Cheeve r Pratt, The Gardiner Greene House, ca. 1832, oil on ca nvas, 71.5 x 96 .8 cm., Courtesy of the Boston Athenaeu m.

sudden termin ati o n o f the Lech mere co rres po ndence may well have rela ted to Lowell 's decision to give up h is pract ice. Of the two loya li st a uth o rs, W ill ia m Vassa ll was th e seni or and more esta bli shed , a nd had the less to lose. Hi s fa mil y h ad been connected with M assachu setts fro m befo re the foundin g o f Boston, hi s great-gra nd fa ther Sa muel Vassa ll having been a p a tentee of M assachusetts la nd in 1628. In additi on, the Vassa ll s had extensive esta tes in the West Indi es and Ja maica, whi ch were the so urce of th eir wea lth. Willi a m 's fa ther, Leona rd

Vassa ll (1678-1737), was born in Ja maica, but moved to Bos ton pri o r to 1723 a nd in 1727 acquired the grea t ma nsion ho use on Summ er Street th a t stood until 1854.3 Willi a m, hi s thi rd son, was bo rn in the West Indi es a nd attended H a rva rd Co ll ege as a memb er of the cl ass of 1733 . First settling in Ca mb ridge, he is reported to have served as Sheriff of Middlesex County a nd lived as a gentl ema n suppo rted by hi s estates in Ja ma ica . Jn 1760 he acquired a su bsta nti al tract o f la nd on the easterly side of Somerset

Street (approxim ately where the Suffolk Court House is now loca ted ), on which he constru cted perhaps the greatest mansion house in Boston, well known for its view and garden until its demolition in 1835 (figure 2). In 1774 Vassall was appo inted a Mandamus Councill or but refused to accept the office. 4 ln his letter of September 4, 1792, he recounts his act iviti es once hostiliti es broke out. " [l]mmed iately after the battle at Lexington I removed from my Mansion ho use in Boston in which I had lived upw ard to Thirty [s ic] Years, left the Kings Fleet & Army at Boston & went with my fam il y to the Island of Nantucket in Massachusetts State, where I remained about three months, & spent the time very agreeab ly with the Worthy Quakers, the peaceable Inh ab itants of said Isla nd wholly unconnected with public affairs, free from the Tumults of War & Bloodshed, which prevailed in many parts of the United States, but finding that I could not com municate at that place with my Estate in Jamaica, it became absolutely necessary, in order to maintain my fami ly, to remove to some place where I might comm uni cate with it. I therefore in August 1775 removed with my fami ly to England:'

Notwithstanding his departure from Boston prior to the Declaration of Independence, Vassall was nonetheless prohibited by name from returning to the Com monwea lth pursuant to the Banishment Act of the State of Massachusetts of 1778. 5 He kept up his connections with Boston, however, objectin g by proxy in 1785 to a change in the liturgy of King's Chapel. Vassall's letters are hi gh ly lega listic in content, though there is no evidence that he had studied law. The principal thrust of his correspondence was to the effect that the seizure of his land pursuant to ~he Absentee Act of 1777 6 could not by its terms have been a confiscation and that the Act of 1784, 7 whereby Ma ss a-

chu setts attempted to ratify a ll confiscations made under th e Act of 1777, was itself a confi scat io n prohibited by the Peace Treaty of 1783. Lowell, Jr. , for hi s part, seems to have sugges ted, first, that the seizure under the Act of 1777 was indeed a confiscation (and that the Act of 1784 was therefore merely decl aratory) and , secondl y, that the Massachusetts Genera l Court would be unwillin g, and the Federal Courts too weak, to find for Vassall. What occurred to terminate the correspondence is not clear ; perhaps Vassall found Lowell unwilling to press the emi gre's claim with the vigor Vassall expected. Secondary materials suggest that Vassall sub seq uently sued the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in Federal Court but that his case was dismissed as a result of the enactment, in 1798 , of the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibiting suits against States. It is not known, however, whether Lowell represented him in that action. Vassall retained his Jamaican esta tes and was able to live out hi s life comfortably in England, dying in 1800 at the age of eighty- five. Richard Lechmere, like William Vassa ll, was a member of the Boston aristocracy that grew up before the Revolution. Hi s father, Thomas Lechmere, was Surveyor Genera l of His Majesty 's Customs for the Northern District of America; hi s mother, nee Ann Winthrop, was a descendant of Governor Winthrop. In 1753 Richard Lechmere married Mary Phips, daughter of longtime Lieutenant Governor Spencer Phips. The Phips family residence consisted of a large farm of approximately 330 acres situ ated at the eastern end of Cambridge, where the present day Middlesex Court H o use and Museum of Science are located (figure 3 ). Upon Spencer Phips' death this property was divided among hi s children, Mary 36

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3 Map o f Boston show in g the Phips Farm , 1736, Courtesy of the Bostoni an Society/Old Sta te House.

Lech mere receiving 54 acres in her own na me and th e rest being split up between her sib lings fro m who m Ri chard Lechmere in turn acquired app roxi mately 90 acres, thereby ma intaining a sub sta nti a l po rti on of the fa rm intact . Like Vassall , Ri chard Lech mere was appointed a M a nd a mus Co uncill or in 1774 but refu sed th e o ffi ce. Un fo rtu nately for him , however, he signed the Address of the Merchants of Boston to Governor Hutchinson and remained in

Bos to n after Lex in gto n and Concord , leavi ng onl y in 1776 (with eleven dependents) when General Howe evacua ted th e cit y. From Bosto n he proceeded to H ali fax and then to Bristol where severa l of th e loya lists ultim ately settled. Lechmere was named in the Bani shment Act of 1778 and in th e ensuin g year was one of the notori o us conspi rators whose rea l property was confiscated by the Confisca ti on Act of 1779. 8

Lechmere's letters, tho ugh mo re numerous th a n Vassa ll 's, lack the ve rve a nd spirit app a rent in th e la tter's, ex hibiting in stea d a n almo t mi se rl y concern fo r sm all sum s du e a nd th e interest thereo n. And when Lowell was a bl e to o bta in sa tisfacti o n, Lechm ere used the occas io n to o bj ect th a t he, ra ther th a n th e debto r, was being charged fo r Lowell 's ervices .9 The princip al thrust, tho ugh, of Lechmere's letters goes to the recl a ma ti o n of Mrs. Lechmere's po rti o n of her fa th er's farm , togeth er w ith her dowe r cl aim to those po rti o ns o f the esta te bo ught by her hu sba nd . As Ri cha rd Lech mere no ted , o nl y hi s own pro pert y wa con fi ca red, no t hi wi fe' . This endeavo r too k o n added signifi ca nce w hen, in 1792, the West Bosto n Brid ge Comp a ny explo red the poss ibility of constru cting a spa n across the Cha rl e Ri ve r fr o m Bo to n to what had beco me known as Lechm ere Point. Unfortun a tely fo r Lechm ere th e bridge was ultim a tely built w here ; he Longfell ow Bridge now sta nd so th a t th e Bridge Co mpa ny did no t n~ed to concern itself with Lechmere's cl aim s to the underl yin g rea l esta te at th e Ca mbridge end . Und aunted, Lech mere continu ed to press hi s cl aim until 1799 wh en Andrew C raigie,_ wa nting a quit titl e to th e p a rcel m qu estion, bo ught th e Lech mere fa mily's cl aim s_ th_rou gh a straw in a nti cip atio n o f build mg the Ca na l Brid ge w hi ch ultim ately extended fro m Bos ton ,to Lechmere Po int. 10

Ri cha rd Lech me re pa sed his las t days in Bri to!, d yin g in 1814. But th e fa mil y' connecti o ns w ith Bos to n co ntinu ed o n bo th in the na me o f th e fa mil y esta te in' Ha nley, Wo rcester hire-"New England " - a nd in the trees pl a nted th ere w ith seeds se nt back fro m Bos to n by Th o mas Lech mere. O ne th rea d run s th ro ugh bo th the Vassa ll a nd Lechm ere lette r , na mely a n ass um pti o n th a t the Engli sh rule o f law still held sway in M assachu setts even w here loya li ts were conce rn ed. Bo th w riter ee m to have accepted , th o ugh relu cta ntl y, th e fac t th a t their propert y had been ta ken by o pe ra t io n o f law a nd th at th e confi sca ti o n , if in co mpli a nce w ith a ppli ca bl e ta tute, we re fin a l. Each of th e a uth o rs, howeve r, in vo kes prin ciple of English law in di tin gui shin g hi s p a rtt cul a r case a nd in ca lling up o n the lega l system fo r ass ista nce in recl a imin g lo t p ro pert y. Each et o f letters a lso evidence th e cl ose per o na l rela tio nship bet ween the a utho r a nd the Lo well s a rela ti o nship th at sur vived th e Revo l~tion a nd th e passage of a qu a rter-centur y a nd th a t was t ra nsferred to th e nex t generati o n of the Lowell fa mil y. As such they cast li ght o n th e a ttitud e o f loya lists towa rds their fo rme r neighbo rs and associa tes in the yea rs fo ll owin g the Trea t y of Pa ri s. 11

