MOSTAERT, Discovery of America

Mostaert

The Discovery of America

Mostaert

The Discovery of America

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Mostaert

The Discovery of America

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Mostaert

The Discovery of America

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Jan Mostaert

(Haarlem active 1472/3 - 1555/6)

The Discovery of America oil on panel, 34 x 60 in.

(86.5 x 152.5 cm.)

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Provenance (Probably) Nicolaes Suiker, grandson of the artist, by 1600.

Exalto, Gorinchem, 1900.

C.F.L. de Wild, Gorinchem.

Private collection, Culembourg.

Van Stolk, Scheveningen, 1909.

J.B. van Stolk Museum, Haarlem, by 1912.

Sale; Frederik Muller & Co., Amsterdam, 8-9 May 1928, lot 371, from where purchased by Dr. N. Beets. with N. Beets, Amsterdam. with Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1931.

Looted by the Nazi authorities, 13 July 1940.

Recovered by the Allies, 1945.

Restituted in February 2006 to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

Literature K. Van Mander, Het Schilderboeck, Haarlem and Alkmaar, 1604, folio 229, verso.

E. Weiss, “Ein neues Bild Jan Monstaerts”, Zeitschrift für bildenden Kunst, no. 20, 1909, p. 18, no. 41; and pp. 215-17. ed. M. Nijhoff, Catalogue du Musée van Stolk, 1912, p. 136, no. 408.

M.J. Friedländer, From Van Eyck to Breughel, New York, 1916, p. 145.

M. Conway, The Van Eycks and their Followers, London, 1921, p. 442.

International Studio, vol. XCIII, no. 384, May 1929, p. 33.

E. Michel, “Un tableau colonial de Jan Mostaert”, Revue belge d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art, vol. I, 1931, pp. 133-41.

G. Glück, Aus drei Jahrhunderte europaïscher Malerei in Gesammelte Aufsätze, Vienna, 1933, p. 320.

G.J. Hoogewerff, De Noord-Nederlandsche schilderkunst, vol. II, 1937, pp. 493-5, fig. 243.

R. van Luttervelt, “Jan Mostaerts West-Indisch Landschap”, Nederlands Kunsthistorish Jaarboek, vol. 2, 1948-9, pp. 105-17.

O. Kurz, “Recent Research”, The Burlington Magazine, vol. XCII, 1950, p. 239.

H. van de Waal, Drie Euwen Vaderlandsche Geschied-uitbeelding: een iconologische studie, 1500-1800, The Hague, 1952, p. 91, note 8, fig. 35.

G.J. Hoogewerff, Het landschap van Bosch tot Rubens, Amsterdam, 1954, pp. 60-1.

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Franz Halsmuseum der Stadt Haarlem, The Hague, 1955, p. 19, no. 679, illustrated no. 15.

H. Baudet, Het paradijs op aarde: gedachten over de verhouding van de Europese tot de buiten-Europese mens, Assen, 1959, p. 36.

R. van Luttervelt, Holland’s Musea: Hoogtepunten der oude schilderkunst uit de collectives van het Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen Rotterdam, Frans Hals Museum Haarlem, Mauritshuis Den Haag, The Hague, 1960, pp. 75, 312, illustrated p. 275.

E.K.J. Reznicek, “Jan Mostaert…Episode uit de verovering van Amerika”, Openbaar Kunstbezit IV, 1960, no. 19a.

L. van Puyvelde, La peinture flamande au siècle de Bosch et Breughel, Paris, 1962, p. 303.

H. Baard, Frans Halsmuseum Haarlem: Nederlandse schilderkunst, Munich & Ahrbeck-Hannover, 1967, p. 20, illustrated.

H. Franz, Niederländische Landschaftsmalerei im Zeitalter des Manierismus, Graz, 1969, p. 54.

E. Larsen, “Once More Jan Mostaert’s West-Indian Landscape”, Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art offerts au professeur Jacques Lavalleye, Louvain, 1970, pp. 127-37.

M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting: Lucas van Leyden and Other Dutch Masters of His Time, vol. X, 1973, pp. 13, 71, no. 25, illustrated pl. 17.

H. Honour, The New Golden Land: European Images of America from the Discoveries to the Present Time, New York, 1975, pp. 21-4, illustrated pp. 23, 24.

J. Snyder, “Jan Mostaert’s West Indies Landscape”, in F. Chiappelli ed., First Images of America: The impact of the New World on the Old, Berkeley and London, 1976, vol. I, pp. 495-502.

H. Honour, L’Amerique vue par l’Europe, exhibition catalogue, Grand Palais, Paris, 1976, pp. 12-14, illustrated p. 13, no. 6*.

J.H. Perry, “Depicting a New World”, in S. Hindman ed., The Early Illustrated Book: Essays in Honor of Lessing J. Rosenwald, Washington D.C., 1982, p. 144.

C.D. Cuttler, “Errata in Netherlandish Art: Jan Mostaert’s ‘New World’ Landscape”, Simiolus, vol. 19, 1989, pp. 191-7, illustrated no. 1.

Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst (The Netherlandish Office for Fine Arts), Old master paintings: An illustrated summary catalogue, Zwolle and The Hague, 1992, p. 217, no. 1851, illustrated.

J. Schmidt, “‘O fortunate land!’ Karel van Mander, a West Indies landscape and the Dutch discovery of America”, New West Indian Guide, 69, 1995, pp. 5-44.

J. Snyder, “Jan Mostaert”, in The Dictionary of Art, 1996, p. 201. ed. H. Miedema, Karel van Mander. The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters, vol. III, 1996, p. 200, fig. 148.

J. Snyder, revised by L. Silver and H. Luttikhuizen, Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575, Upper Saddle River, N.J., 1985, pp. 417-20, illustrated no. 17.11.

N. Kohler, P. Biesbor, Painting in Haarlem 1500-1850: The collection of the Frans Hals Museum, 2006, pp.

559-61, no. 335.

Ed. P.C. Sutton, Reclaimed: Paintings from the collection of Jacques Goudstikker, exhibition catalogue, New

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Haven, 2008, no. 10, pp. 112-16.

Ed. I. Katzew, Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles, 2011, no.

80.

P. Mason, “America as Amalgam; Old world elements in the making of Jan Mostaert’s so-called West Indian Landscape”, International journal of the classical tradition (forthcoming publication).

Exhibited Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Tentoonstelling van Oude kunst: Vereniging van Handelaaren in Oude Kunst in Nederland, July – 1 September 1929, no. 101.

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Dutch Art, 1450-1900, 4 January - 9 March 1929, no. 19.

Rotterdam, Boymans Museum, Jeroen Bosch, Noord-Nederlandsche Primitieven, 10 July - 15 October 1936, no. 45, illustrated no. 27.

Rotterdam, Kunstkring, Catalogus der Tentoonstelling van Schilderijen en Antiquiteiten geexposeerd door den Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker N.V. Amsterdam in den zalen van der Rotteramsche Kunstkring, 17 December 1936 – 10 January 1937, no. 39.

The Hague, Herwonnen Kunstbezit, tentoonstelling van uit Duitschoand teruggekeerde Nederlandsche Kunstschatten, 1-30 October, 1946, no. 7.

Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, Zomertentoonstelling, 30 July – 20 September 1948, no. 17.

On loan to the Frans Hals Museum (inv. no. 679) from the Instituut Collectie Nederland, 1948 – 2006.

Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts, L’Europe Humaniste, 15 December 1954 – 28 February 1955, no. 52.

Ghent, Keizer Karel V en zijn tijd, 3 April – 30 June, 1955, no. 85.

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Unbekannte Schönheit, 9 June – 1 August 1956, no. 183, illustrated no. 11.

Brussels, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, De Century van Bruegel. De schilderkunst in België in de 16de century, 27 September – 24 November 1963, no. 177.

Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, 7 December 1975 – 15 February 1976; Cleveland, Museum of Art, 28 April – 8 August 1976; and Paris, Grand Palais, 17 September 1976 – 3 January 1977, The European Vision of America: A Special Exhibition to Honor the Bicentennial of the United States, 1975-76, pp. 5, 20; no. 6.

Greenwich C.T., Bruce Museum, 10 May – 7 September 2008; New York, Jewish Museum, 12 March – 2 August 2009; San Antonio, TX, McNay Art Museum, 7 October 2009 – 10 January 2010; West Palm Beach, FL, Norton Museum, 13 February – 2 May 2010; and San Francisco, Contemporary Jewish Museum, 30 October 2010 – 8 March 2011, Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker, no. 10.

Los Angeles, LACMA, Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World, 6 November 2011 – 29 January 2012, no. 80.

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Discovery of America

The present painting is widely regarded as the earliest contemporary depiction of America in Western Art. It is, therefore, of exceptional historical significance.

The painting represents a small company of European invaders in sixteenthcentury military costume, advancing in combat against a much larger population of indigenous warriors who defend themselves with bows and arrows. Additional natives hurl stones down on the Europeans from the rocky precipices above. It is clear that the better-equipped European soldiers will emerge victorious, and a number of the natives have already fallen in battle while others have turned to flee.

The painting was first recognised as a work by the Haarlem-born painter Jan Mostaert by Friedländer and Weiss, after the latter identified it in 1909 in a private collection in Scheveningen. Weiss relates the composition to van Mander’s record of a work by Mostaert in the Haarlem residence of Nicholaes Suiker (or Suycker), the artist’s grandson, some time before 1604. Van Mander’s description of “een Landtschap, wesende een West-Indien, met veel naecht volck, met een bootsighe Clip en vreemt gebouw van huysen en hutten: Doch is onvoldaen gelaten” could well fit the present painting. Van Mander somewhat perplexingly describes the painting as incomplete, and may be referring to the absence of the light surface glazes and detail Mostaert favoured at the time. Weiss further relates the small figures to a type found in many works by Mostaert. Ultimately, the landscape, with its elevated vantage point and brown-green-blue colour scheme, is derived from the tradition of Joachim Patinir and Herri met de Bles. It is similar to that in Mostaert’s Banishment of Hagar, another typical example of early sixteenth-century Flemish “world landscapes” (1525, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid). The composition, with lines of figures converging at a central point, is a prototype that was also used by Pieter Brueghel the Elder in his Triumph of Death (c. 1562, Museo del Prado, Madrid).

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The date given to the present work has varied due to differing interpretations of the subject matter. It has been suggested that the banner flying above the European army once bore the red cross of Saint Andrew, the symbol of the Spanish conquistadores (see Snyder, 1976, p. 501, note 2, and a discussion by Larsen). Michel (1931) speculated that it is meant to represent an episode in the 1521-3 conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortes. If true, this would presumably indicate a date of execution around 1523-25.

Friedländer (1973), who agreed with Weiss’ attribution to Mostaert, nevertheless found it strange that the Mexicans should be represented “as naked savages”. He went on to speculate about the original commission of the work, describing the painting as “an uncompleted West Indian landscape with many nude figures, a curious cliff, and exotic houses and huts…Testifying to the interest in the newly discovered Western World, the picture points to the court of the Regent, where there was far more concern and information about the deeds of the Spanish conquerors than elsewhere in the Netherlands. Charles V had presented his aunt with marvellous objects from the ‘Indies’. Among the Spanish and Portuguese merchants residing mainly in Antwerp there must, of course, also have been a lively interest in the new discoveries. Michel…believes that the conquest of Mexico by Cortes provided the occasion for this scene, commissioned by Margaret in 1523. This would give a date for the panel, as well as for Mostaert’s service at court”. Given that Mostaert was named “peintre d’honneur” to Margaret of Austria (1480-1530) in a 1519 patent and held the position until 1530, the present picture would most likely have been painted some time in the 1520s, consistent with the date proposed by Michel. The unusual and exotic landscape background, with thatched-roof dwellings, parrots, and even a monkey perched on the tree stump in the lower right may have been based on written descriptions or drawings by eye-witnesses. Such first-hand evidence would have enabled Mostaert to paint a more accurate view of the local terrain and native inhabitants. Cutler (1989) has cited as a possible source Jacopo de’Barbari’s woodcut of The Battle of Men and Satyrs (c. 1497-1500). The Italian was a fellow court painter during the Regency of Margaret of Austria.

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Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Triumph of Death, c. 1562, oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Jacopo de’Barbari (1460-1516)The Battle of Men and Satyrs (c. 1497-1500), woodcut, British Museum, London

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Though the early dating seems to be the most widely accepted one, there have been various other theories. Van Luttervelt (1948-9) proposed that the place represented might be present-day New Mexico or Arizona, in the Southwest United States. He was supported by Snyder (1976 and 1996), who further suggested that it shows a battle between Francesco Vasquez de Coronado and the Zuni Indians in New Mexico in 1540. (Of course, this fails to take into account the arrival of the invaders by sea, in the ship just visible on the horizon: both New Mexico and Arizona are land-locked.)

Coronado sent a report to Charles V in 1541, detailing his unsuccessful quest for Cíbola – the fabled ‘Seven Cities of gold’ – in which he describes a victorious battle.

If this is the event depicted, it would date the painting to around 1542. Van de Waal (1952) proposed that it could represent Columbus’ landing on island of Goanin in 1492-3. Larsen (1970) suggested it might be the invasion of Brazil by the Portuguese in the middle of the century. And Cuttler (1989) observed at left a fragment of a classical pier, which, interpreted in combination with the primitive huts, could even suggest a pastiche or imaginary view.

Zuni Cliff Dwellings, New Mexico

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It might be possible to reconcile the various features of the painting if we allow for the possibility that it was painted as a more generally representative image of the discovery and conquest of America by the Spaniards. If the picture were originally commissioned by Margaret of Austria following Cortes’ invasion of Mexico in 1523, this would account for the depiction of the Europeans arriving by ship. Perhaps the painting remained unfinished after Margaret’s death, and after the Coronado expedition to the American Southwest, Mostaert added elements of that narrative as well, including the Zuni cliff dwellings and the legend of Coronado being helped to his feet after the attack by natives throwing rocks. This would, moreover, both explain the painting’s original commission and its descent in Mostaert’s own family.

Various scholars have acknowledged a potentially moralising message in the painting, which is clearly the record of an assault by a superior military power on a native population living in harmony with its surroundings. The domesticated cows and sheep seen in the foreground attest to the existence of an established agricultural community. Both Snyder and Honour (1975-6) relate how a majority of the European nations were vehemently disapproving of Spanish atrocities to the native people in the Americas. It might even be seen as a secular counterpart to Mostaert’s painting of the Banishment from Eden (Clark Art Gallery, Williamstown MA). There is surely also a nationalist undertone to a representation by a Netherlandish artist of the Spanish as merciless and destructive invaders. While Charles V was sponsoring expeditions to the New World, he was also ruling over the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands at a time of violent struggle between the Catholic monarchy and the Protestant Reformers.

Jan Mostaert was born into a noble family in Haarlem, and from 1500 onwards his name appears in the records of the Haarlem painters’ guild. According to van Mander, he studied with Jacob Jansz. Van Haarlem. Between 1502 and 1507 he employed apprentices of his own. Mostaert’s interest in the New World was fuelled by reports of the Spanish explorations, which would have reached him at Margaret’s court at Malines. He had evidently died by 1554 as his name is crossed out on the membership rolls of the guild.

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Banishment of Hagar, c. 1620, oil on panel, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

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In addition to its art historical significance, this panel is historically important as one of approximately 1400 works appropriated by the Nazis from the Amsterdambased art dealer Jacques Goudstikker during the Second World War. Goudstikker was a contemporary of Duveen and was, like his English counterpart, the son of an art dealer. When he joined the ranks of his father’s gallery in 1919, he made it his mission to expand and diversify the business, in an effort to draw a more international clientele. In this aim he achieved tremendous success: according to Henk van Os, a former director of the Rijksmuseum, “Between the two wars Jacques Goudstikker was the man who brought the Dutch patriciate of the era into contact with prominent foreign art and in so doing greatly expanded their view of the art world.” Goudstikker began printing sale catalogues in French, and made an effort to include reproductions of artists’ signatures and dates, following the model of museum catalogues. In 1927, Goudstikker relocated his gallery to a larger space on the Herengracht in a mansion constructed in 1656 for the Dutch merchant Wuytiers.

There, and at his castle, Nijenrode, Goudstikker staged major exhibitions and displayed his holdings in museum-like installations, with paintings hung alongside furniture and decorative arts. He helped to guide the taste of J.W. Edwin vom Rath and Detlen Van Hadeln, both of whom willed their considerable collections to the Rijksmuseum. Goudstikker worked closely with academics as well as collectors, and counted among his friends Wilhelm von Bode and Raimond von Marle. Tragically, Goudstikker’s career was cut short by the advance of the Third Reich. Goudstikker, who was Jewish, escaped the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands with his wife Desi

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and infant son Edouard in May 1940 on a ship destined for South America, but fell to his death one night through an open hatch while on the deck of the ship, which had been darkened out of fear of attacks from the air. Back in Amsterdam, Herman Göring wasted no time in establishing his henchman Alois Miedl in the directorship of the Goudstikker gallery, and the two engineered a forced sale of the gallery’s assets that allowed Göring to buy hundreds of artworks at a fraction of their value. After the war, the Allies returned to the Netherlands more than 200 looted Goudstikker paintings that had been in Göring’s collection. Most of these were later hung in Dutch museums and government buildings after the Dutch Government refused to restitute them to Desi, arguing that the sale of Jewish property to Göring in the immediate aftermath of the Nazi invasion was voluntary -- even though Desi had expressly refused to give her permission. The Dutch Government finally reversed its position and restituted 200 paintings to Jacques Goudstikker’s heir in 2006. The case hinged on an unprepossessing black notebook that was found on Goudstikker’s body after his death: this was an inventory book, in which the meticulous art dealer had itemized most of the works in his vast holdings, noting the title, artist, dimensions, and date of purchase. The restituted pictures were the subject of an exhibit in Goudstikker’s honour that originated at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT in 2008. The exhibit was also shown at the Jewish Museum in New York, which organized a traveling exhibition that went to the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, California.

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Jacques Goudstikker in his Gallery The Discovery of America Mostaert

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