Typical subjects include food and beverage sellers, farmers and milkmaids at work, soldiers at rest and play, and beggars, or, as Salvator Rosa lamented in the mid-seventeenth century, "rogues, cheats, pickpockets, bands of drunks and gluttons, scabby tobacconists, barbers, and other 'sordid' subjects."[3] Despite their lowly subject matter, the works found appreciation among elite collectors and fetched high prices.[4]
Artists
Hunter at Rest by Pieter van Laer
Many of the artists associated with the Bamboccianti were members of the Bentvueghels (Dutch for 'birds of a feather'), an informal association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists in Rome. It was customary for the Bentvueghels to adopt an appealing nickname, the so-called 'bent name'. The bent name of the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer was "Il Bamboccio", which means "ugly doll" or "puppet". This was an allusion to van Laer's ungainly proportions.[3] Van Laer is regarded as the initiator of the Bamboccianti style of genre painting and his nickname gave the genre and the group of artists its collective name. He became the inspiration and focal point around which likeminded artists congregated during his stay in Italy (1625–1639).[5]
Giovanni Battista Passeri, a seventeenth-century chronicler of art, described van Laer's work as an "open window" that provides an accurate representation of the world around him, characteristics applied to the Bamboccianti in general:[9][10]
"era singular nel represetar la veritá schietta, e pura nell'esser suo, che li suoi quadri parevano una finestra aperta pe le quale fussero veduti quelli suoi successi; senza alcun divario, et alterazione."
The Small Limekiln (Landscape with Morra Players) attributed to Jan Both
"[he] was unique in representing the truth, in its pure essence, such that his paintings appear to us like an open window through which we can see all that happens, without difference or alteration"
Passeri expressed here the traditional art historical view that the Bamboccianti paintings offered a realist "true portrait of Rome and its popular life" "without variation or alteration" of what the artist sees.[11][12] However, their contemporaries did not generally regard the Bamboccianti as realists. An alternative view of the art of the Bamboccianti is that their works should rather be seen as complex allegories which are a commentary on classical art with a view to bringing the observer to contemplate elevated ideas. They thus stand in a long tradition of paradox in which low or vulgar subjects were the vehicle for conveying important philosophical meanings. For instance, the Bamboccianti regularly made paintings of gigantic limekilns outside Rome. These limekilns used the marble and travertine blocks of the Roman antique ruins as raw material and thus played a direct role in the destruction of Rome's ancient monuments. The limekilns themselves are painted in a grandiose way as if they were the new monuments of Rome. The kilns created something new from the ruins of ancient Rome and the lime they produced was used in the construction of new monuments in Rome. The paintings of these limekilns can therefore be read as a reflection on the transience of glory as well as the regenerative power of Rome. In other words, these paintings were intended to be read ironically and allegorically (even as paradoxes) and not as exact, realist depictions of life in Rome.[13]
Roman Streetscene with a Young Artist by Michiel Sweerts
During the 1640s and 1650s Jan Miel and Michelangelo Cerquozzi started to expand the scope of Bamboccianti compositions by paying more attention to the surrounding landscape and emphasising less the anecdotal aspects of city and country life. These works were repeatedly used as a model by the Bamboccianti from the second half of the century and by the genre painters working in Rome during the early 18th century. Miel's most original contribution to this genre are his carnival scenes.[14]
The painter Karel Dujardin brought a different variation to the genre by placing his genre paintings of peasants and charlatans in the idealized setting of the lofty ruins in the countryside around Rome.[15]
Critical reception
Although the Bamboccianti found success with their paintings, art theorists and academicians in Rome were often unkind as paintings of everyday life were generally regarded as being at the bottom rung in the hierarchy of genres.[16] The artists themselves were often admired: van Laer was known as an artist whose works could command a high price and Michelangelo Cerquozzi was able to gain access to aristocratic circles and befriend artists such as Pietro da Cortona.[17]
The success of the genre is partly explained by a change in the mode of decorating the houses of the upper classes in Rome. Paintings on canvas or panel gradually gained preference over frescoes. This gave foreign artists who were specialized in this technique an advantage. Furthermore, as art lovers were looking for new topics there existed a favorable environment for the reception of Bamboccianti art.[18]
The fact that learned and aristocratic patrons continued to purchase works by these artists was frequently bemoaned by painters of histories and other genres within the accepted canon of the city's main artistic establishment, the Academy of St. Luke.[2][19] For example, Salvator Rosa, in his satire on painting Pittura (c. 1650), complains bitterly about the taste of the aristocratic patrons and their acceptance of such everyday subjects:[19][20]
"Quel che aboriscon vivo, aman dipinto."
