Geldorp Gortzius(Leuven 1553 – ca. 1619 Cologne)

How to cite
Bakker, Piet. “Geldorp Gortzius.” In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.
New York.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (accessed May 17, 2019).
This page is available on the site’s Archive. PDF of every version of this page is available on theArchive, and the Archive is managed by a permanent URL. Archival copies will never be deleted. Newversions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

Information on the life of Geldorp Gortzius is summary at best. He is assumed to have been born in Leuvenin 1553, but the identity of his parents is unknown. He might have been the father of George Geldorp(before 1595–1665), who was active in Antwerp in the first quarter of the seventeenth century andsubsequently moved to London. Karel van Mander, the first to report on Geldorp, referred to him as“Gualdrop Gortzius gheseyt Geldrop” (Gualdrop Gortzius called Geldrop), which could indicate that hisfamily came from the village of Geldrop in the province of Noord Brabant. We do not know his first name—it
is not mentioned in any contemporary source—nor does his signature afford any clues, for when he signed
his work he used only “GG,” the first letters of his surname.[1]According to Van Mander, Geldorp Gortzius trained with Frans Francken the Elder (1542–1616) and Frans
Pourbus the Elder (1541–85).[2] When he left for Antwerp in 1569, he was approaching eighteen years old,
the age at which a prospective painter had usually completed the first part of his training. However, it isunknown who taught Geldorp the rudiments of his craft.
Geldorp’s earliest known picture, The Last Supper as an Allegory of the Pacification of Ghent , is dated
1576 and already reveals his skills as a portraitist.[3] Around this time he was appointed court painter toCharles of Aragon, Duke of Terranova, in whose company he traveled to Cologne in 1579, when the duke
served as the ambassador of Philip II in the peace negotiations between the Netherlands and the Spanish
crown. At the conclusion of the mission, Geldorp elected to remain in Cologne. In contrast to most other
Catholic Netherlanders, Geldorp—who was not a refugee—acquired citizenship, although it is not known
exactly when. Thanks to his talent, he fared well in Cologne and became a prominent burgher. During
Christmas of 1609, he was appointed a representative of the Cologne painters’ guild, and he sat on the city
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council in 1610 and again in 1613. At present, no additional information on the artist can be traced. Geldorp
Gortzius’s last known work dates to 1619,[4] and he may have died shortly thereafter.
Approximately seventy pictures are attributed to Geldorp, most of them portraits, including copies ofpaintings by other contemporary artists. Geldorp seems to have become the local elite’s favorite portraitist
quite soon after he settled in Cologne. For instance, in 1609 the Dutch-born writer Matthias Quad(1557–1613) noted in his history of German artists: “Geldorp, currently living in Cologne, is favored above
all others for likenesses from life.”[5] This standing is reflected in Geldorp’s oeuvre, which is notable for thefact that various members of the powerful Cologne Lyskirchen family sat for him repeatedly in the course oftwenty years, as did other prominent Cologne families, such as the Jabachs. That his reputation extended
beyond Cologne is suggested by several prints by Crispijn de Passe after Geldorp’s painted portraits ofGerman rulers.[6]Geldorp painted not only portraits, but also history scenes. His oeuvre includes several Madonnas, Mary
Magdalenes, evangelists, and other saints.[7] Particularly famous is the Crucifixion he painted for theCologne city council between 1597 and 1603, one of his very best works, which was returned to its original
location in the council chamber of the Cologne Town Hall in 1973.[8] Geldorp must have already been anoted history painter when he was awarded this prestigious commission. Relying on Arnoldus Buchelius,
who visited Cologne around 1600,[9] Van Mander mentions some notable works in private collections inCologne. For example, Johan Meerman owned “a very finely painted Diana.”[10] Everhard Jabach III(1567–1636), a native of Antwerp and later resident of Cologne, whom Geldorp portrayed, along with hiswife, in 1600,[11] had “a beautiful and very lifelike Susanna.”[12] As there are various versions of this picture,
the one referred to in the description cannot be identified. That Geldorp often painted several versions of
the same subject emerges from Van Mander’s mention of “a very artfully done history of Esther andAhasuerus.”[13] The only known painting of this subject by Geldorp is in The Leiden Collection; however, as
it is dated 1612, it cannot be the work mentioned by Van Mander, whose book was published in 1604.
Given the close correspondence between the compositions of Geldorp’s preserved history paintings, theassumption that the version in New York resembles the Esther mentioned by Van Mander is not that
improbable.

