Old Masters
Jan Frans van Bloemen, called Orizzonte
Antwerp 1662 – Rome 1749.
Arcadian Landscape
Oil on canvas: 40.3 x 66 cm
Provenance: English Private Collection
General Bibliography
Jan Frans von Bloemen was born in Antwerp on the 12th May 1662 and was the brother of Pieter and Norbert van Bloemen. After an apprenticeship to the landscape and genre painter Anton Goubau he travelled to Rome in 1681 where he quickly developed a reputation as one of the leading landscape painters of the day. He received many commissions and was nicknamed “D’ Orizzonte” in appreciation of his skill at rendering topographical and classical views. After visits to Sicily and Malta, Von Bloemen established himself in the Papal City where he enjoyed enormous success. Often called the Canaletto of the Roman Campagna his skill attracted the collaboration of most of the leading painters of that time who often added the staffage in his landscapes. Artist who are known to have worked with him in this way are: - Maratta, Chiari, Garzi, Luti, Panini, Batoni and Contanzi.
This Arcadian Landscape is an excellent example of one of his lush at atmospheric landscapes. A couple of figures are talking in the foreground, a shepherd is moving his flock along the road and a river meanders into the distance. A typical Umbrian hilltop town and castle dominate the landscape from the upper left of the composition and give a reminder that this peaceful Virgilian landscape once had a more troubled past.
Van Bloemen’s work is well represented in museums and good examples can be found in:- Aix, Budapest, Geneva, Paris(Louvre), Lille, Madrid(Prado), Milan, Stockholm and St. Petersburg
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