a m s t e r d a m u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s in his milieu Essays on Netherlandish Art in Memory of john michael montias a. golahny m.m. mochizuki l. vergara In His Milieu montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 1 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 2 In His Milieu Essays on Netherlandish Art in Memory of John Michael Montias Edited by A. Golahny, M.M. Mochizuki and L. Vergara montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 3 This publication was made possible by the generous support of the Depart- ment of the History of Art, Yale University; the Frick Art Reference Library; the Frick Collection; Jack Kilgore & Co., Inc.; The Montias family; The Netherland-America Foundation; Otto Naumann, Ltd.; Stichting Charema Fonds voor Geschiedenis en Kunst; the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University; and the Yale University Art Gallery. Cover design Studio Jan de Boer, Amsterdam Cover design Renée Joosten, New York conception Cover illustration © Chris de Jongh/NRC Handelsblad Lay-out PROgrafici, Goes ISBN - 13 978 90 5356 933 7 ISBN - 10 90 5356 933 2 NUR 654 © Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2006 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 4 Contents Acknowledgments 9 In Memoriam John Michael Montias ( 1928 – 2005 ) 10 Four Remembrances 13 EGBERT HAVERKAMP-BEGEMANN 13 OTTO NAUMANN 15 HERBERT E. SCARF 19 ALEXANDER M. SCHENKER 20 Art-Historical Publications by John Michael Montias 23 ANN JENSEN ADAMS Two Forms of Knowledge: Invention and Production in Thomas de Keyser’s Portrait of a Young Silversmith, Sijmon Valckenaer 29 ALBERT BLANKERT The Case of Han van Meegeren’s Fake Vermeer Supper at Emmaus Reconsidered 47 MARION BOERS-GOOSENS Prices of Northern Netherlandish Paintings in the Seventeenth Century 59 MARTEN JAN BOK and SEBASTIEN DUDOK VAN HEEL The Mysterious Landscape Painter Govert Janszn called Mijnheer ( 1577 -c. 1619 ) 73 ALAN CHONG Jacob Ochtervelt’s Rotterdam Patron 101 contents | 5 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 5 PAUL CRENSHAW Did Rembrandt Travel to England? 123 NEIL DE MARCHI and HANS J. VAN MIEGROET The Antwerp-Mechelen Production and Export Complex 133 STEPHANIE S. DICKEY Thoughts on the Market for Rembrandt’s Portrait Etchings 149 WAYNE FRANITS If the Shoe Fits: Courtship, Sex, and Society in an Unusual Painting by Gonzales Coques 165 AMY GOLAHNY A Sophonisba by Pieter Lastman? 173 ANNE GOLDGAR Poelenburch’s Garden: Art, Flowers, Networks, and Knowledge in Seventeenth-Century Holland 183 ETHAN MATT KAVALER Tournai’s Renaissance Jubé: Art as Instrument of Empowerment 193 YORIKO KOBAYASHI-SATO Vermeer and His Thematic Use of Perspective 209 SUSAN DONAHUE KURETSKY The Face in the Landscape: A Puzzling Print by Matthäus Merian the Elder 219 WALTER LIEDTKE with archival research by PIET BAKKER Murant and His Milieu: A Biography of Emanuel Murant, the “Rustic Forerunner” of Jan van der Heyden 233 ANNE-MARIE LOGAN Rubens as a Teacher: “He may teach his art to his students and others to his liking” 247 JOHN LOUGHMAN Abraham van Dijck ( 1635 ?– 1680 ), a Dordrecht Painter in the Shadow of Rembrandt 265 6 | in his milieu montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 6 ANNE W. LOWENTHAL Joachim/Peter Wtewael, Father/Son, Master/Pupil 279 MIA M. MOCHIZUKI At Home with the Ten Commandments: Domestic Text Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam 287 MICHAEL NORTH The Transfer and Reception of Dutch Art in the Baltic Area during the Eighteenth Century: The Case of the Hamburg Dealer Gerhard Morrell 301 NADINE M. ORENSTEIN Sleeping Caps, City Views, and State Funerals: Privileges for Prints in the Dutch Republic, 1593 – 1650 313 NATASJA PEETERS and MAXIMILIAAN P. J. MARTENS Piety and Splendor: The Art Collection of Antwerp Burgomaster Adriaan Hertsen 347 MICHIEL C. PLOMP Pictorial Archives: “Jordaans” in Delft 375 HERMAN ROODENBURG Visiting Vermeer: Performing Civility 385 LOUISA WOOD RUBY The Montias Database: Inventories of Amsterdam Art Collections 395 GARY SCHWARTZ Some Questions Concerning Inventory Research 403 LARRY SILVER Marketing the Dutch Past: The Lucas van Leyden Revival around 1600 411 ERIC JAN SLUIJTER “Les regards dards”: Werner van den Valckert’s Venus and Cupid 423 NICOLETTE C. SLUIJTER-SEIJFFERT The School of Cornelis van Poelenburch 441 contents | 7 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 7 MICKAËL SZANTO From Art to Politics: The Paintings of Jean de Warignies, Lord of Blainville (c. 1581 – 1628 ) 455 CHRISTOPHER S. WOOD Van Eyck Out of Focus 467 MICHAEL ZELL Landscape’s Pleasures: The Gifted Drawing in the Seventeenth Century 483 8 | in his milieu montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 8 Acknowledgments Producing a book of this kind relies completely upon a supportive commu- nity and in this respect we have been most fortunate. All the contributors have our heartfelt gratitude for believing in this project from its inception. Without their quick responses to our invitation and their contagious enthusiasm at every step in the process, this volume in honor of Michael Montias could not have been realized. Many assisted by generously donating their time, expertise and advice beyond anything we might ever have expected. Deserving of special mention are: Liz Allen, Kristin Belkin, Albert Blankert, Marten Jan Bok, Matthew de Clercq, Ned Cooke, Stephanie Dickey, Wayne