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拍品專文
Matthias Stomer is often regarded as the last great representative of the so-called Caravaggesque painters in Italy and his works are distinguished from those of his predecessors in their display of greater openness to Baroque innovations, especially those of Peter Paul Rubens. This painting is exemplary of the spirited brushwork and broad, painterly approach that is so characteristic of Stomer’s style. Despite his prodigious talents and significant oeuvre – more than two hundred autograph paintings are known – Stomer remains one of the most understudied artists of the seventeenth century. Research into him and his work has been hampered by a comparative lack of biographical documentation and firmly dated pictures, though Gert Jan van der Sman has recently published a reappraisal of Stomer’s movements and artistic development (see G.J. van der Sman, ‘Roma, Napoli, Sicilia: sul percorso artistico di Matthias Stom con una postilla su Jacques de l’Ange,’ Fiamminghi al Sud: Oltre Napoli, eds. G. Capitelli, T. De Nile and A. Witte, Rome, 2023, pp. 201-3).
Stomer, who was known by the surname Stom in his lifetime, may have been of Flemish origin. As Marten Jan Bok has pointed out, many individuals of this surname in the Dutch Republic had emigrated from Flanders, particularly Brussels and Ostend (see M.J. Bok, ‘Matthias Stom’, Nieuw licht op de Gouden Eeuw: Hendrick ter Brugghen en tijdgenoten, Utrecht, 1986-7, p. 333, notes 16 and 17). Whether a Flemish immigrant himself or the descendant of those who were, the artist probably received his artistic training in Utrecht, possibly with the leading Caravaggesque painter Hendrick ter Brugghen, or in Amersfoort. The influence of artists working in these centres can already be detected in Stomer’s earliest works.
At some point prior to 1630 – the year in which he is recorded in the Stato delle Anime (annual Easter census) as living on the Strada dell’Ormo with the slightly younger French painter Nicolas Prévost (1604-1670) in the parish of San Nicolà in Arcione (Rione Trevi) – Stomer had departed the Netherlands for Rome (see G. J. Hoogewerff, Nederlandsche kunstenaars te Rome (1600-1725): uittreksels uit de parochiale archieven, The Hague, 1942, p. 279). He was said to be thirty years old at the time of the census, making his birth year either 1599 or 1600. Records place him in Naples by 28 July 1635 (see M. Osnabrugge, ‘New Documents for Matthias Stom in Naples’, The Burlington Magazine, CLVI, no. 1331, 2014, pp. 107-8), though he may have been resident there by late 1632 or 1633. Stomer moved to Sicily in 1639, where, in 1641, he painted his only surviving signed and dated work, the Miracle of Saint Isidorus Agricola for the high altar of the church of the Agostiniani, Caccamo, Sicily (where it remains in situ). In 1642, baptismal records indicate he had relocated to Venice, where he would remain until at least 1645, after which time all documentary trace of his movements is lost.
This work, which has probably been in the same family’s possession for nearly two centuries or more, can be dated to Stomer’s residency in either Naples and Sicily (circa 1632⁄3-1642). Several similar bust-length works of aged figures, soldiers and youths are known, in which Stomer adapted the typical Dutch tronie to an Italian idiom. These include examples today at the Galleria Nazionale della Sicilia, Palermo, and Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden. Stomer often painted his figures brightly lit by a candle, such as in An Old Woman and a Boy by Candlelight (Birmingham Museums Trust). Less commonly, as in the present picture and a painting that appeared on the Berlin art market in 1933, the figure is illuminated by a light source beyond the pictorial frame (for the ex-Berlin painting, see B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, 2nd ed., Turin, 1989, I, p. 187, no. 1521; III, fig. 1521).
Despite scant biographical evidence, Stomer appears to have enjoyed a prominent position within the contemporary artistic milieu. Indeed, when six paintings by Stomer were gifted to a Capuchin convent in Naples in 1635, the bequest document described the artist as the ‘famous Stomer’. A little over a decade later Antonio Ruffo (1610⁄11-1678), Duke of Messina, acquired three pictures by the artist. By the time of these acquisitions, Ruffo’s collection included such masterpieces as Anthony van Dyck’s Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo of 1624 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art). Ruffo maintained a particular interest in works by northern European artists, many of whom had travelled to Italy, with additional paintings by the likes of Jacob Jordaens and Paul Bril, and tapestries after designs by Peter Paul Rubens. In 1653, Ruffo’s interest in Dutch art would see him commission the first of three paintings from Rembrandt, the Aristotle with a bust of Homer (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Stomer, who was known by the surname Stom in his lifetime, may have been of Flemish origin. As Marten Jan Bok has pointed out, many individuals of this surname in the Dutch Republic had emigrated from Flanders, particularly Brussels and Ostend (see M.J. Bok, ‘Matthias Stom’, Nieuw licht op de Gouden Eeuw: Hendrick ter Brugghen en tijdgenoten, Utrecht, 1986-7, p. 333, notes 16 and 17). Whether a Flemish immigrant himself or the descendant of those who were, the artist probably received his artistic training in Utrecht, possibly with the leading Caravaggesque painter Hendrick ter Brugghen, or in Amersfoort. The influence of artists working in these centres can already be detected in Stomer’s earliest works.
At some point prior to 1630 – the year in which he is recorded in the Stato delle Anime (annual Easter census) as living on the Strada dell’Ormo with the slightly younger French painter Nicolas Prévost (1604-1670) in the parish of San Nicolà in Arcione (Rione Trevi) – Stomer had departed the Netherlands for Rome (see G. J. Hoogewerff, Nederlandsche kunstenaars te Rome (1600-1725): uittreksels uit de parochiale archieven, The Hague, 1942, p. 279). He was said to be thirty years old at the time of the census, making his birth year either 1599 or 1600. Records place him in Naples by 28 July 1635 (see M. Osnabrugge, ‘New Documents for Matthias Stom in Naples’, The Burlington Magazine, CLVI, no. 1331, 2014, pp. 107-8), though he may have been resident there by late 1632 or 1633. Stomer moved to Sicily in 1639, where, in 1641, he painted his only surviving signed and dated work, the Miracle of Saint Isidorus Agricola for the high altar of the church of the Agostiniani, Caccamo, Sicily (where it remains in situ). In 1642, baptismal records indicate he had relocated to Venice, where he would remain until at least 1645, after which time all documentary trace of his movements is lost.
This work, which has probably been in the same family’s possession for nearly two centuries or more, can be dated to Stomer’s residency in either Naples and Sicily (circa 1632⁄3-1642). Several similar bust-length works of aged figures, soldiers and youths are known, in which Stomer adapted the typical Dutch tronie to an Italian idiom. These include examples today at the Galleria Nazionale della Sicilia, Palermo, and Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden. Stomer often painted his figures brightly lit by a candle, such as in An Old Woman and a Boy by Candlelight (Birmingham Museums Trust). Less commonly, as in the present picture and a painting that appeared on the Berlin art market in 1933, the figure is illuminated by a light source beyond the pictorial frame (for the ex-Berlin painting, see B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, 2nd ed., Turin, 1989, I, p. 187, no. 1521; III, fig. 1521).
Despite scant biographical evidence, Stomer appears to have enjoyed a prominent position within the contemporary artistic milieu. Indeed, when six paintings by Stomer were gifted to a Capuchin convent in Naples in 1635, the bequest document described the artist as the ‘famous Stomer’. A little over a decade later Antonio Ruffo (1610⁄11-1678), Duke of Messina, acquired three pictures by the artist. By the time of these acquisitions, Ruffo’s collection included such masterpieces as Anthony van Dyck’s Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo of 1624 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art). Ruffo maintained a particular interest in works by northern European artists, many of whom had travelled to Italy, with additional paintings by the likes of Jacob Jordaens and Paul Bril, and tapestries after designs by Peter Paul Rubens. In 1653, Ruffo’s interest in Dutch art would see him commission the first of three paintings from Rembrandt, the Aristotle with a bust of Homer (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art).