Allegory of Painting
Jacob Toorenvliet(Leiden 1640 – 1719 Leiden)

ca. 1675–79
oil on copper
24.6 x 31 cm
possible traces of signature, bottom left
JT-106© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Allegory of Painting
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How to cite
Aono, Junko. “Allegory of Painting” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/an-allegory-of-painting/ (archived
May 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry 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 narrativeoccurs.

A recurrent theme in Jacob Toorenvliet’s oeuvre is that of common people

Comparative Figures

engaged in everyday activities, but on at least six occasions he painted
abstract allegories, one of the finest of these being Allegory ofPainting.[1] Although seemingly situated within an ordinary Dutch interior
complete with a table covered with a colorful carpet, bookshelf, hanging
curtain, and an inquisitive dog, numerous pictorial elements in this work havesymbolic associations that distinguish it from Toorenvliet’s genre pictures.
The objects near the woman in the light blue dress, including a palette withbrushes, a mahlstick, and a painting on an easel in the background, indicatethat she is an allegorical figure personifying the art of painting. As she points
to the open book she holds with her left hand, she turns her head toward theold man in a mantle who is about to crown her with a laurel wreath. He wears
a similar wreath and rests his hand on a celestial globe, as if trying to draw
the viewer’s attention to it.

Fig 1. Detail of plaster castof Bacchanal with Children and a
Goat in Jacob
Toorenvliet, Allegory ofPainting (JT-106)

The identity of the bearded old man is made clear through a comparison ofthis painting with Toorenvliet’s Allegory of Painting Inspired by Poetry.[2] In
this latter work, a bearded man similarly adorns a female personification ofpainting with a wreath of laurel, but here he not only wears a laurel branch
but also a label identifying him as Poesia (Poetry). The message is clear:
poetry inspires the art of painting, a conceit that had its origins in Horace’s
dictum that poetry and painting should be considered as sister arts (ut pictura[3]poesis).

The relationship of painting to poetry was articulated as “Poetry inFig 2. Detail ofsketchbook in Jacob Toorenvliet,
Allegory of Painting (JT-106)

painting keeps silent, while painting in poetry speaks” in the text describing© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Allegory of Painting
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the allegorical concept of Painting in Cesare Ripa’s popular Iconologia, anemblem book with which Toorenvliet was well acquainted.[4] The celestial
globe on which the old man rests his hand is also an appropriate attribute foran allegorical figure of Poetry. In his discussion of the concept, Ripa
describes Poetry as wearing a laurel wreath, since the origin of verse is in
Heaven.[5] Furthermore, the book to which the woman points signifies thatthe art of painting should be based on literary tradition, thereby proclaiming
the absolute superiority of the category of history painting.
Toorenvliet probably executed this skillfully finished painting in Viennaaround 1675–79, where he lived and worked from the late 1660s until 1679.
He produced most of his copper paintings during that period of hiscareer.[6] In Vienna, moreover, Toorenvliet further developed his ability to
distinguish between a wide variety of materials and textures, evident here in
the smooth surface of the plaster, the soft fluff of the carpet, the sharp
highlight on the brown skull, and the slightly creased pages of the oldsketchbook. At the same time, he became interested in rendering complex
allegorical subjects. Here, for example, he purposely juxtaposed a skull witha plaster cast of a classical female head, thereby contrasting the symbol of
the transience of human existence with the ideal of timeless beauty, afundamental concern for the art of painting. The small, brown sculpture of amale figure behind the plaster head is most likely an example of an écorché,a model of the body with its skin removed and outer muscles displayed. Suchmodels were important for the study of human anatomy, which was of vitalinterest for artists working within the classical tradition.[7]The relief behind these objects is a partial plaster cast of Bacchanal withChildren and a Goat (fig 1), one of the most famous works by the illustrious
seventeenth-century classicizing Flemish sculptor, François Duquesnoy(1597–1643).[8] Duquesnoy’s contemporaries so esteemed his sculptural
works that they described them as rivaling those of the ancientmasters.[9] Plaster casts of his sculptures were made for artists to study
alongside casts of classical sculpture, as can be seen in a painting by Michiel
Sweerts (1618–64), Painter’s Studio with a Model.[10] Bacchanal withChildren and a Goat was well known to Dutch painters, and Gerrit Dou(1613–75), Toorenvliet’s uncle-in-law, often incorporated an image of thisrelief sculpture into his paintings.[11] One reason Dou chose to include thisrelief in his work was to display his ability to simulate different materials andobjects, including stone sculpture, but another was undoubtedly theallegorical message about the power of illusionism that it conveyed. In thisrelief, the realistic appearance of the mask held by a putto at the left so© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Allegory of Painting
Page 4 of 9fooled a goat that he had to be restrained by a host of putti from charging it.
It is thus fully understandable that Toorenvliet, who so emulated Dou,inserted this relief into his picture.[12] Remarkably, however, Toorenvliet
omitted the left portion of Duquesnoy’s relief that included the image of theputto holding a mask to “deceive” a goat. One explanation for this omissionis that Toorenvliet sought to extend Duquesnoy’s allegory into the broader
pictorial image. The goat now appears to rush toward the woman, who,
having the ability to create compellingly illusionistic images, both literally andsymbolically takes the putto’s place.
The open sketchbook, which practically slides off the table, is the last pieceof the pictorial puzzle in Toorenvliet’s intriguing allegory. On the right pageare several sketches of human eyes and ears (fig 2). Such sketches ofindividual body parts had their origin in Italian drawing books of the sixteenth
century, and were important in studio practice as well as in art theory.[13] Thiskind of drawing book could also be found in northern Europe, for example
Abraham Bloemaert’s (1566–1651) famous sketchbook, engraved andpublished by Frederik Bloemaert in installments beginning around1650.[14] Toorenvliet’s depiction of the sketchbook shows his interest in theart of disegno as important for comprehending both human anatomy andideal proportions of the human body.
Toorenvliet left Vienna and returned to the Netherlands around 1679,
subsequently moving around 1686 from Amsterdam to his native Leiden,
where he helped to establish a drawing academy.[15] Toorenvliet, anesteemed artist of international experience, founded this academy for “finepainters” with the younger artists Carel de Moor (1655–1738) and Willem vanMieris (1662–1747). Toorenvliet’s great emphasis on drawing as thepractical and theoretical foundation of painting must have been stimulated by
the growing taste for classicism during this period, partially inspired byGerarddeLairesse’sguidingprinciples.

DeLairesse’sGrootschilderboek (1707) recommended that painters use books and plaster castsof ancient sculpture to learn the general principles of classical beauty and theperfect proportions of the human body. Allegory of Painting, whichToorenvliet probably painted before he returned to his native country, can beconsidered a prelude to the role this important painter and draughtsman hadin founding this new drawing academy.

- Junko Aono, 2017
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Allegory of Painting
Page 5 of 9Endnotes

1. Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719)” (PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002), 134, nos. A56 and 57 (as a pendant), 91,
B12, 13, 14, 15.
2. Jacob Toorenvliet, An Allegory of Painting Inspired by Poetry, ca. 1680, oil on panel, 39 x 29cm, present location unknown. Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener
Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002), 147–48, no.
B14.
3. Horace, Ars Poetica, v. 361. Ut pictura poesis (poetry is like painting) is considered a key
concept in Renaissance artistic theory, though the inverse form of “painting is like poetry,” ismore often encountered in the humanistic tradition. For seventeenth-century Dutch painting,this concept offers the important theoretical foundation for the iconographic interpretation ofdidactic meaning of the visible world. See Eddy de Jongh, Tot lering en vermaak:
betekenissen van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen in de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1976), 20–26.
4. Cesare Ripa, Iconologia of Uytbeeldinghe des Verstands (Amsterdam, 1644; reprint, Soest,1971), 452–53. Toorenvliet’s familiarity with Ripa’s Iconologia is confirmed by his Allegory ofRhetoric, in which a figure holds a copy of the volume. See Susanne Henriette Karau, “Lebenund Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD diss. Universität Berlin,2002), B12.
5. Appropriately, Ripa’s Poetry wears a blue dress embroidered with stars. Ripa’s
personification of Poetry is a woman, which Toorenvliet changed into an old man, a figure thatis often found in his paintings from around 1675 to 1679. Cesare Ripa, Iconologia ofUytbeeldinghe des Verstands (Amsterdam, 1644; reprint, Soest, 1971), 88–89; and SusanneHenriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)”(PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002), 148.
6. I am grateful to Susanne Karau for updated information on the possible dating of this picture.
For newly confirmed information about Toorenvliet’s stay in foreign countries, see Piet
Bakker’s biography in this catalogue.
7. Charles Avery and Anthony Radcliffe, Giambologna 1529–1608: Sculptor to the Medici (Exh.
cat. Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Museum; London, Victoria & Albert Museum; Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum) (London, 1978), 198–99, no. 192; Laura Olmstead Tonelli,“Academic Practice in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” in Children of Mercury: TheEducation of Artists in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Laurie Rubin (Exh. cat.
Providence, R.I., Brown University and the Museum of Art) (Providence, R.I., 1984), 104–6,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Allegory of Painting
Page 6 of 9figs. 77, 80. Examples of écorché have survived in a variety of materials, like plaster, bronze,wax, terra cotta, ivory, and wood.
8. François Duquesnoy, Bacchanal with Children and a Goat, marble, 62.5 x 87.5 cm, Galleria
Doria Pamphilj, Rome. See Marion Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597–1643(Paris, 2005), no. 64b.
9. Michael Sweerts, Painter’s Studio with a Model, oil on canvas, 82 x 106 cm, Fondation Rau
pour le Tiers-Monde, Zürich. See Peter Hecht, “Art Beats Nature, and Painting Does So Bestof All: The Paragone Competition in Duquesnoy, Dou and Schalcken,” Simiolus 29 (2002):
192–93; Marion Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597–1643 (Paris, 2005), 45–47,
175–86. Duquesnoy arrived in Rome in 1618 and became one of the key figures of classicism
in that city, together with the French painter Nicolas Poussin, who moved to Rome in 1624.
10. Rolf Kultzen, Michael Sweerts: Brussels 1618–Goa 1664 (Doornspijk, 1996), no. 1. The
presence of Duquesnoy’s popular relief in this picture may even reflect actual studio practicethat Toorenvliet encountered during his visit to Italy in the 1660s.
11. In their paintings, Dou and his followers used the relief to decorate the lower wall of a stone
window, which framed a genre scene. Marion Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy
1597–1643 (Paris, 2005), 53–55, 204–7.
12. By depicting the relief, Dou probably intended to demonstrate the superiority of the art ofpainting over that of sculpture, a traditional theme of the Paragone. Ronni Baer, “ThePaintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (PhD diss. New York University, 1990), forinstance, no. 63. Eric Jan Sluijter, Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Niewenhuizen, eds., Leidse
Fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge, 1630–1760 (Exh cat. Leiden,Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 1988), 101–3; Peter Hecht, “Art Beats Nature, andPainting Does So Best of All: The Paragone Competition in Duquesnoy, Dou and Schalcken,”
Simiolus 29 (2002): 194–97; Annegret Laabs in The Leiden fijnschilders from Dresden, ed.
Christiaan Vogelaar (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal; Dresden,Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen) (Zwolle, 2000), 41; Marion
Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597–1643 (Paris, 2005), 205–6.
13. Chittima Amornpichetkul, “Seventeenth-Century Italian Drawing Books: Their Origin andDevelopment,” in Children of Mercury: The Education of Artists in the Sixteenth andSeventeenth Centuries, ed. Laurie Rubin (Exh. cat. Providence, R.I., Brown University andthe Museum of Art) (Providence, R.I., 1984), 110–12. A famous example is Il vero modo etordine per dissegnar tutte le partie et membra del corpo humano (1608) by Odoardo Fialetti.
Johannes Gellee’s Tyrocinia artis pictoriae caelatoriae ac sculptoriae is one example of thenorthern copies executed after early seventeenth-century academic drawing books from Italy(mainly that of Fialetti), which were published by Claes Jansz. Visscher in Amsterdam. See
Jaap Bolten, Method and Practice: Dutch and Flemish Drawing Books, 1600–1750 (Landau,1985), 132–35.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Allegory of Painting
Page 7 of 914. Jaap Bolten, Abraham Bloemaert c. 1565–1651: The Drawings, 2 vols. (2007), 1: 366, no.
1152; 2: 391.
15. Rudi Ekkart, “Van Willem van Mieris tot Cornet,” in Leids Kunstlegaat: Kunst en historie
rondom Ars Aemula Natura, ed. R. E. O. Ekkart (Leiden, 1974), 7–14; and Eric Jan Sluijter,
Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Niewenhuizen, eds., Leidse Fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans
van Mieris de Jonge, 1630–1760 (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) (Zwolle,1988), 33.