Franits, Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, Magdalena Hernas, Renée Joosten, Jack Kilgore, Joan Kuyper, Randy Lemaire, Walter Liedtke, Anne-Marie Logan, Susan Matheson, Anniek Meinders, Maria Menocal, John-Luke Montias, Marie Montias, Sam Tsao Montias, Otto Nau- mann, Francien Olthof, Nadine Orenstein, Inge Reist, Jock Reynolds, Louisa Wood Ruby, Herb Scarf, Alex Schenker, Marike Schipper, Gary Schwartz, Eric Jan Sluijter, Nicolette Sluijter-Seijffert, Frans Spruijt, Martin Voigt, Chris- tine Waslander, Mariët Westermann, Thijs Weststeijn, and Chris Wood. We would also like to express our deep appreciation for the encouragement and generous financial assistance extended by our lead sponsor, Otto Nau- mann, Ltd., and to our donors on both sides of the Atlantic: the Department of the History of Art, Yale University; the Frick Art Reference Library; the Frick Collection; Jack Kilgore & Co., Inc.; The Montias family; The Nether- land-America Foundation; Stichting Charema Fonds voor Geschiedenis en Kunst; the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University; and the Yale Uni- versity Art Gallery. acknowledgements | 9 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 9 In Memoriam John Michael Montias (1928–2005) montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 10 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 11 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 12 Four Remembrances Michael Montias was a very special person. All of us who knew him will miss him, for many reasons. He was good company, and he was well informed about the matters of the day. It was always a pleasure to talk with him about the events in the world. He had his own views, and presented these with con- viction. He supported his opinions with quotes from literature, especially French literature. He laced his discourse with a sense of humor that tended both to bolster and to lighten his arguments. He was also a good listener, and gave his interlocutors the opportunity to formulate their own thoughts. Discussions with him were always a memorable pleasure. At this moment and in this place, however, I should like to say a few words especially about Mike’s contribution to the discipline that he chose in midlife, namely, the history of art. Trained as an economist and serving on the Yale faculty, with his specialty the economic systems of Eastern Europe, Mike developed an interest in the history of the art of the Netherlands. This was, I believe, in the late 1960 s. I remember that he borrowed books on art from me, like the basic two-volume handbook by Wilhelm Martin, which he obvi- ously perused. At the same time, he became intrigued by the enormous quantity of archival material in Holland that had been published only partially by an earlier gen- eration of art historians, in particular Abraham Bredius. Mike realized that much material lay fallow in the Dutch archives. He selected Delft for further research because the town was an active artistic center in the seventeenth cen- tury, yet its archives were not subject to the same intense traffic as those in Amsterdam. He learned the seventeenth-century Dutch archival language and script. The result was the book Artists and Artisans in Delft (Princeton Uni- versity Press, 1982 ). Mike’s approach to the archival data was distinctly innovative. His prede- cessors had been interested largely in the biographical information on artists four remembrances | 13 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 13 and in the facts about works of art. Their efforts were still part of a histori- cist and taxonomic approach. In contrast, Mike wished to define the socio- economic climate of the world of artists in a given location. The traditional study of the art of the past had been based almost exclusively on works of art that still exist. Again in contrast, Mike provided the art historian with a view of the artistic situation in a given place and time, through the kaleido- scopic facets of the lives and activities of artists and artisans. Mike took into account fluctuations of the market, the values of paintings of different sub- ject themes, the ratio of art works made in Delft as compared with those imported from other centers, the cost of an art education, the cost of travel- ing to Italy as a capstone to artistic training, institutional and private patron- age, and the role of the guilds. Mike commented on all these and other top- ics in his book. His approach was certainly an eye-opener to historians of Dutch art. Mike changed the image of art in Holland in the seventeenth cen- tury by placing the artist and his work in the context of economics and social history. Many younger colleagues have followed his approach. Mike went on with his archival research in Delft. Although originally he had not planned to investigate documents about the greatest Delft painter, Johannes Vermeer, he realized there was much work to be done. He researched the family, including greatgrandparents, nephews, nieces, and cousins; he dis- covered large quantities of data concerning these and other individuals who had dealings with Vermeer. With endless patience, he reconstructed the vitae of the family and its associates. The book that resulted is well titled Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History (Princeton University Press, 1998 ). It paints the background of the artist and his family, which included counter- feiters, architects, a scheming mother-in-law, and a Catholic wife. The book established the name and personality of one patron of Vermeer who acquired about twenty of the sixty paintings made by the artist. This is a very signif- icant addition to our understanding of the artist and how he worked. It must be noted that Mike was reluctant to conclude that the support of a patron made it possible for Vermeer to paint slowly, resulting in smooth, enamel- like surfaces, and that the patron therefore influenced the concepts of the artist. Mike was reluctant to do so in spite of two parallel instances of such supportive patronage in the cases of Gerard Dou and Frans van Mieris. In such matters of relating circumstance to artistic style, he was very cautious. Two observations should be added to this brief description of Mike’s work. He published one more book, on Amsterdam collections, and a number of articles. And he provided a database of no fewer than 52 , 000 paintings in Amsterdam collections for use in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York, in cooperation with the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in The Hague. One might ask, however, what was behind Mike’s interest in the topics he 14 | in his milieu montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 14 treated so well? I believe that he was guided decisively by two instincts, by two inclinations. One was his urge to collect. He was naturally inclined to collect objects, ceramics, paintings, kitchenware, and antique tools. In this endeavor, he was joined by his wife, Manya. But for Mike, the urge to col- lect went much further and included the collecting of data. Those endless days and months, and ultimately years, were possible and pleasurable for him because of his passion for collecting data. The second guiding trait was Mike’s interest in people. He had great inter- est in his fellow human beings, both in the broad social sense and in his indi- vidual friends. I believe that his search for data of the members of the Ver- meer family was exciting for him because all those names – those difficult first names and patronymics reflecting complicated family relationships – were not merely names for him, they represented living men and women with dis- tinct personalities and activities. All of us who knew Mike have benefited from his warmth, and we will always remember him for the uniquely generous qualities of his friendship. Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann • • • Michael Montias, as he preferred to be known, lost his battle with cancer in late July 2005 , after a prolonged and courageous struggle. He was one of the greatest innovators in the field of Dutch art history, although he was trained as an economist and only came to art history in the middle of an already dis- tinguished career. To hear Michael tell it, his interest in Dutch art was piqued as a teen- ager, when he came across a copy of Wilhelm von Bode’s multi-volume study of Rembrandt, now long outdated, but then the catalyst for his initial curios- ity about Dutch painters. This seed did not germinate until twenty years later, when he met Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann at Yale, where they were both professors. A polymath, Michael had explored a career in chemistry after read- ing a book on the periodic table, and considered writing a dissertation at Columbia on the prices of Dutch paintings at auction. However, he soon turned his attention to the discipline of economics and specifically compara- tive economic systems in the Soviet Bloc. It was in this field that he defend- ed his dissertation and published extensively (for example, Central Planning in Poland , 1962 ; Economic Development in Communist Romania , 1967 ). But his inter- est in Dutch art stayed with him. In 1975 , Michael received a summer grant to study the guild system in seventeenth-century Holland. Like Hans Floerke before him, he intended to survey the material, but he brought to the equa- tion his own expertise in statistical analysis and comparative economic sys- four remembrances | 15 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 15 tems. Michael so loved the project that soon he became totally absorbed in the wealth of material he discovered in the comparatively small archive of Delft, where he began his research. The results appeared in 1982 in a book that permanently altered the course of the study of Dutch art history, com- bining that discipline with the field of economics in a way that was unprece- dented, yet became intelligible to all ( Artists and Artisans in Delft: A Socio- Economic Study of the Seventeenth Century ). From this pioneering work arose a new subfield, one that combined statistical study with a deep understanding of cultural history, a road later followed by several distinguished economists and historians. Vermeer had always attracted Michael, and his archival pursuits began with this artist. Even in his first week in the archives in Delft, before he had fully mastered the Dutch language (let alone the cryptic script of the time), he found an unpublished document that mentioned Vermeer. That Friday evening, I remember, he invited me to his third-floor walk-up in Delft to see what he had unearthed, and already he had written out three pages in long- hand analyzing his relatively minor discovery. It was exhilarating to listen to him read this essay with an excited curiosity and infectious enthusiasm