Geldorp Gortzius(Leuven 1553 – ca. 1619 Cologne)

How to cite
Bakker, Piet. “Geldorp Gortzius” (2019). 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.

Information on the life of Geldorp Gortzius is summary at best. He is assumed to have been born in Leuven in 1553, but
the identity of his parents is unknown. He might have been the father of George Geldorp (ca. 1590–1665), who was active
in Antwerp in the first quarter of the seventeenth century and subsequently moved to London. Karel van Mander(1548–1606), the first to report on Geldorp, referred to him as “Gualdrop Gortzius gheseyt Geldrop” (Gualdrop Gortzius
called Geldrop), which could indicate that his family 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 theElder (1541–85).[2] When he left for Antwerp in 1569, he was approaching eighteen years old, the age at which aprospective painter had usually completed the first part of his training. However, it is unknown who taught Geldorp therudiments of his craft.
Geldorp’s earliest known picture, The Last Supper as an Allegory of the Pacification of Ghent, is dated 1576 and alreadyreveals his skills as a portraitist.[3] Around this time he was appointed court painter to Carlos of Aragon and Tagliavia(1530–99), Duke of Terranova, in whose company he traveled to Cologne in 1579, when the duke served as theambassador of Philip II (1527–98) in the peace negotiations between the Netherlands and the Spanish crown. At theconclusion 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, hefared 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 council in 1610 and again in 1613. At present, no additional informationon 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 of paintings by other© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Geldorp Gortzius
Page 2 of 4

contemporary artists. Geldorp seems to have become the local elite’s favorite portraitist quite soon after he settled inCologne. 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 the fact that various members of the powerful Cologne Lyskirchen family sat for
him repeatedly in the course of twenty years, as did other prominent Cologne families, such as the Jabachs. That hisreputation extended beyond Cologne is suggested by several prints by Crispijn de Passe (ca. 1564–1637) after Geldorp’s
painted portraits of German 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 the Cologne 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 a noted history painter when he was awarded this prestigious
commission. Relying on Arnoldus Buchelius (1565–1641), who visited Cologne around 1600,[9] Van Mander mentions
some notable works in private collections in Cologne. For example, Johan Meerman owned “a very finely paintedDiana.”[10] Everhard Jabach III (1567–1636), a native of Antwerp and later resident of Cologne, whom Geldorp portrayed,along with his wife, 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 and Ahasuerus.”[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 compositionsof Geldorp’s preserved history paintings, the assumption that the version in New York resembles the Esther mentioned by
Van Mander is not that improbable.

- Piet Bakker, 2019

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Geldorp Gortzius
Page 3 of 4Endnotes
1. See Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs etgraveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers(Paris, 1976; rev. ed., 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, 1612 (The LeidenCollection, New York); see also the entry in this catalogue.
2. Van Mander’s words gain support from descriptions in the 1617 estate inventory of Frans Francken theElder that was drawn up after his death in 1616. Among the copies after Rubens, Brueghel, andMostaert 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 vanGelderop” (A Saint Andrew on canvas by Geldorp), “Het Conterfeytsel van de Huysvrouwe vanGelderop” (The likeness of Geldorp’s wife), and “Een Susanneke gemaect by den zoon van devoors(eyde) Gelderop” (A Susanna made by the son of the aforementioned Geldrop). ErikDuverger, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw (Brussels, 1984), 1: 389–94, esp. 392;
see also Hessel Miedema, ed., Karel van Mander: The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German
Painters (Doornspijk, 1997), 5: 164.
3. The Last Supper as an Allegory of the Pacification of Ghent, 1576 (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven).
4. Portrait of an Unknown Man, 1619 (Private Collection).
5. “In Contrafacturen nach dem leben wirdt vor andern gepriesen Geldorpius jetziger zeit in Cöllen
residierend.” Matthias Quad, Teutscher Nation Herrlichkeit (Cologne, 1609), 433; quoted in Horst Vey,
“Susanna und die Ältesten van Geldorp Gortzius in Budapest,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49(1987/88): 193. Matthias Quad (1557–1613) was born in Deventer and trained there as a cartographer
with the Van Doetechem family. He settled in Cologne in 1587, and was active as a writer andcartographer. He became acquainted with other Protestant refugee engravers, including Crispijn dePasse, who engraved many works by Geldorp. Quad had already moved to the Palatinate in 1609, theyear his history of German artists was published.
6. Horst

Vey,“SusannaunddieÄltesten

vanGeldorp

Gortzius

inBudapest,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49 (1987/88): 194.
7. For a survey, see Horst Vey, “Susanna und die Ältesten van Geldorp Gortzius in
Budapest,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49 (1987–88): 198–201; see also Ilja M. Veldman, “Keulen
als toevluchtsoord voor Nederlandse kunstenaars (1567–1612),” Oud Holland 107, no. 1 (1993): 47.
8. Crucifixion, 1597–1603 (Town Hall, Cologne). According to Horst Vey this work, with a suffering,human Christ, made a deep impression on Rubens, who today is credited with inventing this type ofChrist figure. Rubens, however, did not derive this type from Geldorp, given that he was in Cologne
long before Geldorp painted the picture. Rubens was there as a child, between 1578 and 1587. Horst© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Geldorp Gortzius
Page 4 of 4Vey, “Susanna und die Ältesten van Geldorp Gortzius in Budapest,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49(198/88): 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,“SusannaunddieÄltestenvanGeldorp

Gortzius

inBudapest,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48/49 (1987/88): 204, 207; see also Hessel Miedema, ed., Karelvan Mander: The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters (Doornspijk, 1997), 5: 163.
10. “Een Diana die seer wel geschildert is.” Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-boeck (Haarlem, 1604), fol.
280v.
11. Portrait of Everhard Jabach III and Portrait of Anna Reuter, both 1600 (both Kölnisches 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.” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch
48–49 (1987/88): 187–213.
Hoppenbrouwers, R. “Enkele opmerkelijke schilderijen in Nijmeegs kloosterbezit.” In Een veelkleurig
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 and German
Painters. Doornspijk, 1997, 5: 161–65.
Dirkse, Paul. “Vier evangelisten geschilderd door Geldorp Gortzius.” In Begijnen, 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):
322–47.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection