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DOI Artikel:Monkiewicz, Maciej: Ter Brugghen and Honthorst in Poland
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18945#0230
Maciej Monkiewicz
Ter Brugghen and Honthorst
in Poland*
Among the relatively numerous works by followers of Caravaggio in
Poland’s otherwise rather weak collections of West European art, a large group
of Netherlandish paintings stands out. Paintings by Hendrick ter Brugghen and
Gerard van Honthorst, two of the leading Utrecht Caravaggisti, are prominent
in this group. Honthorst, already in his own lifetime a successful artist and
favourite of the public, has invariably enjoyed a high reputation since the
seventeenth century. Hendrick ter Brugghen, although esteemed, was neither
so famous nor so willingly imitated. Only in the last decades has he acquired
the status he deserves, thanks to the unusually animated studies on Dutch
Caravaggism that have resulted in many publications and famous exhibitions.
As one of the most brilliant followers of Caravaggio North of Alps and one of
the most outstanding Dutch painters of the 17th century, he is acknowledged
today as an artist of higher calibre than Honthorst.
Two works by ter Brugghen and one by Honthorst were presented in the
exhibition Various Faces of Caravaggism. Thus for the first time two of these
paintings could he seen by specialists and the public alike. This is of special
importance in the case of ter Brugghen’s Pilate Washing his Hands (Fig. 1) from
the Muzeum Lubelskie in Lublin,1 since in the last thirty-odd years the problem
of its authorship has been a matter of much dispute among art historians, who
* This is an extended version of the lecture Ter Brugghen’s 'Pilate’ delivered at the symposium. I am
indebted to dr Lech Brusewicz (Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika in Tornii), Barbara Czajkowska
(Muzeum Lubelskie in Lublin), Maria Kluk (Muzeum Narodowe in Warsaw), Piotr Michalowski
(Muzeum Narodowe in Poznan), Joanna Winiewicz (Panstwowe Zbiory Szuki na Wawelu, Cracow),
and to the owners of paintings for their help and cooperation. The English text was verified by
Robert Kirkland.
1 Inv. no. S/M/1611/ML, oil on canvas, 100,7 x 128,7 cm; cf. Caravaggio ‘Zlozenie do Grobu’
Arcydzieto Pinakoteki Watykanskiej. Koine oblicza caravaggionizmu: Wybrane obrazy z Pinakoteki
Watykanskiej i zbiorów polskicb (ed. J. Kilian, A. Ziemba), exh. cat. Muzeum Narodowe
w Warszawie, 1996, cat. no. 6.
220
Ter Brugghen and Honthorst
in Poland*
Among the relatively numerous works by followers of Caravaggio in
Poland’s otherwise rather weak collections of West European art, a large group
of Netherlandish paintings stands out. Paintings by Hendrick ter Brugghen and
Gerard van Honthorst, two of the leading Utrecht Caravaggisti, are prominent
in this group. Honthorst, already in his own lifetime a successful artist and
favourite of the public, has invariably enjoyed a high reputation since the
seventeenth century. Hendrick ter Brugghen, although esteemed, was neither
so famous nor so willingly imitated. Only in the last decades has he acquired
the status he deserves, thanks to the unusually animated studies on Dutch
Caravaggism that have resulted in many publications and famous exhibitions.
As one of the most brilliant followers of Caravaggio North of Alps and one of
the most outstanding Dutch painters of the 17th century, he is acknowledged
today as an artist of higher calibre than Honthorst.
Two works by ter Brugghen and one by Honthorst were presented in the
exhibition Various Faces of Caravaggism. Thus for the first time two of these
paintings could he seen by specialists and the public alike. This is of special
importance in the case of ter Brugghen’s Pilate Washing his Hands (Fig. 1) from
the Muzeum Lubelskie in Lublin,1 since in the last thirty-odd years the problem
of its authorship has been a matter of much dispute among art historians, who
* This is an extended version of the lecture Ter Brugghen’s 'Pilate’ delivered at the symposium. I am
indebted to dr Lech Brusewicz (Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika in Tornii), Barbara Czajkowska
(Muzeum Lubelskie in Lublin), Maria Kluk (Muzeum Narodowe in Warsaw), Piotr Michalowski
(Muzeum Narodowe in Poznan), Joanna Winiewicz (Panstwowe Zbiory Szuki na Wawelu, Cracow),
and to the owners of paintings for their help and cooperation. The English text was verified by
Robert Kirkland.
1 Inv. no. S/M/1611/ML, oil on canvas, 100,7 x 128,7 cm; cf. Caravaggio ‘Zlozenie do Grobu’
Arcydzieto Pinakoteki Watykanskiej. Koine oblicza caravaggionizmu: Wybrane obrazy z Pinakoteki
Watykanskiej i zbiorów polskicb (ed. J. Kilian, A. Ziemba), exh. cat. Muzeum Narodowe
w Warszawie, 1996, cat. no. 6.
220