Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)
ANNUAL REPORT 2004 - A 2004. ÉV - PERMANENT EXHIBITIONS - ÁLLANDÓ KIÁLLÍTÁSOK - ILDIKÓ EMBER, ESZTER FABRY, AND ANNAMÁRIA GOSZTOLA: New Permanent Exhibition of the Old Masters' Gallery
Among the Utrecht Caravaggists, Jan Bylert is the only one who is represented by two works: the Bearded Man with a String of Pearls has just now become fit for exhibition. Still, it was possible to provide an insight into the output of this group, a marked phenomenon of Italian influence, by life-size figurai representations by Wouter Crabeth, and the almost unknown Matthius Meyvogel, as well as Hendrik Bloemaert's Old Man Reading. The first generation of Italianate landscape painters is represented by Comelis van Poelenburgh, and here we have also put a few pictures of his later followers on display. The Flemish roots are evident in several types of landscapes: Roeland Savery and Alexander Keirincx migrated from the southern region, as well as the seascape painter, Jan Porcellis. But architectural painting also reached back to Flemish antecedents, whose example of prominent importance is Bartholomeus van Bassen's large church interior with the tomb of William the Silent from 1620. The family of Frans Hals also arrived to Haarlem from Antwerp, thus allowing him to be proclaimed the first great genius of Dutch portrait painting, whose Portrait of a Man from 1634 is the latest portrait in this hall. This genre is represented by three further works: an early portrait, Elderly Man, from 1601, by Michiel van Mierevelt from Delft, and two painters from Amsterdam, Thomas de Keyser and Eliasz. Pickenoy, whose exhibited panels rank among the masterpieces within their oeuvre. We can bear witness to the birth of the Dutch genre painting in the mirror of the pictures of Willem Buytewech and Dirck Hals, following in his footsteps. The influence of Antwerp is again palpable in the beginnings of still life painting, whereas the knowledge amassed in the workshops of Utrecht, Leiden, Haarlem and Amsterdam amalgamated to an individual and highly influential style in the art of Jan Davidsz. de Heem, by whom, in addition to his well-known fruit still life, an early, larger banquet piece from 1629, until now undeservingly neglected, is also on view. In hall XXVII, we can see the gradual development of a consistent national style in the depiction of domestic landscapes, thanks primarily to the activity of Jan van Goyen and his expansive impact. Among his numerous followers, we will mention here only the names of Anthony van der Croos, Frans Maerten van der Hülst, Abraham van Beyeren and Jan Coelenbier. But in his earlier period, Salomon van Ruysdael also fell under the influence of Van Goyen. Among Salomon's ten works preserved in the collection, perhaps precisely those landscapes from 1631 and 1644 are those of the highest standard. Alongside Haarlem, Leiden, The Hague, Amsterdam and Dordrecht also had important painters' workshops, but in addition to their local characteristics, their mutual influence upon each other can also be observed. The peasant and bourgeois scenes within genre painting stand in sharp contrast to each other, and evolved compositional types recur in the panels of Dirck Hals, Pieter Quast, Pieter Symonsz. Potter and Benjamin Cuyp. The truly innovative artists were Jan Miense Molenaer and the Ostade Brothers, Adriaen and Isaac. The further evolution of portrait painting is represented by a later Portrait of a Man by Frans Hals and, among his followers, by a work of extremely high quality by Johannes Cornelisz. Verspronck, accompanied by the portrait pair by Jacob Cuyp of Dordrecht. A surprising bit of news concerns the new attribution of one of the finest female portraits in the collection, which was once given to Rembrandt, and then Paulus Moreelse, but is now exhibited under the