Francis L. Coo lidge

I The pnnupal rec1p1enr wa~ rhe on of John Lowell (1743- 1802 ) by h1~ fir~r wife, arah H1 ggin~on, anJ rherefore half-brorher ro Rebecca Ru ~ ell Lowell ( Ir ~. amuel P. ar<lner), a Jaughrer of rhe enior Lowell by his rh1rJ wife, RebecLa Ru~~ell ( \ ng). Rebecca wa gran<lmorher of John L. ar<lner, anJ 1r ~eem~ logical ro peculare rhar rhe l errer~ were a g1fr, eirher 1n rhe earl) ninereenth century ro Rebecca or po 1bl1 ar a lare r dare ro one of her de cendanr~. from J hn owe ll , Jr. oradc~ccndantofh1~. 2 A re ent add 1t1on ro rhe archl\C of rhc I a bell a rewarr Gardner 1u cum 1~ J hn L well' original omm1~~ 1 on ~1gned b) e rge Wa hingron anJ bearing rhe Jarc of eprcmber 0, I 89. 1fr of John L. Gardner. The hou e wa ~olJ upon Leonard a ~a ll \ dea rh and pa~ cd rhrough everal owner~ until acqu ired in 1800 by amucl P. ardner who, ar h1 dearh 1n 1843, dcv1 d 1r ro h1 on c rge ard ner, sub1ecr ro a life e tate in rh e former' widow, Reb a. frer Mr . Samuel P. ardner' dearh in I , her on rore 1r down and onsrrucred the Hovey dry good ror on rhe ire, 1n keeping with rhe commercial devclopmenr f rhe ne1ghb rhood . An ea rl y ph rograph of rhe hou e, raken horrl y bef re 1r desrruction, 1s reproduced in WM. Wh1rehill, Boston路 A Topograph1cal Hi story, amb ndge, 1968 (2 nd ed.), 34. 4 On May 20, 1774 rhe Hou e of omm n amended rhe Ma achu ett harrer ro provide that the provincial ounci l, previou sly com po ed of per on elected by the local citi zenry, would m read be made up of Councillors appointed by the rown. Acting puruant ro th at Act, the king appointed new

oun 1llors on ugu r 9, 1774 by wrm of Tho e pcr~on~. oon dubbed "Mandamu\ Coun 1llors,'' were pamcularly 0J1ou~ to the backers of the Revolun n. mandamu~.

S Province Laws, 1778- 9, chap. 24. 6 Province Law , 1..,76-77, Lhap. 38.

7 Law~ and Re~olvc of l a~ achu cm, 1784-85, chap. 31 (1784). 8 Province Law , I

8-79, ch p. 48.

echmcre did not let h1~ mcanne arry vcr into h1~ per onal dealing) with the Lowell family, w h1 h were alway ord1al. In a p srcnpr ro h1 1a) 13, I 96 letter, e hmcrc noted rhar he had rhc pica urc of pla1mg ho)r ro Franc1 ab r Lowell, halfbrother ro John Lowell, Jr., and wrote of him in glowin g pra1 c.

JO Lech mere' la r letter m rhe enc , dared February 27, 1802, md1 arc rhat the ale r ra1g1e did nor bring ro a onclu 1 n all of Lechmcrc' our randing bu 111e , and th ar e era ! debt remained unpaid. he lerrer al o rhanks owell fo r a draft from rhe latter's brorher-111-law amuel P. ardner 1n rhe amount of拢 00 5 111 paymenr of an un rared debt. l I The autho r w1she ro a knowledge Andrew li ve r (1906-8 1), who began work111g on rh1 ma ten al, bur who unforrunately wa able ro lea e onl a page of nore before h1 decea e.

Vi ola d 'a more, Thomas Eberl e, Nea polita n, ca. 1775, In v. No. Ul e14, Yell ow Room.

Charles Martin Loeffl,er and the Eberle Viola d' amore

e of her birthday, in April 190 , ard n r wa ho t to a oncert of th mu ic of harlcs Martin Loeffler. The fo ll owing da , a m nger arrived at enway urt \ ith a birthday gift from the compo er. It wa a beautiful vio la d'amore, 111ad in the 1770's b the eapoliran vi lin-111aker Thoma b rle. Thi ery or1c- looking 1nstrum nt can rill be een in a glas ase 1n the Yellow Ro mofth ardnerMu u111. The berl vio la d'amore 1s a fin e amp! of the work of it maker, a rue.lent of th famou agli ano family. It wa re t r d by W.E. Hill & ons, of ondon , at th nd of th n111et en th entury and ur vive in an excell ent rate of pr servati n. It i I ga nt and 1111ple 111 for111, yet ha all th ee enti al arma rk of th genre: flam e- haped ton -hole ugg ting Middle Ea tern influence ; a vi 1haped, flat-backed body that imp art delicate, blending character t th ound; a characteri tically wide neck and bridge, which upport eve n playing tring and allow even thin wire resonating tring - " ympathetic trin g " to run under and through them , out f the way of the bow; and finall y, a long pegbox and scroll th at di play fourteen tuning pegs. Charles Loeffler acquired thi s in trument in the fall of 1897. It was hi second viola d'amore and wa sent to hi111 a a pre ent by London's celebrated luthier Arthur Hill. It arrived in time for the world premiere (Symphony Hall, May, 1898) of the compo er's opulent orchestral tone poem "La Mort de Tintagiles;' which in its original form was written for two viola d'amore and orchestra. In September, 1900, Loeffler revised the piece and thi final version for orchestra and so lo viola d'amore received its premiere with the Boston Sy111phony in 1901. In 1905 it became one of his few

published piece ( till in print and ava il ab le on rental from . ch1rmer, ew York ). h1~ composition wa one f Loeffl r' fa onres and dunng the three decades follow111g the 190 1 prem1 r , 1t rece1 ed a score of p rforman e 1n the 111ted tares and abroad, many f these promoted a t1vely by Loeffler him elf dunng his travel . harles ocfflcr was a popular figure in the mus1 al life of Boston 1n the late J 800's and early I900's . dash111g though omcwhat reserved chara ter, he wa r garded a a\ 1rtuoso \ 10l1111 t and 1n his po 1t1on as ass1 rant oncertma ter of th Bo ton y111ph ny was ften called upon to perform a a 0101 t. In add1t1on to con erto , he al o performed many r e1ral 1n private horn . A J urnal1 t, ommenting on the fir t rehear al of "La Mort de T111tagile ,"wrote that "there 1 pr bably n more popular memb r of the Bo ton ymphony...." nother on temporary cnnc d cnb d him a ha 111g a "tone of fine- pun ilk ...." " La M rt de Tintagil "wa one f h1 mo t succe ful work , receiving amp le critical acclaim. A re iew of the 1 98 premiere reported "brilliancy and va ri ety of col ring, abundanc of melody, and rich, arti tically developed harmonie .. .."Another critic of the day ci ted a "cl imax of inten e power ..." and "dainty, deliciou harmony...." On the other hand, some found " La Mort de Tintagile " morbid. uch an opinion is hardl y urpri ing, as its ubject i the inexorable progre of a young child towards an untimel y death. There were also those who criticized the tructure of the work, finding the themes "too short and fragmentary...."For the most part, however, the notices were glowing. The composition, focusing attention on an esoteric, antique instrument by put41

tin g the viola d 'a more in a -;olo role, must have see med a bit exotic to the concertgoer of th e time. It was also episo dic in nature, something th a t an aud1enc steeped in the classica l fo rms wa~ only very recentl y encounterin g in the tone poems of Richard Strauss. Simi la rl y, Loeffler's sweeps of chrom aticism a nd oriental-sounding sca les mu st have had a n unsettling effect on the ears of an audience not yet introduced to Debussy. Perh aps the events immediatel y precedin g Loeffler's writing "La Mort d Tintagiles " can shed some li ght on th e composer's choice of subj ect and structuring of the pi ece. H e h ad on ly very recentl y di scovered th e vio la d 'amore. He was in mourning over the death of hi s fifteen-year-old brother. And, he had just been introduced to M aete rlinck 's new sy mboli st play, the dra ma for marionettes of the same na me on w hi ch " La Mort de Tintagiles" is based . A synops is of th e text of Maeterlinck's pl ay was printed as th e frontispiece of the orchestral score. Briefly summ a rized: th e handm aidens of a wicked queen (Death ) wrench a yo un g boy (Tinta gil es) from the desperate embra ce of hi s sister (Ygraine). In their pitiful sepa rati on from one anoth er on either side o f a ma ssive a nd unyieldin g door, brother a nd sister vainl y ca ll to each oth er, as the weakening boy coll apses a nd then dies. Ygraine's impotent rage at her loss to th e Destroyer gives way, fin all y, to sobs a t the cold , iron door. In " La Mort de Tintagil es" Loeffler pitted the entire forces of the sy mphony orchestra a t one moment (th e Destroyer) against a tiny comp lement o f strin gs, solo winds , viola d'a more a nd harp at the next (Tintagil es and Ygra ine), alternating one after th e other. T he last few bars mirror the en d of the p lay, as the last sighin g notes of the solo vio la d 'a more rise a nd fa ll through th e sus ta ined chords

