Michael Sweerts(Brussels 1618 – 1664 Goa)

How to cite
Bakker, Piet. “Michael Sweerts” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.
and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived December2023).
A PDF of every version of this biography is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed bya permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

Michael Sweerts was baptized in the Catholic St. Nicholas Church in Brussels on 29 September 1618. His parents were themerchant David Sweerts and Martynken Balliel. Little else is known about his family background other than that he had
two, presumably older, sisters.
His name subsequently surfaces for the first time in 1646 in Rome, where it recurs annually until 1651 in the stati delle
anime (“family registry”) of the parish of Santa Maria del Popolo. Like so many other Northern painters, he lived on theVia Margutto, the heart of the artists’ community in Rome. In 1646 the Accademia di San Luca charged him withcollecting the annual contributions of its Dutch members.[1] He may have also joined the Schildersbent, a renowned artists’fraternity whose members were called Bentvueghels (“Birds of a Feather”), but to date not a shred of evidence to this effecthas been found. How his life transpired in the years prior to 1646 is unknown, but a later source credits him with speaking
no less than seven languages, suggesting that he was well-educated.[2]It is difficult to ascertain with whom he kept company in the Eternal City, but Johannes Lingelbach (1622–74) wascertainly one of his friends. Lingelbach’s style during his Rome years was strongly influenced by Sweerts. Moreover,Sweerts later portrayed Lingelbach in Amsterdam.[3] Sweerts’s Roman clientele included Dutchmen on a Grand Tour andDutch merchants conducting trade in Italy. Among those making a Grand Tour was the Dordrecht poet Matthijs van deMerwede (ca. 1625–77), who sat for him several times in Rome before 1648. While in the Eternal City, Sweerts also
painted the portrait of the Amsterdam cloth merchant Anthonij de Bordes (1615–78), who was in Italy in 1648 and1649.[4] More important patrons during this period were the Deutz brothers, for whom he painted portraits and otherworks. In addition, between 1648 and 1650 he acted as their agent in a variety of art purchases, and in 1651 the brothers
authorized him to negotiate with the Roman customs officials regarding a shipment of silk from Leiden.[5]By far his most important Italian patron was Prince Camillo Pamphili (1622–66), a nephew of Pope Innocent X(1574–1655), who began assembling a splendid collection in the 1640s. When the prince’s possessions were inventoried© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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from 1648 to 1652, it emerged that he owned three works by Sweerts; a fourth picture is listed in a later inventory of1666. There are also indications that Sweerts served as an agent for the prince. Around 1652, the latter paid Sweerts for alarge history painting by the Tuscan painter Cristoforo Roncalli (1552–1626). He also received more than three scudi foroil paint used in “Zijne Exelentie’s Academie” (His Excellency’s Academy). This seems to indicate the existence of anacademy in the Palazzo Pamphili—it was not uncommon at the time for wealthy art lovers to maintain painting academies
in their palaces—which may well be represented in the décor of various paintings of studio interiors. Cardinal Flavio Chigi(1631–93), too, owned work by Sweerts, perhaps through the mediation of Niccolò Simonelli (d. 1671), who was thekeeper of Camillo’s collection of pictures when Sweerts was working for the prince and later master ofthe guardorobe (“wardrobe”) of Cardinal Chigi (1631–93).
It is unknown when exactly Sweerts left Rome, but he was back in his native Brussels in 1655, where he witnessed thebaptism of his nephew on 19 July. Little is known about his years in Brussels. What is certain is that he founded a drawing
academy. This is evidenced by a petition to the city council, in which he requests privileges on the grounds of his great
service to the city, including the establishment of an “academy for drawing after life . . . at great cost . . . out of love forhis fatherland,” primarily for the training of tapestry designers.[6] Sweerts painted many portraits in Brussels, but of all of
his patrons only the notary public and playwright Willem van der Borcht (1621–68) can be identified, for whom he once
served as a witness in a lawsuit.
Sweerts moved to Amsterdam several years later. It was long thought that he left for Amsterdam in 1658, but thatassumption has proven to be incorrect; at the beginning of 1659 Sweerts presented a self-portrait to the Brussels Guild ofSaint Luke, which the members hung in the meeting room “tot zijn gedenkenis” (in remembrance of him).[7] This portrait
must be understood as a farewell gift. His departure has been generally explained in connection with the presumed failureof his academy, yet there is no evidence to support this hypothesis. It is more logical to link his change of venue with hisreligious convictions, which led him to become a lay member of the Société des Missions Etrangères. Moving to Amsterdam
was most likely occasioned by the Society’s request that he assist another member in supervising the construction of a ship
intended for a mission to China. In Amsterdam he may have resumed contact with the Deutz family. A 1692 inventory
includes Sweerts’s likeness of Balthasar Deutz (1626–61), who (unlike his three brothers) never visited Italy and whose
portrait therefore must have been painted in Amsterdam.
Sweerts left Amsterdam in late 1661; a letter from the Société reveals that he was in Marseille in December of that year. InJanuary 1662 Sweerts and other missionaries set sail to Palestine. During the journey the artist suffered fits of anger andhis behavior was so disturbing that the group parted ways upon arrival. We are in the dark as to the final two years ofSweerts’s life. The last record regards his death in Goa, India, in 1664, but the entry in the Society’s administration
contains no further details about the circumstances under which he died.

- Piet Bakker, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Michael Sweerts
Page 3 of 4Endnotes
1. Whether Michael Sweerts was actually a member of the Academia is unknown. On this, see Jonathan
Bikker, “Een miraculeus leven,” Kunstschrift 45 (2001): 26.
2. He may have been in Rome long before 1646. This is suggested by the task the Accademia charged him
with, namely collecting membership fees, which was not easily or quickly given to a newcomer. A 1640
annotation in the parish records points to a longer presence in Rome: “Gherardo, Flemish, painter, withhis companion Michele” (Ghirardo, fiamengho, pittore. Michele suo companion) living in the Via
Margutto. In 1648 the records list this registration in exactly the same wording. Arguing against a longer
sojourn in Rome is the mention of a “Michael Swerts” as a witness at the baptism of the child of acertain Johannes Hackaert in Brussels; see Jonathan Bikker, “Sweerts’s Life and Career—A
Documentary View,” in Michael Sweerts (1618–1664), ed. Guido Jansen and Peter C. Sutton (Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Hartford, Wadsworth
Atheneum Museum of Art) (Zwolle, 2001), 25.
3. Thomas Kren, “Jan Lingelbach in Rome,” The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 10 (1982): 54. The portraitof Johannes Lingelbach is known only as a mezzotint by Bernard Vaillant (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum).
4. Anhony de Bordes and His Valet, ca. 1648 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.); Guido Jansen
and Peter C. Sutton, ed., Michael Sweerts (1618–1664) (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; SanFrancisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art)
(Zwolle, 2001), 77–79, no. 4.
5. They are Jean (1618–73), Jeronimus (1622–70), and Joseph Deutz (1624–84). The three brothers visited
Italy on their Grand Tour from 1646 to 1650. Later inventories of their possessions mention various
paintings attributed to Sweerts. For the Deutz family and their relationship with the painter, seeJonathan Bikker, “The Deutz Brothers, Italian Paintings and Michiel Sweerts: New Information from
Elisabeth Coymans’s Journael,” Simiolus 26 (1998): 277–311.
6. “Academie van die teeckeninge naer het leven . . . met grooten kost . . . uyt lieffde tot sijn vaderlandt.”
For a transcription of this letter, see Jonathan Bikker, “Sweerts’s Life and Career—A DocumentaryView,” in Michael Sweerts (1618–1664), ed. Guido Jansen and Peter C. Sutton (Exh. cat. Amsterdam,Rijksmuseum; San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum
Museum of Art) (Zwolle, 2001), 34.
7. Jonathan Bikker, “Sweerts’s Life and Career—A Documentary View,” in Michael Sweerts (1618–1664),
ed. Guido Jansen and Peter C. Sutton (Exh. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; San Francisco, Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art) (Zwolle, 2001), 32.

Literature© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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Kren, Thomas. “Jan Lingelbach in Rome.” The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 10 (1982): 45–62.
Bikker, Jonathan. “Een miraculeus leven.” Kunstschrift 45 (2001): 16–26.
Jansen, Guido, and Sutton, Peter C., eds. Michael Sweerts (1618–1664). Exh. cat. Amsterdam,Rijksmuseum; San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum
Museum of Art. Zwolle, 2001.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. Michael Sweerts (1618–1664): Shaping the Artist and the Academy in Rome andBrussels (Pictura Nova XXI). Turnhout, 2015.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection