watermark: anchor within a circle, surmounted by a six-pointed star; similar to Briquet, I, no. 524 (Reggio Emilia, 1553)

Brown stains; a vertical crease in the centre of the sheet; small tears around the edges; thin spots repaired

…; donated by Cornelis Willem Bruinvis (1829-1922), Alkmaar, to the museum (L. 2228), 1895

Object number: RP-T-1895-A-3091

Credit line: Gift of C.W. Bruinvis, Alkmaar

This sheet and inv. nos. RP-T-1895-A-3089, RP-T-1895-A-3090, RP-T-1906-7, RP-T-1906-6, RP-T-1913-157 and RP-T-1971-53 form a group executed in a common style and technique that until recently was tentatively attributed to Karel Dujardin (1626-1678).⁶⁶On the question of the attribution, see B. Hardtwig, Neuerwerbungen: Ankäufe, Geschenke, Dauerleihgaben: Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, exh. cat. Munich (Neue Pinakothek) 1982, p. 12, under no. 11 (text by K. Renger); G. Jansen and G. Luijten, Italianisanten en bamboccianten. Het italianiserend landschap en genre door Nederlandse kunstenaars uit de zeventiende eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) 1988, pp. 92-93, under no. 53; S. de Vries (ed.), Twee olieverfschetsen van Guilliam de Gardijn. Een toeschrijving met verrassende gevolgen, Alkmaar 1995, unpaginated (p. 4).

All are done with the brush in grey or brownish-grey wash over a cursory sketch in black chalk. Most have inscriptions with the pen in grey or brown-grey that used to be read as C. du Jardin. The variants du Gardin and du Gardijn are also found. The artist's name is often followed by a price in stuivers or guilders. Comparison of these inscriptions with the signature on the only known painting by Guilliam du Gardijn, The Finding of Moses, also in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. SK-A-1572), reveals striking similarities.

Two oil sketches on paper in the Stedelijk Museum, Alkmaar (inv. nos. 020044 and 020045), also have inscriptions and prices in the same hand.⁷⁷The oil sketches were donated to the Alkmaar museum in 1896 by its director, C.W. Bruinvis (1829-1922), who the previous year had given the Rijksprentenkabinet a small group of drawings that included Du Gardijn’s three large Italian views (the present sheet and inv. nos. RP-T-1895-A-3089 and RP-T-1895-A-3090). It seems justified to conclude that the inscriptions on both the oil sketches and drawings are the signatures of Guilliam du Gardijn. The initial, which was always taken to be a ‘C’, should instead be read as a ‘G’.⁸⁸On the inscriptions, see S. de Vries (ed.), Twee olieverfschetsen van Guilliam de Gardijn. Een toeschrijving met verrassende gevolgen, Alkmaar 1995, unpaginated (pp. 3-4).

It is impossible to say for certain whether Du Gardijn ever visited Italy, although his oeuvre contains several views of Rome. His Italian drawings – which are carried out on Italian paper – do look as if they were done from life, but appearances can be deceptive, for the Dutch Italianates made a remarkably large number of drawn copies. Moreover, artists who are known never to have set foot there, the most famous example being Rembrandt (1606-1696), occasionally worked on Italian paper. Nevertheless, if Du Gardijn did stay in Rome, it is tempting to think that this occurred around the mid-1620s, when both Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594-1667) and Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598-1657) were active there.

This drawing depicts parts of the Baths of Caracalla, probably the frigidarium, seen from a low vantage point that accentuates the drama and monumentality of the ruins. Oddly enough, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) was to choose almost the same composition more than a century later when he recorded a section of the complex of thermal baths, possibly even this very fragment, in his Vedute di Roma (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-39.372).⁹⁹J. Wilton-Ely, Giovanni Battista Piranesi: The Complete Etchings, 2 vols., San Francisco 1994 , no. 210.

Marijn Schapelhouman, 1998

I.Q. van Regteren Altena, Vereeuwigde Stad. Rome door Nederlanders getekend, 1500-1900, Amsterdam 1964, no. 25, fig. 43 (as Karel Dujardin); G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel e Porigine della veduta settecentesca, Rome 1966, fig. on p. 22 (as Karel Dujardin); L.C.J. Frerichs, Berchem en de Bentgenoten in Italië, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1970, no. 66 (as Karel Dujardin); H. Robels, Niederländische Zeichnungen vom 15. bis 19. Jahrhundert im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Köln, coll. cat. Cologne 1983 (Kataloge des Wallraf-Richartz-Museums Graphische Sammlung, vol. 1), pp. 140-41, under no. 142 (as attributed to Karel Dujardin); G. Jansen and G. Luijten, Italanisanten en bambocianten. Het italianiserend landschap en genre door Nederlandse kunstenaars uit de zeventiende eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boymans-van Beuningen), 1988, pp. 92-93, under no. 53 (n. 4; as attributed to Karel Dujardin); S. de Vries (ed.), Twee olieverfschetsen van Guilliam de Gardijn, een toeschrijving met verrassende gevolgen, Alkmaar 1995, fig. 7; M. Schapelhouman and P. Schatborn, Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Artists Born between 1580 and 1600, 2 vols., coll. cat. Amsterdam 1998, no. 111; P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 76 (n. 7)

M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'Guilliam du Gardijn, View of the Baths of Caracalla, Rome, with Distinguished Visitors and a Coach, Rome, 1625 - 1630', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200146115