Nore sent by Loeffl er on the occasion of the gi fr.

of the winds and brass. But in mos t other respects thi s tone poem does not follow th e sto r y line strictl y. It is primaril y a so und -poem, painting a macabre a nd fantastic scene. The viola d 'a more is a n in strument uniqu ely suited to th e strong emoti ons Loeffler wa seeking to portray. It had been used by other co mposers a t a part icul arly po igna nt moment, as in H a ndel's opera Orlando, w here two viola d 'a mo re a re used to conjure up sleep for th e hero at the emoti ona l peak of the o pera; or in Ferenc Erkel's Bank ban, where the ha unting strains of th e vio la d 'a more a re paired w ith th e Hun garia n cimba lum to support " Melinda's Farewell " aria as she prepares to kill herself. H ector Berlioz, in his trea ti se on orchestration , wrote: " Th e qu a lit y of the viola d 'a more is fa int a nd sweet ; th ere is so mething seraphi c in it, partaking a t once of th e viola , a nd of th e ha rmo ni cs of the violin . It is particularly suited to th e legato st yle, to dreamy melodi es, and to th e ex pression of ecsta ti c or religious feelings ... ." Loeffler's composer colleague C lara Rogers wrote of the viola d 'a more's " mysterious tones - as of passion unrevea led- of love un consciously brooded . ..." C ha rl es Loeffl er himself sta ted: " ] th o ught of th e viola d 'a mo re as the only instrument capable of ex pressin g the sp irit a nd mood of th e doomed .. .." C ha rl es Loeffl er sha red his feelings a bout the viola d 'a more with Mrs. Gardner from th e very o utset. In 1894, upon the heels of obta ining his first viola d'a more in Paris, Loeffler detoured to

Ander lorn, Ch,1rl<' \l.ir· 1111i.<>t' fflt'r11 •11'1 \ 111/111, I 9-l , pen .111d 1111.. on pJptr, .!:!.\ '26 . ~ cm ., ,\l ll\ICl .111' J,e, )ci km Room.

Lond o n to how 1r to her en rourc b.ick ro rhe n1ted r.irc~. ~Ir;. ,ardncr be ame, ove r rh e) ca r;, , good tncnd and patron of Loeffle r' . n numcrou; o a 1om ~ h e 111v1rcd him ro perform rec1ral n v1ol111 nd v10IJ d'amorc for her gue r , borh ar I 2 Beac n rrccr and ub eq uen rl ar Fem' a) ourr. he I aned him her beau nful rradl\ anm 1oltn and finally g ve 1r ro him 1n I 18. ve n afte r he rer1red fr m rhc ~> mphon} and no I ng r p rformcd 1n publt , he cont111u ed t pl ay f r her 1onall }, until herd arh 1n 1924. he ma1nt 111ed thr ughour a mutu all }'·adm1nn g, if f rm al rr pondence. 1

g1 r of an ai.: l.i1rncd i.:ompo~cr and per· former ro h1 tncnd .rnd p mm, lcfr 1r~ L,bc ar rhe ,\ l u,cum for a ~ymhol1L rcun · ion" 1rh odflcr 111 rhc form of rhc hr r recording of" La ~ lorr de 1nrJgdc ." frcr m1n1rnal ad1u rmcnt> ro rhc 111 rru· mcnr b} \ dl1Jrn ~!0111 ::ii, a reno" ncd c'perr 111 '1ola~ d'amorc, rhc aurhor had rhc u111quc pm degc and pica urc of bc111g rhc '1ola d'amorc ;olo1;r 111 rwo performance and rhe rccord111g ot "La M rr de 1nrag dc;" "1rh rhe Ind1 anapo· It >mphony r hc;rra, John cb n conducnn g. hi; rec rd1n g "di be r le ed by o rld Re ord 111 rhc fall of 19

n crobe r 26, 19 4, rhe 1 la d' amo rc made by Th ma Eberl , and lacer rh e

j e11 111e Han en

I The a urh o r w1 hes ro ack now ledge rhe benefi t of Ellen Knight'~ srud1 e on Loeffler; ee, for 111 ra nee, . Kni ght ," !Ir. Loeffler,

d'amore Society of 111erica

Mr . Gardner, and the vio la d'amorc," \!wl.:i ell'sletter, I, prd 1981, 4-7.

