Maarten van Heemskerck’s Rome
Antiquity, Memory, and the Cult of Ruins
Series: - Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Volume: 287/31
- Brill's Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History, Volume: 287/31
This book presents the first sustained study of the stunning drawings of Roman ruins by Haarlem artist Maarten van Heemskerck (1498–1574; in Rome, 1532–ca. 1537). In three parts, Arthur J. DiFuria describes Van Heemskerck’s pre-Roman training, his time in Rome, and his use his ruinscapes for the art he made during his forty-year post-Roman phase.
Building on the methods of his predecessors, Van Heemskerck mastered a dazzling array of methods to portray Rome in compelling fashion. Upon his return home, his Roman drawings sustained him for the duration of his prolific career. Maarten van Heemskerck’s Rome concludes with the first ever catalog to bring together all of Van Heemskerck’s ruin drawings in state-of-the-art digital photography.
Building on the methods of his predecessors, Van Heemskerck mastered a dazzling array of methods to portray Rome in compelling fashion. Upon his return home, his Roman drawings sustained him for the duration of his prolific career. Maarten van Heemskerck’s Rome concludes with the first ever catalog to bring together all of Van Heemskerck’s ruin drawings in state-of-the-art digital photography.
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Arthur J. DiFuria, Ph.D. (2008, Delaware), is Savannah College of Art and Design’s Chair of Art History. He has published books and articles on early modern Netherlandish art, including Genre Imagery in Early Modern Northern Europe: New Perspectives (Ashgate / Routledge, 2016).
“Until now, Maarten van Heemskerck's hundreds of Roman drawings have been used chiefly by archaeologists and architectural historians to discern the critical early stages of building St Peter's and excavating ancient imperial ruins. To the rescue, Arthur Di Furia examines this entire corpus of drawings for what they contributed to van Heemskerck's later creations and to an emerging Netherlandish vision of antiquity in the sixteenth century. As the first study dedicated to a comprehensive cultural interpretation of both van Heemskerck and Rome, this fine tome uncovers a critical turning-point in both histories.”
Larry Silver, Farquhar Professor of Art History, emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
“The book is filled with excellent reproductions of paintings, prints, and drawings. In the case of the drawings, they allow readers to see Heemskerck’s remarkable skill and range. Arthur DiFuria has written an important study of Heemskerck and the way he understood the potent symbolism of Roman ruins: in providing a view of the partial destruction of Rome’s glorious past, the author allows us to witness what remains and to reinvent Rome through memory, just as Heemskerck himself did in the many works of art that this book documents and contextualizes.”
Sharon Gregory, St. Francis Xavier University. In: CAA Reviews (June 7, 2021).
“This fine monograph […] has been edited impeccably, with meticulous reproductions of Van Heemskerck's drawings and many of his paintings. A great help to the reader are the cuts from the drawings reproduced in the margins of the main text.”
Eric M. Moormann, Radboud University. In: Babesch, vol. 95 (2020), pp. 275–277.
“This book constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of Van Heemskerck's depiction of ancient Roman ruins.”
Guido Rebecchini, Courtauld Institute of Art. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Summer 2021), pp. 583–585.
“No aspect of van Heemskerck's life and work stays in the dark. Apart from being an exhaustively documented study where no nuance is lost, the publication is also outstanding for its narrative qualities; the text is not only erudite but also elegant.”
Natalia Agapiou, in: Roma nel Rinascimento (2019), pp. 28–29.
Larry Silver, Farquhar Professor of Art History, emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
“The book is filled with excellent reproductions of paintings, prints, and drawings. In the case of the drawings, they allow readers to see Heemskerck’s remarkable skill and range. Arthur DiFuria has written an important study of Heemskerck and the way he understood the potent symbolism of Roman ruins: in providing a view of the partial destruction of Rome’s glorious past, the author allows us to witness what remains and to reinvent Rome through memory, just as Heemskerck himself did in the many works of art that this book documents and contextualizes.”
Sharon Gregory, St. Francis Xavier University. In: CAA Reviews (June 7, 2021).
“This fine monograph […] has been edited impeccably, with meticulous reproductions of Van Heemskerck's drawings and many of his paintings. A great help to the reader are the cuts from the drawings reproduced in the margins of the main text.”
Eric M. Moormann, Radboud University. In: Babesch, vol. 95 (2020), pp. 275–277.
“This book constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of Van Heemskerck's depiction of ancient Roman ruins.”
Guido Rebecchini, Courtauld Institute of Art. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Summer 2021), pp. 583–585.
“No aspect of van Heemskerck's life and work stays in the dark. Apart from being an exhaustively documented study where no nuance is lost, the publication is also outstanding for its narrative qualities; the text is not only erudite but also elegant.”
Natalia Agapiou, in: Roma nel Rinascimento (2019), pp. 28–29.
Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Maarten van Heemskerck’s Rome
Drawings in Berlin and Scattered to the Four Winds
The Historicized Van Heemskerck and Karel Van Mander’s Schilder-Boeck
Van Heemskerck’s Drawings and Memory
Van Heemskerck and the Cult of Ruins
Introduction
1 The Possibility of a pre-Roman Maarten van Heemskerck
Collection, Invention, and Netherlandish Antiquity c. 1510–25
The Status of the Ruin in Netherlandish Visual Culture c. 1510–25
The Roman Journey’s Status in the Netherlands and Van Heemskerck’s Road to the Eternal City
2 The Ruin Landscape in Jan van Scorel’s Workshop
Prototype, Imitation, Emulation, Invention
Van Scorel, Van Heemskerck, and the Ruin
Leaving Van Scorel’s Workshop: Landscape and the Wanderjahr Drawing
Introduction
3 Drawing Ruins in Post-Sack Rome
Rome’s Post-Sack Milieu
Drawing, Collecting, and the ‘Chaos of Memory’
Ruins in Post-Sack Rome
Raphael and Van Heemskerck’s Ruinscapes
Charles V’s Triumphal Procession
4 Memory and Maarten van Heemskerck’s Eternal Eye
Discovering the Vestiges of Ancient Rome in the Frame
The Compelling Space and the Epochal Time of Van Heemskerck’s Ruinscapes
Artistry and Roman Topography as Memory
5 The Copious Hand
An Abundant Technique
Van Heemskerck’s Pre-Roman Technical Inheritance: Pen and Ink Hatching, Netherlandish Realism
Towards Finish: The Flexibility of Van Heemskerck’s Pen and Ink Process
Ink Washes, Chalk, Texture: Performance
Mimesis, Performance, and Function
Introduction
6 Invention, Collecting, Antiquarianism
Reinventing Rome: Panorama with the Abduction of Helen Amidst the Wonders of the World
Memory and Invention After Rome: Van Heemskerck’s Drawings in the Netherlands
Van Heemskerck’s Inventions After the Antique: Means and Modes
In Reminiscor: Reading the Ruins
7 Antiquity in 1553: Ruins and Self-Fashioning
A Summa of the Self
Coming of Age: The Signature Ruin and Netherlandish Antiquarianism
Van Heemskerck’s Drawings and Hieronymus Cock’s Præcipua aliquot Romanae Antiquitatis Ruinarum
Self-Portrait before the Colosseum’s Antiquarian Audience
8 Regnum, Reform, and Ruin
Van Heemskerck and the Destruction of Art in the ‘Age of Art’
Before the Beeldenstorm, After the Antique
1569: The Rhetoric of Ruination
Epilogue
After Van Heemskerck, After the Antique: A Continuum of Pictorial Memory
A Note on the Catalog
In and Around the Forum
Forum Romanum
Capitoline Hill
Palatine Hill
Arch of Titus
Colosseum
Arch of Constantine
Septizonium
Forum Nervae
On the Quirinal Hill
Frontespizio di Nerone
Baths of Diocletian
Trofei di Mario
San Lorenzo Fuori le Mure
On the Tiber’s East Bank and On the Interior
Porticus Octaviae
Forum Boarium
Piazza del Popolo
Pantheon
In and Around the Vatican
Banchi and Borgo
St. Peter’s
Belvedere
Near the South Wall
Baths of Caracalla
San Giovanni in Laterano
Temple of Minerva Medica
Porta Maggiore
Pyramid of Cestius
Further Afield: Otium
Tivoli
Villa Madama
Panorama, Collection, Fragment, Fantasia
Broad-View Panoramas
Sculpture Collections, Gardens, and Cortile
Architectural Fragments
Fantasia
Single Sheets with Multiple Copies after Maarten van Heemskerck: The so-called De Vos Sketchbook
Deattributions
Deattributions from Maarten Van Heemskerck
A Deattributed Group of Drawings in Berlin: ‘Anonymous C’
A Brief Explanation and List of Previous Deattributions
Notes
References
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Maarten van Heemskerck’s Rome
Drawings in Berlin and Scattered to the Four Winds
The Historicized Van Heemskerck and Karel Van Mander’s Schilder-Boeck
Van Heemskerck’s Drawings and Memory
Van Heemskerck and the Cult of Ruins
Part 1: Imagining the Eternal: Maarten van Heemskerck Before Rome
Introduction
1 The Possibility of a pre-Roman Maarten van Heemskerck
Collection, Invention, and Netherlandish Antiquity c. 1510–25
The Status of the Ruin in Netherlandish Visual Culture c. 1510–25
The Roman Journey’s Status in the Netherlands and Van Heemskerck’s Road to the Eternal City
2 The Ruin Landscape in Jan van Scorel’s Workshop
Prototype, Imitation, Emulation, Invention
Van Scorel, Van Heemskerck, and the Ruin
Leaving Van Scorel’s Workshop: Landscape and the Wanderjahr Drawing
Part 2: Drawing the Eternal: Van Heemskerck in Rome
Introduction
3 Drawing Ruins in Post-Sack Rome
Rome’s Post-Sack Milieu
Drawing, Collecting, and the ‘Chaos of Memory’
Ruins in Post-Sack Rome
Raphael and Van Heemskerck’s Ruinscapes
Charles V’s Triumphal Procession
4 Memory and Maarten van Heemskerck’s Eternal Eye
Discovering the Vestiges of Ancient Rome in the Frame
The Compelling Space and the Epochal Time of Van Heemskerck’s Ruinscapes
Artistry and Roman Topography as Memory
5 The Copious Hand
An Abundant Technique
Van Heemskerck’s Pre-Roman Technical Inheritance: Pen and Ink Hatching, Netherlandish Realism
Towards Finish: The Flexibility of Van Heemskerck’s Pen and Ink Process
Ink Washes, Chalk, Texture: Performance
Mimesis, Performance, and Function
Part 3: Remembering the Eternal: Van Heemskerck After Rome
Introduction
6 Invention, Collecting, Antiquarianism
Reinventing Rome: Panorama with the Abduction of Helen Amidst the Wonders of the World
Memory and Invention After Rome: Van Heemskerck’s Drawings in the Netherlands
Van Heemskerck’s Inventions After the Antique: Means and Modes
In Reminiscor: Reading the Ruins
7 Antiquity in 1553: Ruins and Self-Fashioning
A Summa of the Self
Coming of Age: The Signature Ruin and Netherlandish Antiquarianism
Van Heemskerck’s Drawings and Hieronymus Cock’s Præcipua aliquot Romanae Antiquitatis Ruinarum
Self-Portrait before the Colosseum’s Antiquarian Audience
8 Regnum, Reform, and Ruin
Van Heemskerck and the Destruction of Art in the ‘Age of Art’
Before the Beeldenstorm, After the Antique
1569: The Rhetoric of Ruination
Epilogue
After Van Heemskerck, After the Antique: A Continuum of Pictorial Memory
Part 4: A Catalog of Maarten van Heemskerck’s Roman Ruin Drawings
A Note on the Catalog
In and Around the Forum
Forum Romanum
Capitoline Hill
Palatine Hill
Arch of Titus
Colosseum
Arch of Constantine
Septizonium
Forum Nervae
On the Quirinal Hill
Frontespizio di Nerone
Baths of Diocletian
Trofei di Mario
San Lorenzo Fuori le Mure
On the Tiber’s East Bank and On the Interior
Porticus Octaviae
Forum Boarium
Piazza del Popolo
Pantheon
In and Around the Vatican
Banchi and Borgo
St. Peter’s
Belvedere
Near the South Wall
Baths of Caracalla
San Giovanni in Laterano
Temple of Minerva Medica
Porta Maggiore
Pyramid of Cestius
Further Afield: Otium
Tivoli
Villa Madama
Panorama, Collection, Fragment, Fantasia
Broad-View Panoramas
Sculpture Collections, Gardens, and Cortile
Architectural Fragments
Fantasia
Single Sheets with Multiple Copies after Maarten van Heemskerck: The so-called De Vos Sketchbook
Deattributions
Deattributions from Maarten Van Heemskerck
A Deattributed Group of Drawings in Berlin: ‘Anonymous C’
A Brief Explanation and List of Previous Deattributions
Notes
References
Those interested in early modern European visual culture in northern Europe and Italy, especially specialists in drawings, prints, antiquarianism, the image debate, and the reign of Charles V.