Marten Ryckaert
{{Short description|Flemish painter}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
File:Van dyck-el pintor martin ryckaert-prado.jpg]]
Marten Ryckaert or Maerten RyckaertAlso called: Marten or Martin Rijckaert (baptised 8 December 1587, Antwerp – 11 October 1631), was a Flemish landscape painter. He was known for his small, usually imaginary landscapes in an Italianate style.
Life
Marten Ryckaert was a member of the Ryckaert (or Rijckaert) family of artists. He was born in Antwerp in 1587 as the second child of David Rijckaert the Elder and Catharina Rem.Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, Antwerpen, 1883, p. 601-603 {{in lang|nl}} David the Elder was a brewer and a painter of wooden statues who had become a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1585.Bernadette Van Haute. David III Ryckaert: A Seventeenth-Century Flemish Painter of Peasant Scenes. Volume 1, Doctoral thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Literature and Philosophy at the University of South Africa, November 1996, pp. 10-12 He is also mentioned as a dealer in paintings. Marten had 7 siblings of whom his older brother David the Younger (born in 1586) became a prominent still life painter. He was the uncle of David Ryckaert III, a genre painter.Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, Antwerpen, 1883, p. 754, 1059–1060 {{in lang|nl}} As the result of a birth defect or because of an accident, he had only one arm.
File:A RIVER LANDSCAPE WITH THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.PNG]]
Marten probably first studied with his father and was later a pupil of Tobias Verhaecht (or Verhaeght).{{cite book|author1=James A. Welu|author2=Worcester Art Museum|title=The Collector's Cabinet: Flemish Paintings from New England Private Collections|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGyDApPr4AUC&pg=PA102|year=1983|publisher=Worcester Art Museum|isbn=978-0-87023-420-0|page=102}} Verhaecht was also Peter Paul Rubens's teacher for a brief period. Marten became a member of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1607.
It is believed he traveled to Italy between 1607 and 1610 although no documentary evidence of this trip has been found. It is believed that during his stay in Italy he practised plein air sketching.[http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/martin-ryckaert-an-extensive-mountainous-landscape-with-5715175-details.aspx#tabWindow2 Martin Ryckaert (Antwerp 1587-1631), An extensive mountainous landscape with figures on horseback and others resting in the foreground, a winding river and a town beyond] at Christie's Marten rejoined the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1611 and was registered as the "painter with one arm".[https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/69101 Biographical details] at the Netherlands Institute for Art History {{in lang|nl}} He spent the remainder of his professional career in his native city. He was active in the local chamber of rhetoric De Violieren. He never married and collected many paintings by his contemporaries in his house in the Meyerstraat in Antwerp.[http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/wurzbach1910bd2/0541?sid=21f18fcd5aaa653a892cdbfc7a33b42e Martin Ryckaert] in Wurzbach, Alfred von [Bearb.], Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon: mit mehr als 3000 Monogrammen (Band 2): L - Z, Amsterdam, 1910 {{in lang|de}}
File:Marten Rijckaert - Landschap in het Rijndal.jpg
He was reportedly a close friend of Anthony van Dyck, who painted his portrait showing Ryckaert dressed up as a king around 1630. This portrait was in the possession of Marten Ryckaert when he died and is today in the Prado in Madrid.[http://www.sothebys.com/fr/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.pdf.N08516.html/f/11/N08516-11.pdf Sotheby's Important Old Master Paintings, Including European Works of Art], New York | 29 janv. 2009 The portrait was engraved by Jacob Neefs and then included in van Dyck's book project entitled "Iconography" which contained portraits of famous people of that time.Moir, Alfred, Anthony van Dyck, Thames and Hudson, London, 1994, p. 98
Ryckaert fell ill in early 1631 and is buried in Antwerp on 11 October. He left his entire fortune to his sister Maria and his brother Pauwel (or Pauwels).
Work
His sparse surviving works mainly depict imaginary landscapes with forests, often with waterfalls, rocks, ruins, architecture and small human figures. Marten Ryckaert's work shows similarities with that of the Antwerp painter Joos de Momper[http://www.hetguldencabinet.be/nl/werk/0974_1/Marten+Rijckaert+/Landschap Landschap, Marten Rijckaert] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510102727/http://www.hetguldencabinet.be/nl/werk/0974_1/Marten+Rijckaert+/Landschap |date=10 May 2017 }} at Het Gulden Cabinet {{in lang|nl}} and also to that of Paul Bril and Jan BrueghelHans Vlieghe (1998), Flemish Art and Architecture 1585-1700; Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998 {{ISBN|0-300-07038-1}}
File:Marten Ryckaert - Landscape with a farmer plowing and the fall of Icarus.jpg
It is difficult to assess the stylistic development of his work. The landscapes are in an Italianate style and thus resemble those of the Rome-based Flemish landscape painter Paul Bril. This is particularly true for works from the period following his return from his presumed trip to Italy as Paul Bril's prints of Roman-style landscapes were widely disseminated in Antwerp at this time. The placement, style and grouping of the figures in the landscapes are indebted to Jan Brueghel the Elder. This is most obvious in works such as the Landscape with the Flight into Egypt (in a private collection) that is based on a lost original by Brueghel, although Ryckaert did not slavishly copy Brueghel's invention. The colour treatment resembles that of Joos de Momper.
File:A rocky landscape with figures by an iron foundry.jpg
His style of painting became gradually obsolete during his own lifetime and was replaced by the Baroque style, which was characterized by a greater realism, greater scale, warmer colours and transparent light.[http://www2.academieroyale.be/academie/documents/FichierPDFBiographieNationaleTome2065.pdf#page=317 Biographical details] at the Nouvelle Biographie Nationale {{in lang|fr}}
His composition A rocky landscape with figures by an iron foundry has long been regarded as one of the oldest paintings of a blast furnace and refinery in Europe.[http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5813628 Marten Ryckaert , A rocky landscape with figures by an iron foundry, a river and houses on the bank beyond] at Christie's
References
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External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Marten Rijckaert}}
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Category:Flemish Baroque painters
Category:Flemish landscape painters