Geldorp Gortzius(Leuven 1553 – ca. 1619 Cologne)

How to cite
Bakker, Piet. “Geldorp Gortzius” (2019). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artists/geldorp-gortzius/ (archived June2020).
A PDF of every version of this biography is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a 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 in1553, 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 fromthe village of Geldrop in the province of Noord Brabant. We do not know his first name—it is not mentioned inany 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.[i]According to Van Mander, Geldorp Gortzius trained with Frans Francken the Elder (1542–1616) and Frans
Pourbus the Elder (1541–85).[ii] 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.[iii] Around this time he was appointed court painter to Carlos ofAragon and Tagliavia (1530–99), Duke of Terranova, in whose company he traveled to Cologne in 1579, when
the duke served as the ambassador of Philip II (1527–98) 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 notknown 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,[iv] and he may have died shortly thereafter.
Approximately seventy pictures are attributed to Geldorp, most of them portraits, including copies of paintingsby other contemporary artists. Geldorp seems to have become the local elite’s favorite portraitist quite soonafter 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.”[v] This standing is reflected in Geldorp’s oeuvre, which is notable for the fact that various membersof the powerful Cologne Lyskirchen family sat for him repeatedly in the course of twenty years, as did otherprominent Cologne families, such as the Jabachs. That his reputation extended beyond Cologne is suggested
by several prints by Crispijn de Passe (ca. 1564–1637) after Geldorp’s painted portraits of German rulers.[vi]Geldorp painted not only portraits, but also history scenes. His oeuvre includes several Madonnas, MaryMagdalenes, evangelists, and other saints.[vii] 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.[viii] Geldorp must have already been anoted history painter when he was awarded this prestigious commission. Relying on Arnoldus Buchelius(1565–1641), who visited Cologne around 1600,[ix] Van Mander mentions some notable works in private
collections in Cologne. For example, Johan Meerman owned “a very finely painted Diana.”1[x] Everhard
Jabach III (1567–1636), a native of Antwerp and later resident of Cologne, whom Geldorp portrayed, alongwith his wife, in 1600,[xi] had “a beautiful and very lifelike Susanna.”[xii] As there are various versions of thispicture, the one referred to in the description cannot be identified. That Geldorp often painted several versionsof the same subject emerges from Van Mander’s mention of “a very artfully done history of Esther andAhasuerus.”[xiii] 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 theclose correspondence between the compositions of Geldorp’s preserved history paintings, the assumptionthat the version in New York resembles the Esther mentioned by Van Mander is not that improbable.

- Piet Bakker, 2019

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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’écrivainsspécialistes français et étrangers (Paris, 1976; rev. ed., Paris, 1999), 4: 196, for Geldorp’s
monogram of the double G, the remnants of which appear on the second line of the signaturein the artist’s Esther and Ahasuerus, 1612 (The Leiden Collection, 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 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 by Geldorp),“Het Conterfeytsel van de Huysvrouwe van Gelderop” (The likeness of Geldorp’s wife), and“Een Susanneke gemaect by den zoon van de voors(eyde) Gelderop” (A Susanna made by
the son of the aforementioned Geldrop). Erik Duverger, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit dezeventiende 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, oil on panel (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;
quotedin

HorstVey,“SusannaunddieÄltestenvanGeldorp

GortziusinBudapest,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49 (1987/88): 193. Matthias Quad (1557–1613) wasborn 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 and cartographer. He becameacquainted with other Protestant refugee engravers, including Crispijn de Passe, whoengraved many works by Geldorp. Quad had already moved to the Palatinate in 1609, theyear his history of German artists was published.
6. Horst

Vey,“SusannaunddieÄltestenvanGeldorp

GortziusinBudapest,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 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; see also Ilja M. Veldman,“Keulen als toevluchtsoord voor Nederlandse kunstenaars (1567–1612),” Oud Holland 107,
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no. 1 (1993): 47.
8. Crucifixion, 1597–1603 (Town Hall, Cologne). According to Horst Vey this work, with asuffering, human Christ, made a deep impression on Rubens, who today is credited withinventing this type of Christ 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 achild, between 1578 and 1587. Horst Vey, “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. HorstVey,“SusannaunddieÄltestenvanGeldorp

Gortzius

inBudapest,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48/49 (1987/88): 204, 207; see also Hessel Miedema,ed., Karel van 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 KölnischesStadtmuseum, 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.

“SusannaunddieÄltesten

vanGeldorp

Gortzius

inBudapest.” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49 (1987/88): 187–213.
Hoppenbrouwers,R.

“Enkeleopmerkelijke

schilderijen

inNijmeegs

kloosterbezit.” In Een veelkleurig habijt. Kloosters in Nijmegen in de 19e en 20e eeuw. Edited
by D. Nicolaisen, 133–38. Grave, 1989.
Veldman,IljaM.

“Keulenalstoevluchtsoord

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. Doornspijk, 1997, 5: 161–65.
Dirkse, Paul. “Vier evangelisten geschilderd door Geldorp Gortzius.” In Begijnen, pastoors en© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Geldorp Gortzius
Page 5 of 5predikanten. 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.

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