Balthasar Lauwers

Balthasar Lauwers, known in Italy as Baldassare Lauri or Baldassare Lauro[1][2] (Antwerp, baptized on 18 April 1578 - Rome, 4 August 1645) was a Flemish landscape painter who, after initially training in Antwerp, had a successful career in Italy where he worked for an elite clientele.[3][4] As he was mainly active as a fresco painter in private residences, not many of his works have been preserved.

Wooded landscape with a floral garden and a castle

Life

Balthasar Lauwers was baptized on 18 April 1578 in Antwerp.[3] He was enrolled in 1590 under the name Balten Lauwers at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a pupil of Francoys Borsse, a painter.[5]

Fantasy view with the Ponte Rotto

Lauwers left Antwerp and travelled via Milan and Venice to Rome.[6] His arrival in Italy must be placed around 1600 when he was still in his early twenties. In Rome, he was a pupil of, and later worked as an assistant to, the prominent Flemish landscape painter Paul Bril who had established himself in Rome around 1582.[7] Thanks to Paul Bril's connections in Rome, Lauwers was able to secure various commissions.

Prior to 1603, Balthasar Lauwers married Hélène (Elena) Cousin, daughter of Henri Cousin, a goldsmith from Paris and scion of a prominent family of French goldsmiths and artists, including two painters of the School of Fontainebleau.[8]

In 1622 he joined the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.[9] In 1634 Lauwers went to Milan to work on commissions. According to the early Italian art historian Filippo Baldinucci, Lauwers was invited to Milan by Cardinal Albornoz who was then the Governor of Milan. He painted in the Ducal Palace in Milan frescos of landscapes in certain porticos. Lauwers received a monthly stipend from the Cardinal as long as the Cardinal remained the governor of Milan. Lauwers returned to Rome soon where he continued to be active as a landscape painter. He made many frescos for the Sacchetti family, in particular in their palace in Ostia. He also worked for other prominent personalities of the Roman aristocracy and higher church hierarchy.[4]

The painter Angelo Caroselli, who had become a widower, married in 1642 his daughter Brigitta Lauwers (Lauri). Lauwers trained his two sons Francesco Lauri and Filippo Lauri in the art of painting.[10] Filippo further studied with his brother Francesco and his brother-in-law Angelo Caroselli.[11] Aside from his sons, the architectural painter François de Nomé was also a pupil of Balthasar Lauwers.[12]

Lauwers died on 4 August 1645 in Rome.[3]

Work
Wooded landscape with animals and huntsmen

Balthasar Lauwers was principally active as a landscape painter. He worked on canvas and copper and also produced many frescos in palaces.[3]

Balthasar Lauwers is known for his landscapes depicting coastal and river landscapes populated with contemporary figures and hunting scenes. This is why he is sometimes also referred to as a marine painter. Lauwers is also described in Italian sources as a quadraturista, i.e. a painter of architectural illusions on walls to "open them up" or Italian ceiling paintings.[13] He is known to have provided wall decorations in many palaces.[4]

His style is regarded as close to that of Paul Bril, his master in Rome.[4] He collaborated on decorative projects with Paul Bril and Agostino Tassi.[13]

References
  1. Gemälde: Beschreibendes Verzeichniss, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. Gemäldegalerie Selbstverlag der Direction, 1882, p.184 (in German)
  2. Also referred to as: Balten Lauwers, Balthasar Lawers and Baltassare Lauri
  3. Balthasar Lauwers at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
  4. Filippo Baldinucci, Domenico Maria Manni, Opere di Filippo Baldinucci: Notizie de'professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, Società tipografica de'Classici italiani, 1812, p. 288-289 (in Italian)
  5. Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius (ed.), De liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche sint Lucasgilde van 1453–1615, Antwerp, 1872–1876, p. 450 (in Dutch)
  6. Jörg Martin Merz, Pietro da Cortona, Ernst Wasmuth, 1991, p. 172 (in German)
  7. Reginald Howard Wilenski, Flemish Painters, 1430-1830, Viking Press, 1960; p. 227
  8. Pseudo-Caroselli (active in Rome, first quarter of the 17th century), A courtesan in a plumed hat playing a tambourine, a landscape beyond at Christie's New York sale of 19 April 2018, lot 6
  9. Carel van Mander, Hessel Miedema, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters, from the First Edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604): Commentary on lives, Davaco, 1994, p. 16
  10. Seicento : le siècle de Caravage dans les collections françaises : Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 11 octobre 1988-2 janvier 1989 [et] Palazzo Reale, Milan, mars-avril 1989, Réunion des musées nationaux (France), Milan (Italy). Settore cultura e spettacolo Réunion des musées nationaux, 1988, p. 148 (in French)
  11. Sir Philip Hendy, European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Trustees of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1974, p. 134
  12. Franc̦ois de Nomé: Mysteries of a Seventeenth-century Neapolitan Painter, Menil Collection, 1991, p. 20
  13. Napoli scontraffatta (ieri e oggi), Giovanni Artieri A. Mondadori, 1984, p. 558 (in Italian)
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