that never faltered, a characteristic that would later endear him to his readers and continue to inspire others through his published works. This material, along with hundreds of other documents that were studied in detail, led to his mag- isterial Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History ( 1989 ). The operative word in this title was “web,” because the material was more complicated than a spider’s web. Only Michael had the consummate patience to delight in the intricacies and follow all the strands of the fragmented remains, resurrecting an extended family that lived more than three centuries ago and endowing its members with an importance as pressing as our own. I once asked Michael how he came to realize that Pieter Claesz. van Ruijven was Vermeer’s principal patron. As he excitedly recalled, it had occurred to him on an airplane, when he was returning from the Nether- lands. The idea struck him like a thunderbolt, but he had to get back to his note cards in New Haven to see whether Van Ruijven and Jacob Dissius, whose estate inventory of 1696 contained twenty-one paintings by Vermeer, were indeed related. Michael was already aware that Vermeer and the enor- mously wealthy Van Ruijven (who purchased the domain of Spalant for six- teen thousand guilders in 1669 ) knew each other, for in 1657 the collector lent the painter two hundred guilders. But he made the more important con- nection when he realized that Van Ruijven’s collection passed to his daugh- ter, Magdalena, who married a certain Jacob Dissius in 1680 . Although Michael was cautious about his discovery in print, he was personally convinced that Van Ruijven was Vermeer’s Maecenas . Nevertheless, critics took him to task on this point, saying this was mere speculation on Michael’s part. I wish he 16 | in his milieu montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 16 could have lived to see that another document had been found linking Van Ruijven to Vermeer. The discovery belongs to Friso Lammertse, who includ- ed it in his recent book with Jaap van der Veen, Uylenburgh & Son. Art and Commerce from Rembrandt to De Lairesse 1625 - 1675 (Amsterdam: Museum Het Rembrandthuis, 2006 , p. 87 ). In 1672 , Vermeer and Johannes Jordaens testi- fied in The Hague that a group of Italian paintings was in their opinion rub- bish (“vodden”). Michael knew of this document, but uncharacteristically he cited only secondary sources and never checked the original. Lammertse found that the original document was witnessed by none other than “Pieter van Ruijven, heer van Spalant.” Michael, who often found precious nuggets by rereading published documents in the original, would have found it ironic and amusing that this important bit of information was unearthed using his own tried and proven methods of research. Michael’s interest extended beyond the archives to enliven these old papers with his extensive knowledge of history, languages (he was fluent in at least eight), and paintings. He loved the objects as much as the documents. When I met him in Dordrecht, where he stayed for awhile in the mid- 1970 s, he showed me a shovel he had bought in the local hardware store. As a week- end hobby, he used this tool to excavate vacant lots, unearthing everything from shards of pottery to clay pipes. This too he relished beyond measure, perhaps because the whole exercise was not so different from his digging in the archives during the week. Michael’s urge to possess objects from the past was realized in his collec- tion of Dutch seventeenth-century paintings. He could afford little on his professor’s salary and all the major purchases were a struggle, but he never strayed from his devotion to his acquisitions. It was only after protracted pay- ments and serious fiscal hardship that in 1968 he managed to secure Goltz- ius’ wonderful Magdalen (now on long term loan at the Metropolitan Muse- um of Art). In 1979 , when he stumbled across an anonymous painting, Allegory of the Love of Virtue , at Christie’s in New York, he froze in place, mumbling to me that the painting (or one exactly like it) was fully described in a document in the Delft Municipal Archives, where it was considered the work of Giovanni del Campo. Michael simply had to acquire the painting, no matter what. Happily, he did buy it and it now hangs on permanent loan in the Princeton University Art Gallery. The painting was subsequently attrib- uted to Valentin de Boulogne by Pierre Rosenberg, and it was included as such in the comprehensive exhibition, Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections . Always uncomfortable with the attribution to Valentin, Michael published the Del Campo document and his painting in 1982 (in a Festschrift honoring Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann). I only wish he could have lived to see the final outcome of this debate, which might very well be resolved in accordance with Michael’s initial attribution to Del Campo. He also bought four remembrances | 17 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 17 a beautiful Magdalen by Jan de Bray, which after a light cleaning turned out to be fully signed and dated. Had the inscription been known, he would never have been able to afford the painting. For an economist, Michael had a sur- prising disregard for money on a personal level. He loved what money could buy in the field of art, but never sought personal financial gain, or creature comforts for