CHARLES CORNELISZ DE HOOCH, atribuido

Attributed to CHARLES CORNELISZ DE HOOCH (Holland, c.1600-1638).
"Grotto with classical ruins".
Oil on canvas.
Missing in the frame.
Measurements: 97 x 119 cm; 112 x 132 cm (frame).
The baroque category of the sublime is manifested in this painting in a very original and characteristic way of the work of Charles Cornelisz De Hooch, who belonged to the Dutch Golden Age. The painter combined oversized landscapes filled with grottoes and staircases with marble statues that seem to have formed part of a tomb. Here, the small figures that seem to have been lost in the overwhelming site, account for the enormous proportions of the statues and the damp, moss-lined caverns. A castle can be seen in the distance. De Hooch's boundless imagination is combined with great technical skill. This type of cave painting is the genre in which De Hooch excelled most. A. Blankert, in his catalogue of 17th-century Dutch Italianate painters, 1965, describes them as "eerie illuminated grottoes in which, in an unreal, almost surreal manner, symbols of Vanitas are grouped together". During the 17th century, the landscapes, culture and ancient monuments of Italy, the warm light of the South and the lively population were a source of inspiration for many Northern artists, especially Dutch and Flemish painters. Several Dutch painters, such as Charles and David de Hooch, Abraham van Cuylenborch, Rombout van Troyen and Petrus van Hattich specialised in so-called grotto interiors. Others, such as Cornelis van Poelenburch, Dirck Stoop and Willem van Bemmel, regularly chose these mysterious settings for their paintings. The characters in the grotto scenes were mythological (Diana and her nymphs) or contemporary (visitors, shepherds). The inventor of this genre is thought to have been Cornelis van Poelenburch, who returned from a stay in Italy to his native Utrecht in 1627. The interest in grottoes is thought to derive from the discovery, between the late 15th and early 17th centuries, of the Roman catacombs and the remains of Nero's Domus Aurea on the Palatine Hill. This is iconographically combined with the pastoral plays set in an Arcadia inhabited by nymphs and satyrs.
De Hooch's biographical details come in part from the pages devoted to him by Samuel Ampzing as one of the most important Dutch painters of ruins, along with Pieter Molyn, Jacob Pinas and Salomon de Bray. It is deduced that he lived in Haarlem until 1628, the year of publication of Ampzing's book. After his period in Haarlem he moved to Utrecht. In Utrecht he belonged to a group of painters that included Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Abraham van Cuylenburch, Rombout van Troyen and P. van Hattick. After donating a painting to the "Gasthuis of Saint Employment" in 1628, he was introduced into the Guild of Saint Luke in Utrecht in 1633. His Utrecht period is characterised by Italian-inspired landscapes and paintings of grottoes. De Hooch's Italianate landscapes can clearly be associated with those of Poelenburgh and Breenbergh, although it is not known whether he learned the Italianate motifs on a trip to the south or from the Dutch masters after their return to the country. De Hooch is known for his intriguing paintings of dramatically illuminated grottoes featuring classical sculptures and architectural fragments. In his painting "Italian Landscape with Ruins and Duck Hunters", which was completed between 1630 and 1635, he presents a "solid and monumental composition accompanied by firm and tangible modelling details", as his biographer writes. Works by him are kept in the Mougins Museum of Classical Art.