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DOI Artikel:Kozak, Anna; De Herdt, Jan [Ill.]: Jan de Herdt, a forgotten 17th century Flemish painter
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18902#0060
Anna Kozak
JAN DE HERDT, A FORGOTTEN 17th CENTURY FLEMISH PAINTER
The work of Jan de Herdt is among the less known chapters in the history of 17th century
Flemish painting. To datę, M. A. Baroncelli’s article „Jan de Herdt e le origini del Fiammenghi-
no”1 2, is the most extensive analysis of it. The author compiled the scant facts known of the
artist’s life and discussed his Italian period focusing on Herdt’s influence on his student Angelo
Everardi. De Herdt’s paintings now in Austria are dealt with in G. Heinz’s paper Studien iiber
Jan van den Hoecke und die Malerei der Niederldnder in lt ir/r'. R. Oldenbourg dedicated a few
words to de Herdt in his book Die Fldmische Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts3. The author of this
paper4 has attributed a portrait of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski in the collection of the National
Museum in Warsaw to de Herdt. The attribution was based on the affinity between the portrait
and a print in Gualdo Priorato’s book Historia di Leopoldo Cesare (Vienna, 1670—1674). Further
research on the artist’s drawings in the National Museum in Warsaw, and the discovery of a few,
formerly unknown paintings by him in Bohemia and Moravia have prompted me to return to
Herdt’s oeuvre.
The artistic quality of his works is difficult to assess because of their being scattered in dif-
ferent parts of Europę, some of them poorly preserved. A recoństruction of his biography is
another stumbling-block despite some new facts that have recently come to light; yet on the
whole the accessible Information is extremely scant. The datę and place of the artist’s birth are
not known. According to P. Orlandi5 6, he was bom in Antwerp, which is what popular art lexicons
also say. In his manuscript of the Bildende Kiinste in Mahren (1784—1812), however, A. Schweigl®
quotes Groningen as Herdt’s birth-place. Yet he does not mention his sources, hence the Infor-
mation may not be accepted unreservedly. The hooks of St. Luke’s guild in Antwerp testify
1. Saggi e Memorie di storia deWarte, 4, 1965, pp. 7—24.
2. Jalirbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, LXIII, 1967, pp. 109—164.
3. Published in Berlin, 1918, p. 97.
4. A. Kozak,,,Unknown portrait by Jan de Herdt”, Bulletin du Musee National de Varsovie, XVIII, No. 2, 1977, pp. 45—54.
A sliort paper on Jan de Ilerdt by Margherita Zanardi bas recently appeared in the book I pitlori bergamasclii dal XIII al
XIX secolo. II Seicento, III, Bergamo, 1985. I am grateful to Dr Giulio Bora of Milan for directing my attention to it.
5. P. A. Orlandi, Abecedario Pittorico, Bologna, Pissari 1704, p. 76, quoted after M. A. Baroncelli, op. cit., p. 9. The same
source is quoted by Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexicon der bildenden Kiinsller, XVI, Leipzig, 1923, p. 459.
6. SOAB (Statni Oblastni Archiv, Brno), fol. 9. I am grateful to Dr Jitka Sedlarova of the Moravian Gallery in Brno for
providing me with extracts from tbe manuscript, and for her kind assistance in my gathering materiał on the artist’slife
and work in Moravia.
50
JAN DE HERDT, A FORGOTTEN 17th CENTURY FLEMISH PAINTER
The work of Jan de Herdt is among the less known chapters in the history of 17th century
Flemish painting. To datę, M. A. Baroncelli’s article „Jan de Herdt e le origini del Fiammenghi-
no”1 2, is the most extensive analysis of it. The author compiled the scant facts known of the
artist’s life and discussed his Italian period focusing on Herdt’s influence on his student Angelo
Everardi. De Herdt’s paintings now in Austria are dealt with in G. Heinz’s paper Studien iiber
Jan van den Hoecke und die Malerei der Niederldnder in lt ir/r'. R. Oldenbourg dedicated a few
words to de Herdt in his book Die Fldmische Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts3. The author of this
paper4 has attributed a portrait of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski in the collection of the National
Museum in Warsaw to de Herdt. The attribution was based on the affinity between the portrait
and a print in Gualdo Priorato’s book Historia di Leopoldo Cesare (Vienna, 1670—1674). Further
research on the artist’s drawings in the National Museum in Warsaw, and the discovery of a few,
formerly unknown paintings by him in Bohemia and Moravia have prompted me to return to
Herdt’s oeuvre.
The artistic quality of his works is difficult to assess because of their being scattered in dif-
ferent parts of Europę, some of them poorly preserved. A recoństruction of his biography is
another stumbling-block despite some new facts that have recently come to light; yet on the
whole the accessible Information is extremely scant. The datę and place of the artist’s birth are
not known. According to P. Orlandi5 6, he was bom in Antwerp, which is what popular art lexicons
also say. In his manuscript of the Bildende Kiinste in Mahren (1784—1812), however, A. Schweigl®
quotes Groningen as Herdt’s birth-place. Yet he does not mention his sources, hence the Infor-
mation may not be accepted unreservedly. The hooks of St. Luke’s guild in Antwerp testify
1. Saggi e Memorie di storia deWarte, 4, 1965, pp. 7—24.
2. Jalirbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, LXIII, 1967, pp. 109—164.
3. Published in Berlin, 1918, p. 97.
4. A. Kozak,,,Unknown portrait by Jan de Herdt”, Bulletin du Musee National de Varsovie, XVIII, No. 2, 1977, pp. 45—54.
A sliort paper on Jan de Ilerdt by Margherita Zanardi bas recently appeared in the book I pitlori bergamasclii dal XIII al
XIX secolo. II Seicento, III, Bergamo, 1985. I am grateful to Dr Giulio Bora of Milan for directing my attention to it.
5. P. A. Orlandi, Abecedario Pittorico, Bologna, Pissari 1704, p. 76, quoted after M. A. Baroncelli, op. cit., p. 9. The same
source is quoted by Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexicon der bildenden Kiinsller, XVI, Leipzig, 1923, p. 459.
6. SOAB (Statni Oblastni Archiv, Brno), fol. 9. I am grateful to Dr Jitka Sedlarova of the Moravian Gallery in Brno for
providing me with extracts from tbe manuscript, and for her kind assistance in my gathering materiał on the artist’slife
and work in Moravia.
50