himself. He once bought a painting attributed to Frans van Mieris, knowing I was already preparing my dissertation on the artist. When I convinced him his new acquisition was a later copy, he handed it over to me, saying: “Here, it’s better in your hands.” After exhausting the Delft archives, Michael moved on to the mother lode – the massive archives of Amsterdam. Undaunted by the enormous challenge, he began a thorough investigation of seventeenth-century auctions, returning to the subject he had first envisioned while a graduate student at Columbia. The result was his last book, Art at Auction in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam ( 2002 ), wherein he addressed the various roles of auction sales, collectors, and dealers in the art market with his usual eye for critical detail. But so rich were the archival materials that even after the book, he continued to publish on aspects of this subject. Although by the end he was quite ill, he managed to write one last article devoted to attributions in Amsterdam inventories that appeared in Simiolus last year ( 2004-2005 ). One insight that stands out from his various articles is his discovery that prices were linked to style. For example, by compiling valuations from sev- enteenth-century inventories, he demonstrated that a broadly painted land- scape was less expensive than a minutely rendered genre scene, simply because the former was more quickly executed. He quantified beyond a shadow of a doubt the fact that even in Holland, that burgeoning birthplace of modern capitalism, “time is money.” As one reads back through Michael’s art-historical writing, it is remarkable to see so many points of inquiry – statistical, aesthetic, cultural, historical, sociological, to name only the most frequent – that he used to interrogate his subjects. He had an amazing memory, and his ability to recall anything he ever heard, or read informed all his writings. He was unfailing- ly generous with his finds and always eager to discuss any obscure genealog- ical connection. He will be much missed in the many communities where his boundless curiosity found him active. Art History stole Michael away from Economics, but death robbed Art History of a beautiful mind. Otto Naumann • • • 18 | in his milieu montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 18 My wife, Maggie, and our three daughters came to Yale in 1963 , and our first memory of the Montias family is a lovely picnic on the beach, watching the sun set as our children frolicked nearby. Michael and Manya were an extreme- ly handsome couple, whom we got to know very well during the next sever- al years. Michael’s charm, intelligence, and range of intellectual interests were remarkable. He was fluent in, what shall I say, some eight languages, know- ledgeable about the economies of many countries, and very well read, with an amazing ability to recall everything that he had been exposed to. At that time, Michael’s major field was comparative economics of Eastern European countries. He was not a mathematical economist, as I am, but he was entranced by the field. However, mathematics was not his strongest suit. In this regard, he was like a little kid looking at marvelous cookies through the window of a bakery shop. But he did have remarkable analytical skills. I had played chess a little bit as a kid and Michael reintroduced me to the game. We played chess frequently and I invariably lost. I remember Michael admon- ishing me at one point by saying, “You are thinking too hard. Let your moves be simple and graceful.” And of course, Michael was lucid and graceful. Michael was very close to the great economist Tjalling Koopmans as well, and the two of them collaborated on several papers in which mathematical techniques were applied to comparative economic systems. Tjalling and I also played chess, and in his eagerness to unite the three of us, Tjalling invented a three-person chess game that we played every now and then. As you might imagine, the game wasn’t very good. Michael’s interest in art began very early in his life. When we met, he had already begun to purchase unusual and ultimately valuable works of art. And then slowly he began to apply the techniques that he had developed in the study of Eastern European economic systems to his new love: the works of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Dutch masters. He knew very well how to search through the cellars and hidden library files for obscure though important economic information, and he transferred this skill to the study of the purchases and sales of Dutch painting. He became the world’s expert in the history of these painters, with an enormous circle of acquaintances in this field. He wrote books of great significance. This became his passionate sec- ond career. Michael began to spend more and more time in European libraries, and we lost touch with each other. But we came together again several years ago. Michael became ill with a lengthy and ultimately terminal disease; but he maintained a remarkable composure and temperament during this lengthy and difficult time. Sometimes my wife and I would visit him together; sometimes I would visit him alone, or go to see him with other friends at home, in the hospital, or for lunch. His interests never flagged. All of us were astonished by the evenness of his mood and his lack of distress. I remember one lunch four remembrances | 19 montiasdeel1 04-12-2006 13:54 Pagina 19