Roelant Savery
(1576 - 1639) |
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Dreamlike Landscapes, Hunting Scenes, Animals Art Work
| Name: |
Roelant Savery |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Courtrai |
| Nationality: |
Flemish |
| Birth: |
1576 |
| Death: |
1639 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Dreamlike Landscapes, Hunting Scenes, Animals |
| Medium: |
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| Method: |
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| Style: |
Dutch Golden Age |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| Roelant was the principal member of a Bemish family of painters that included Jacob Savery I (ca. 1545-Amsterdam 1602), Jacob Savery II (Amsterdam ca. 1592-1627), and Roelant's nephews Jan (Hans) Savery (Courtrai 1597-Utrecht 1655) and Salomon Savery (Amsterdam, ca. 1594- after 1664). Roelant is considered the chief Flemish exponent of the late mannerist landscape tradition, in which dramatic events unfold in vast or labyrinthian landscapes. Fantastic or dreamlike, these unreal landscapes were later rejected in favor of more prosaic visions based on actual experience. Savery is best known for his forest scenes filled with many animals (inspired by GHIis van Coninxloo), sometimes adopting such themes as "The Earthly Paradise." Some of his pictures were based on the works of his brother Jacob. Roelant*s delicate flowerpieces are comparable to those by Jan Brueghel I.* Occasional genre subjects are also known; all surviving examples are of peasant themes. The village life, amusements, and occupations of peasants are presented in a satirical although sympathetic vein. Modern scholars credit Roelant with the invention of the earliest known portrayal of a purely secular stable interior. His most noted example is the Stable Interior with Milkmaid (dated 1615, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). Born in 1576 in Kortrijk, Roelant was the son of Maerten Savery, the founder of a painters' dynasty, who left Kortrijk for Bruges in March 1580 shortly after his city fell to the Spanish. Five years later the family was in Haarlem, and in 1591 documents place Roelant in Amsterdam. Sometime before 1602 Roelant studied with his brother Jacob and then with Hans Bol. The only known examples of his artistic activity in these years are his Village Feast (dated 1600, St. Petersburg, Hermitage) and Tower of Babel (dated 1602, Nuremberg, Germanischen National museum). Sometime between 1603 and 1604 he traveled to Paris and was then called to Prague by Rudolf II in 1604. The emperor sent him to paint the T^rol between 1606 and 1608. The Tyrolean scenery made a lasting impression on the young artist, appearing in countless landscapes, some fantastic, others more descriptive. Undoubtedly Savery also befriended artists at court, including Aegidius Sadeler, whose many engravings are based on drawings and paintings by Savery. It is also likely that Roelant became acquainted with Jan Brueghel I, who was in Prague at that time. After Rudolfs death in 1612, Savery became painter to Emperor Matthias (Rudolfs brother) in Vienna, then moved to Amsterdam in 1613. Sources vary as to his travels. Documents place Roelant in Prague in January 1615; there were apparently short trips to Salzburg, Munich, and then again to Amsterdam in 1616. Savery finally settled in Utrecht, where he joined the St. Luke's Guild in 1619. His stature was such that he was elected to personally present a wedding gift (of his own work) to Amalia van Solms, the wife of Prince Frederick Henry, on behalf of Utrecht in 1626. Much of Roelant's career was connected to the Hapsburg court. Historians credit Rudolfs menagerie as a source for Savery's animal themes (although dated examples exist only after 1612, when Roelant had already left Prague), while Savery's two-year travels through the T^rol (sponsored by Rudolf) produced some of his most admired works and formed the basis for much of his later painting. His eighty-odd sheets of drawings made during and after his mountain walks were attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Elder until modern scholars (notably J. A. Spicer) returned them to their true author. Savery's forest scenes, such as his Landscape with Birds (signed and dated 1628, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), include a panoply of animals, both wild and domesticated. Poignantly, his pictures often include the dodo, a bird that was brought to the Netherlands during Savery's lifetime after the Dutch annexed Mauritius, one of the islands inhabited by the now extinct bird. The romanticism achieved by Coninxloo was transformed by Savery into fantastic imagery, captivating and full of wonderment, more by depiction of diverse and unusual animal species than of humans. Savery's work is considered fundamental for the development of Dutch and Flemish landscape painting of the later seventeenth century. |
Samples of Work
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