Fold ing wooden fa n, Ja pa nese, la te nin etee nth ce ntury, Inv. No. 12, Va ti ch ino.

A Note on the Fans in the Collection

A littl e- kn own aspect of the Museum is the small coll ection of about for t y Eu ropea n a nd Oriental fa ns that Mrs. Gardner acq uired in the course of her various travels. Except for the eighteenth-centur y French fa ns th at a re o n permanent view in th e Veronese Room, almost all of the other fa ns were pl aced by Mrs. Gardner in cases or stored in their own handmade boxes a nd a re ra rely opened or seen by th e publi c. Although th ey are of varied qua lit y and many of them were simpl y bo ught as souvenirs of her visits, severa l are beautiful exa mpl es of their t ype or are curi os iti es th at a re worthy of mention. Unlike th e ca reful records she kept detailing her purchases of ma jor works of art, however, there is ra rely any mention of where or when Mrs. Gardner acquired her fans or whether th ey were gifts from fri ends.

hairsty les and hats typical of France in the 1780's. Agai n, the verso of this fan relies on the eighteenth-century fascination w ith Japanese and Chinese motifs in its painting of a peacock, stork and flowering tree aga in st a simpl e wh ite and gold background .

Of the three French fans di splayed in th e Veronese Roo m, two are reproduced on the cover of thi s publicati on. The fa n on the left is a n ea rl y eighteenth-centur y examp le of an ivo ry brise-its sti cks of ivor y are held together by a rivet at one. end and a ribbon alon g th e sprea ding circumference at the other. It is pai nted and varni shed in the vernis martin ma nn er and depicts a fete champetre of youn g nob lemen a nd women enjoying music and dancing in the open air. Below thi.s main scene are painted the finel y detailed chinoiserie fi gures and floral design s, done in a monochrome blu e (en camaieu ), th at were so popul ar during thi s period.

Four other fa ns ow ned by Mrs. Gard ner were a lm ost ce rtainl y bo ught by her as souvenirs on the trip to Spain that she and her husband took in 1888. These brightly colored ch romolith ographed paper fa ns were very popu lar during the late nineteenth centur y and often pictured scenes of bullfighters and Spa ni sh d ancers or, as in th e exa mple of one of her fans, th e fl ag of Spa in and the . in scription , " Viva Espana!". Far rarer ts an exa mpl e in the coll ectio n of a for tunetellin g fan. On it a wizard is depicted sta ndin g bes ide a wheel of fo rtune la beled PORVENIR (future ) w hile sca ttered over the paper leaf are numbered sta rs with the various answers. As is true of most for tunetelling, the preoccupatio n is with the subj ect of love and one's luck in the future.

Another of the French fa ns (cover, lowe r right) dates from a peri.od sli ghtly later than the ivory fan and ts of delicately painted silk with pi erced and carved . overlapping sticks heav il y encrusted with gilt foil. Its fanciful scenes, bor.d ered with sequin s, depict severa l pairs of lovers al fresco with mi schievous winged putti, the women sportin g the elabo rate

Mrs. Gard ner's coll ection also includes two examp les of the typical Empire pe ri od fa n (cover, upper right). T he elegant rococo fans of the eighteenth ce.ntury had all but disappeared by the time of th e French Revolution; however, durin g the reign of Napo leon the fan was rev ived somewhat in popularity. Small fa ns such as these-laden with sequi ns and embossed gold decorations on thin, porous, pastel si lks-were more inclined to glitter th an were the refined and deli cately painted fa ns of th e previous centur y.

A so-ca ll ed " magician's" or "tri ck" fan is another curiosi t y among Mrs. Gard ner's acq ui siti ons (figure 1). Signed by the Parisian fa nm aker, Fauc;:on, It ts composed of alternating rows of black and

1 Ribb on fan, French, late nineteenth centur y, Inv. No. 6, Vatichino. 2 World War I fa n, French, 1915, Inv. No. 39, Little Sa lon. 3 To rto iseshell and gold lacqu er fan, Japanese, ninetee nth centur y, Inv. No. 28, Littl e Salon.