"Those they abhor in life, are loved in paint"
As is reflected in Rosa's comment, such derision was usually directed not at the artists but towards those who bought the works.[21] Acceptance of the Bamboccianti in the Accademia di San Luca, the prestigious association of leading artists in Rome was not impossible, however. This is demonstrated by the fact that van Laer and Cerquozzi were associated with both (van Laer was also a member of the Bentvueghels).[22] Jan Miel was in 1648 even the first northern artist to be admitted to the Accademia di San Luca.[23]
Levine, David A. (December 1988). "The Roman Limekilns of the Bamboccianti". The Art Bulletin. College Art Association. 70 (4): 569–589. doi:10.2307/3051103. JSTOR3051103.
Roworth, Wendy W. (December 1981). "A Date for Salvator Rosa's Satire on Painting and the Bamboccianti in Rome". The Art Bulletin. College Art Association. 63 (4): 611–617. doi:10.2307/3050166. JSTOR3050166.
Slive, Seymour (1995). "Italianate and Classical Painting". Pelican History of Art, Dutch Painting 1600–1800. Penguin Books Ltd. pp.225–245.
Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). "Chapter 4". Pelican History of Art, Art and Architecture Italy, 1600–1750. 1980. Penguin Books Ltd. p.323.
Jacques Courtois or Giacomo Cortese, called il Borgognone or le Bourguignon was a Franche-Comtois–Italian painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He was mainly active in Rome and Florence and became known as the leading battle painter of his age. He also created history paintings and portraits. He became a Jesuit later in life but continued to paint.
Andries Both, was a Dutch genre painter. He was part of the group of Dutch and Flemish genre painters active in Rome in the 17th century known as the bamboccianti, who painted scenes from the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside.
Pieter Bodding van Laer was a Dutch painter and printmaker. He was active in Rome for over a decade and was known for genre scenes, animal paintings and landscapes placed in the environs of Rome.
Viviano Codazzi was an Italian architectural painter who was active during the Baroque period. He is known for his architectural paintings, capricci, compositions with ruins, and some vedute. He worked in Naples and Rome. He is known in older sources as Viviano Codagora or il Codagora.
Gaspar Roomer was a prominent Flemish merchant, banker, art patron and art collector who was active in Naples in the 17th century.
Genre painting, a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached either individually or collectively, thus distinguishing it from history paintings and portraits. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known person—a member of his family, say—as a model. In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have been intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait—sometimes a subjective question. The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist. Because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class.
Michelangelo Cerquozzi, known as Michelangelo delle Battaglie was an Italian Baroque painter known for his genre scenes, battle pictures, small religious and mythological works and still lifes. His genre scenes were influenced by the work of the Flemish and Dutch genre artists referred to as the Bamboccianti active in Rome who created small cabinet paintings and prints of the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside. One of the leading battle painters active in Italy in the first half of the 17th century, Michelangelo Cerquozzi earned the nickname 'Michelangelo delle Battaglie'.
Jan Miel was a Flemish painter and engraver who was active in Italy. He initially formed part of the circle of Dutch and Flemish genre painters in Rome who are referred to as the 'Bamboccianti' and were known for their scenes depicting the lower classes in Rome. He later developed away from the Bamboccianti style and painted history subjects in a classicising style.