Provenance
Private collection, Europe (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 4 December 1997, no. 135 [Bernheimer
Fine Old Masters, Munich, 1998–2002; Bernheimer-Colnaghi, London, 2002–5; Jack Kilgore,
New York, 2002–3]).
Private collection, Europe, by 2005 [Bernheimer-Colnaghi, London, by 2008].
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibition History
Munich, Bernheimer. “Musen, Mütter, Models: Das Bild der Frau in der Kunst,” 22 June–3
August 2007, no. 3.
London, Colnaghi, “The Artist in Art,” 26 November 2007–1 February 2008, no. 63.
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by thepresent owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May
2019 [lent by the present owner].

References© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Allegory of Painting
Page 8 of 9Bernheimer, Konrad O. Bernheimer Fine Old Masters, Paintings. Munich, 1999, 38–39.
Karau, Susanne Henriette. “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719).” PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002, 146–48, no. B13.
Bernheimer. Musen, Mütter, Models. Das Bild der Frau in der Kunst. Exh. cat. Munich,Bernheimer. Munich, 2007, 3, 12, no. 3.
Colnaghi. The Artist in Art. Exh. cat. London, Colnaghi, in association with Emanuel vonBaeyer. London, 2007, unpaginated, pl. 12, no. 63.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Allegory of Painting.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 218–19; 247, no. 76.
Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museumof Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt,Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and theMusée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 25. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French andArabic.]
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden
Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 174–75, no. 90. [Exhibition catalogue also publishedin French and Arabic.]

Versions
Versions and Copies

1. Jacob Toorenvliet, An Allegory of the Art, oil on panel, 23.5 x 30 cm, present location
unknown (sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 5 June 2002, no. 25).

Technical Summary
The support, a rectangular copper sheet, has subtle undulations, a slight convex bow, and flexes
when handled. Two shallow diagonal creases emanate from the left vertical edge and intersect
left of the female figure’s upper arm. There is one paper label, a black stencil, and numericalinscriptions but no wax seals or maker’s marks.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied with vertical brushwork. The paint has© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Allegory of Painting
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been extremely smoothly applied with delicate modeling, intricate detailing, and low brushmarking
through the light highlights, flesh tones, and blue drapery.
The painting is recorded as having traces of signature in the lower left, however these traces are
not readily apparent.[1]No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers.
Compositional changes visible in the images include a change in position of the female figure’s
proper right arm, which had originally been outstretched, her hand by the dog’s head, a slightshift of her profile to the viewer’s right, and a shift in position of the male figure’s entire proper left
hand, i. e. his pointer finger, his bent knuckles, and the angle of the back of his hand. Apentimento through the mahlstick indicates it was added after the book was painted.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2008 and remains
in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Not readily apparent. Possibly in brown paint along the brown vertical plane between the row
of books and the dog’s head.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection