Johannes Lingelbach

JOHANNES LINGELBACH (Germany, 1622-1674).
"Alms in Rome."
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It presents restorations in the pictorial surface.
It has a frame of the eighteenth century with faults.
Measurements: 51 x 68 cm; 66 x 81 cm (frame).
In this scene located in Rome, the author presents us a pictorial approximation of the daily life of a great baroque city. In the center of the scene a group of characters eat and drink, while one of them receives the food, thus showing his inability to feed himself. Behind them, another group mistreats a young man who tries to run away from them. In short, the author confronts us, through costumbrismo, with the reality of Rome. However, being the city of holiness and using the obelisk as a spatial reference, the author provides a second reading of moral character that confronts misery to power, poverty to the baroque splendor of the church.
Johannes Lingelbach was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, linked to the second generation of the group known as Bamboccianti, a group of genre painters who worked in Rome between 1625 and 1700.
Johannes resided in Paris between 1642 and 1644, and later moved to Lyon, Genoa and Rome, where he collaborated with several members of the Bentvueghels, an association of Nordic artists based near the Piazza di Spagna. In June 1650 he returned to Amsterdam. He maintained friendships with artists such as Karel Dujardin, Jurriaen Ovens and Joan Huydecoper II, who lived on the Lauriergracht.
It is not known with certainty who his teacher was, although his works show the influence of Philips Wouwerman, particularly in the treatment of landscape. His ability to depict genre figures was equally outstanding in the depiction of architectural and natural elements. He was frequently invited to add figures and animals to landscapes by other painters, such as Beerstraten, Meindert Hobbema and Jan van der Heyden. His study of architectural forms developed through observation of the works of Viviano Codazzi, also a member of the Bamboccianti group and recognized as a painter of architectural views. Although his forms showed a remarkable handling of light and a precise spatial arrangement, Lingelbach worked with greater freedom than Codazzi.
Lingelbach followed the aesthetics of the Bamboccianti, in particular that of Il Bamboccio (Pieter van Laer), bringing an Italianate style that influenced the Nordic painters. He is one of the few Dutch artists of this group whose work is documented in detail, which has increased his relevance in the development of this pictorial style. Some of his paintings executed in Rome were once attributed to Pieter van Laer, although his authorship was later recognized, as is the case of Roman Street Scene with Card Players (National Gallery). These works reveal the influence of Caravaggio's realism and refined chiaroscuro, also present in compositions such as Figures before a locanda, with a view of the Piazza del Popolo in Rome (Royal Collection). Johannes Lingelbach was buried in the Lutheran Church of the Singel.