Cornelis de Wael was a Flemish painter, engraver and merchant who was primarily active in Genoa in Italy. He is known for his genre paintings, battle scenes, history paintings and still lifes. Through his art work, support for Flemish painters working in Italy and role as an art dealer, he played an important role in the artistic exchange between Italy and Flanders in the first half of the 17th century. His work also had an influence on local painters such as Alessandro Magnasco, particularly through his scenes of despair and irony.
The Bentvueghels were a society of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome from about 1620 to 1720. They are also known as the Schildersbent.
Pieter van Lint or Peter van Lint (1609–1690) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and designer of tapestries. He excelled in history paintings, genre scenes and portraits in the Flemish Baroque style with some Classisizing influence. He worked in Antwerp and Italy.
Flemish Baroque painting was a style of painting in the Southern Netherlands during Spanish control in the 16th and 17th centuries. The period roughly begins when the Dutch Republic was split from the Habsburg Spain regions to the south with the Spanish recapturing of Antwerp in 1585 and goes until about 1700, when Spanish Habsburg authority ended with the death of King Charles II. Antwerp, home to the prominent artists Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens, was the artistic nexus, while other notable cities include Brussels and Ghent.
Jan van den Hecke or Jan van den Hecke the Elder (1620–1684) was a Flemish Baroque painter, draughtsman, printmaker and engraver, mainly known for his still lifes, landscapes and battle scenes. After training in Antwerp, he spent time in Rome, where he had important patrons. After his return to Flanders, he worked for a while in Brussels, probably painting flower still lifes for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, the Austrian governor of the Spanish Netherlands, before returning to work in Antwerp.
Anton Goubau or Anton Goebouw was a Flemish Baroque painter. He spent time in Rome where he moved in the circle of the Bamboccianti, Dutch and Flemish genre painters who created small cabinet paintings of the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside. He is known for his Italianate landscapes and genre paintings in the style of the Bamboccianti and his history paintings with mythological and religious themes.
Jean Ducamps, Giovanni di Filippo del Campo or Giovanni del Campo, was a Flemish Baroque painter who spent most of his career in Italy where he enjoyed notoriety for his religious compositions, genre scenes and allegories. He worked in a style that was influenced by Caravaggio and is counted amongst the Northern Caravaggisti.
Peiraikos, or Piraeicus, was an Ancient Greek painter of uncertain date and location. None of his work is known to have survived and he is known only from a brief discussion by the Latin author Pliny the Elder. Pliny's passage comes in the middle of his discussion of painting in Book XXXV of his Natural History, completed about 78 AD:
It is well to add an account of the artists who won fame with the brush in painting smaller pictures. Amongst them was Peiraikos. In mastery of his art but few take rank above him, yet by his choice of a path he has perhaps marred his own success, for he followed a humble line, winning however the highest glory that it had to bring. He painted barbers' shops, cobblers' stalls, asses, eatables and similar subjects, earning for himself the name of rhyparographos [painter of dirt/low things]. In these subjects he could give consummate pleasure, selling them for more than other artists received for their large pictures.
Willem Reuter was a Flemish painter of cityscapes, genre paintings and history paintings who was primarily active in Rome, where he was known as Guglielmo Reuter. He was part of the circle of Dutch and Flemish genre painters in Rome who are referred to as the 'Bamboccianti' and were known for their scenes depicting the lower classes in Rome.
Jacob van Staverden was a Dutch painter who emigrated to Rome where he formed part of the group of genre painters known as the Bamboccianti.
Jan van Buken or Jan van Beucken was a Flemish painter mainly known for his genre paintings and still lifes.
Alessandro Salucci was an Italian painter who played an important role in the development of the genre of cityscapes (vedute) of Rome. He created capricci, i.e. imaginary architectural perspectives and harbour views, in which the figures were often executed by another artist.
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