- Piet Bakker
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Geldorp Gortzius
Page 3 of 5Endnotes
1. See Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs,dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains
spécialistes français et étrangers, 10 vols. (Paris, 1976. Revised edition by Jacques Busse
14 vols. Paris, 1999), 4: 196, for Geldorp’s monogram of the double G, the remnants ofwhich appear on the second line of the signature in the artist’s Esther and Ahasuerus(GG-100).
2. Van Mander’s words gain support from descriptions in the 1617 estate inventory of Frans
Francken the Elder that was drawn up after his death in 1616. Among the copies afterRubens, Brueghel, and Mostaert and autograph works by Aert van Leyden, Pieter Pourbus,
Frans Floris, and Quinten Massys were two pieces by Geldorp and a work by his son.
These are: “Een Sint-Andries op doeck van Gelderop” (A Saint Andrew on canvas byGeldorp), “Het Conterfeytsel van de Huysvrouwe van Gelderop” (The likeness of Geldorp’swife), and “Een Susanneke gemaect by den zoon van de voors(eyde) Gelderop” (ASusanna made by the son of the aforementioned Geldrop). Erik Duverger, Antwerpse
kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 10 vols. (Brussels, 1984–2009), 1: 389–94,esp. 392. Compare Hessel Miedema, ed., Karel van Mander: The Lives of the Illustrious
Netherlandish and German Painters, 6 vols. (Doornspijk, 1994–98), 5: 164.
3. Geldorp Gortzius, The Last Supper as an Allegory of the Pacification of Ghent , 1576, oilon canvas, 170 x 270 cm (Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven).
4. Geldorp Gortzius, Portrait of an Unknown Man , monogrammed and dated 1619, oil onpanel, 60 x 39 cm (Sotheby’s Amsterdam, 5 November 2002, no. 135).
5. “In Contrafacturen nach dem leben wirdt vor andern gepriesen Geldorpius jetziger zeit inCöllen residierend.” Matthias Quad, Teutscher Nation Herrlichkeit (Cologne, 1609), 433.
As quoted in Horst Vey, “Susanna und die Ältesten van Geldorp Gortzius in Budapest,”
Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49 (1987–88): 193. Matthias Quad was born in Deventerand trained there as a cartographer with the Van Doetechem family. He settled in Cologne
in 1587, and was active as a writer and cartographer. He became acquainted with otherProtestant refugee engravers, including Crispijn de Passe, who engraved many works byGeldorp. Quad had already moved to the Palatinate in 1609, the year his history of Germanartists was published.
6. Horst Vey, “Susanna und die Ältesten van Geldorp Gortzius in Budapest,”Wallraf-RichartzJahrbuch 48–49 (1987–88): 194.
7. For a survey, see Horst Vey, “Susanna und die Ältesten van Geldorp Gortzius inBudapest,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49 (1987–88): 198–201. For a supplement, see© 2019 The Leiden Collection

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Ilja M. Veldman, “Keulen als toevluchtsoord voor Nederlandse kunstenaars (1567–1612),”
Oud Holland 107, no. 1 (1993): 47.
8. According to Horst Vey, this work (Geldorp Gortzius, Crucifixion, 1597–1603, oil on panel,228 x 171 cm [Town Hall, Cologne]) with a suffering, human Christ made a deep
impression on Rubens, who today is credited with inventing this type of Christ figure.
Rubens, however, did not derive this type from Geldorp, given that he lived in Cologne long
before Geldorp painted the picture. Rubens was there as a child, between 1578 and 1587.
Horst Vey, “Susanna und die Ältesten van Geldorp Gortzius in Budapest,”Wallraf-RichartzJahrbuch 48–49 (1987–88): 201–2, fig. 13; Ilja M. Veldman, “Keulen als toevluchtsoord
voor Nederlandse kunstenaars (1567–1612),” Oud Holland 107, no. 1 (1993): 47.
9. Horst Vey, “Susanna und die Ältesten van Geldorp Gortzius in Budapest,”Wallraf-RichartzJahrbuch 48/49 (1987–1988): 204, 207. Compare Hessel Miedema, ed., Karel van
Mander: The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters , 10 vols.
(Doornspijk, 1994–98), 5: 163.
10. “Een Diana die seer wel geschildert is.” Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-boeck (Haarlem,1604), fol. 280v.
11. Geldorp Gortzius, Portrait of Everard Jabach III and Portrait of Anna Reuter, both 1600, oilon panel, 98 x 72 cm (both Kölnische Stadtmuseum, Cologne).
12. “Een schoon seer levende Susanna.” Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-boeck (Haarlem,1604), fol. 280v.
13. “Een seer constich ghedaen d’historie van Hester en Asfuerus.” Karel van Mander, Het
Schilder-boeck (Haarlem, 1604), fol. 280v.

Literature
Van Mander, Karel. Het Schilder-boeck. Haarlem, 1604, fol. 280.
Vey, Horst. “Susanna und die Ältesten van Geldorp Gortzius in Budapest.” WallrafRichartz-Jahrbuch 48–49 (1987–88): 187–213.
Hoppenbrouwers, R. “Enkele opmerkelijke schilderijen in Nijmeegs kloosterbezit.” In Eenveelkleurig habijt. Kloosters in Nijmegen in de 19e en 20e eeuw . Edited by D. Nicolaisen,
133–38. Grave, 1989.
Veldman, Ilja M. “Keulen als toevluchtsoord voor Nederlandse kunstenaars (1567–1612).”
Oud Holland 107, no. 1 (1993): 34–58.
Miedema, Hessel, ed. Karel van Mander: The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish andGerman Painters. 6 vols. Doornspijk, 1994–98, 5: 161–65.
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Geldorp Gortzius
Page 5 of 5Dirkse, Paul. “Vier evangelisten geschilderd door Geldorp Gortzius.” InBegijnen, pastoors
en predikanten. Religie en kunst in de Gouden Eeuw. Leiden, 2001, 15–19.
Montias, John Michael. “Artists Named in Amsterdam Inventories, 1607–80.” Simiolus 31(2004–05): 322–47.

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