David Praised by the Israelite Women
Location: North Carolina Museum of Art
City: Raleigh, North Carolina
Artist: Hendrick ter Brugghen
Contents
Artist Biography
About the Painting
Related Links and Resources
References
Artist Biography
Hendrick (Jansz.) ter Brugghen (Terbrugghen), The Hague (?) ca. 1588–1629 Utrecht.
Recognized along with Gerrit van Honthorst (1592-1656) and Dirck van Baburen (ca. 1594-1624) as one of the foremost members of the Utrecht Caravaggisti, Hendrick ter Brugghen represents one branch of an international artistic movement inspired by Caravaggio. Debates concerning the artist’s biography began decades after his death and continue in scholarly discourse. Hendrick ter Brugghen was probably born in The Hague and many of his formative years were spent in Utrecht. The artist’s seventeenth-century biographer, Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688), reports that ter Brugghen was a pupil of Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651). Seventeenth-century sources report that ter Brugghen spent up to ten years in Italy, from around 1604 to 1614. Whether the painter ever returned to Italy is the subject of much dispute. Clearly the painter was well versed in the Roman Caraveggesque. Eschewing impasto and other painterly effects, ter Brugghen developed a personalized interpretation of a southern Italian style that betrays his familiarity with northern artists. Two Dutch painters have been closely associated with ter Brugghen during his productive years in Utrecht after 1614. Documentary sources link him to Hendrick van Broekhuijsen (d. 1623). They suggest that ter Brugghen may have been van Broekhuijsen’s lodger and employee before he was admitted to the guild as a master in 1616. Unfortunately, no biographical or artistic record of van Broekhuijsen survives. Beginning in 1621, ter Brugghen is thought to have had greater contact with the latest Caravaggesque ideas through Dirk van Baburen, with whom he might have shared a workshop until van Baburen died. Like Caravaggio, ter Brugghen made copies of his own works, which prompts art historians and connoisseurs to pay close attention to the painter’s methods in order to authenticate variants. Studies have uncovered the artist’s iconographical changes as well as major reworkings by restorers. Most technical analysis has centered on the painter’s use of smalt and it’s discoloration over time. When Turkish occupation of Hungary halted azurite mining in the early seventeenth century, artists seeking a cheap and available alternative used smalt instead.
About the Painting
The artist painted this rendition of David returning from his victory over Goliath about a decade after his own return from his trip to Italy. Ter Brugghen chose to impose a somber mood on a biblical subject that was popular with sixteenth and seventeenth-century painters for its joviality. The head of David is possibly a self-portrait, which is an artistic choice that is consistent with the Caravaggesque tradition. Quality of workmanship as well as a full date and signature (found on the sheet music) indicate that this is the prime version of four known variants of the composition. Curiously, this signature was doctored to read as “Baburen” at an earlier time in its history.
Related Links and Resources
University of Amsterdam The full text of Joris Dik’s 2003 dissertation is available for download from the University of Amsterdam’s Digital Academic Repository. This dissertation describes a research project in the field of technical art history focused on the European history of smalt from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
Close Examination: Winter Landscape
National Gallery LondonAn online feature about Caspar David Freidrich’s Winter Landscape includes a vivid description of his methods and technique, including his choice of smalt over synthetic blue pigments.
Allen Memorial Art Museum’s “Saint Sebastien Tended by Irene”
A classroom resource sheet prepared by staff at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin College.
References
Bijl, Martin. Translated by Andrew McCormick. “Restoration Report.” In A Newly Discovered Painting by Hendrick Ter Brugghen, Albert Blankert, 44-51. Zwolle: Uitgeverij Waanders, 1991.Bok, Marten Jan, and Yoriko Kobayashi. “New data on Hendrick ter Brugghen.”Hoogsteder-Naumann Mercury i (1985): 7-34.Castro, Silvia, Anna von Reden, Ursula Baumer, Patrick Dietemann, Heike Stege, Irene Fiedler, Cornelia Tilenschi, and Jörg Klaas. “Examinations of Two 17th Century Dutch Paintings with Respect to Colour Alteration and the Greyish Appearance of the Paint Layers.” Zeitschrift Für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung 23, no. 2 (2009): 177–195.Dik, Joris. “Scientific Analysis of Historical Paint and the Implications for Art History and Art Conservation: The Case Studies of Naples Yellow and Discoloured Smalt.” PhD diss., University of Amsterdam, 2003.Dik, Joris, Milko den Leeuw, Wilko Verbakel, René Peschar, Robert Schillemans, and Henk Schenk. “The Digital Reconstruction of a Smalt Discoloured Painting by Hendrick Ter Brugghen.” Zeitschrift Für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung 16, no. 1 (2002): 130–146.“Henrick Terbrugghen: David and the Singers.” In The Samuel H. Kress Collection, North Carolina Museum of Art, 134-135. Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1965.Nicolson, Benedict. Hendrick Terbrugghen. London: Lund Humphries, 1958.———. The International Caravaggesque Movement: Lists of Pictures by Caravaggio and His Followers Throughout Europe from 1590 to 1650. Oxford: Phaidon, 1979, 97-101.Schuckman, Christiaan. “Did Hendrick ter Brugghen revisit Italy? Notes from an unknown manuscript by Cornelis de Bie.” Hoogsteder-Naumann Mercury iv (1986): 7–22.Slatkes, Leonard J. “David Saluted by Women.” In Hendrick Terbrugghen in America, Leonard J. Slatkes and Wolfgang Stechow, 16-17. Dayton and Baltimore: Dayton Art Institute and Baltimore Museum of Art, 1965.———. “Rethinking ter Brugghen’s early Chronology.” In Hendrick ter Brugghen und die Nachfolger Caravaggios in Holland: Beiträge eines Symposions aus Anlaß der Austellung „Holländische Malerei in Neuem Licht, Hendrick ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen,“ edited by Rüdiger Klessman, 77-84. Braunschweig: Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, 1988.———. “Brugghen, Hendrick Ter.” Grove Art Online (n.d.).Slatkes, Leonard J, and Albert Blankert. Holländische Malerei in Neuem Licht: Hendrick ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen. Braunschweig: Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, 1986.Steel, David. “David Praised by the Israelite Women.” In A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Chiy Ishikawa, Lynn Federle Orr, George T. M. Shackleford, and David Steel,150-154. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994.Weller, Dennis. “David Praised by the Israelite Women.” In North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, edited by Rebecca Martin Nagy with assistance by June Spence, 101. Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998.