The Migratory Birds Society is a society of foreign artists who arrived in Catholic Rome from northern countries (mainly Protestant) in order to get acquainted with the treasures of art and improve their skills.
Content
Historical data
The Migratory Birds Society was a social organization of foreign artists (often Protestants) in the alien social and religious environment of the papal capital. Its purpose is the exchange of ideas and information important for survival in Catholic Rome, the comradely support of colleagues during their stay in Rome (sometimes material and legal in case of conflict), the protection of their rights from the papal Academy of St. Luke , where Italian artists were grouped. The Migratory Birds Society was an autonomous, independent organization from the Papal Academy of St. Luke. Although rare cases are known when the artist was a member of both unions (Dutchman Peter van Lar ).
The time period for the existence of society is from 1620 to 1720 , when, by order of the Pope of Rome, the opposition society of foreign artists was finally liquidated.
Professional
A somewhat unusual feature of the society of artists was its professional composition. In addition to painters, the society attracted representatives of other professions, among which were engravers, sculptors, sometimes barbers, jewelers and even poets.
The society served the needs of artists who united in the northern part of Rome around the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and San Lorenzo in Lucina near the Pinchio hill. The final traditions of society have not yet been developed, they still do not keep records or minutes of meetings, there is still no own clerk and own archive. According to preliminary estimates, approximately four hundred eighty (480) artists passed through the society in Rome. Nevertheless, there was a small and unusual protocol - it was a wall in the Roman church of Santa Constanta. The names of neophytes accepted into society are carved on it. But there were not all. These ancient graffiti and memories of artists in memoirs are the only archive of society.
Tradition of Initiation
Neophytes went through a ritual of initiation. Members of the society dressed in toga sheets, wore wreaths on their heads to represent the gods on the playful Olympus. Initiation sometimes lasted a whole day, growing into a feast. The newcomer had to treat the whole society with wine and received a new name. Usually these were the names of ancient gods and mythical heroes (Hector, Cupid, Meleager, Mullet, Orpheus, Pyramus). Bacchanal initiations ended with a trip to the church of Santa Constanta, which members of the community considered the ancient temple of Bacchus, almost their patron saint. The wine was already drunk at the ancient sarcophagus, which was then transferred to the Vatican for security reasons.
The scene of the neophyte initiation into society was depicted by an unknown artist in a 1660 painting, which is now kept by the State Museum in Amsterdam . So, Germans and French, Flemings and Italians participated in the dedication of Zandrart. The Dutch artist Cornelis de Bruyne also made a description of the initiation ritual, and then made a series of engravings, which was published in 1698 .
Relations between Migratory Birds and St. Luke Academy
The relationship between the “migratory birds” and the members of the St. Luke Academy (which the Pope and his government were behind) was very difficult. If it was possible to curb the Italian masters by “buying” their obedience with official orders or philanthropy, with official recognition of membership in the academy, this did not work with “migratory birds”. Pope Urban VIII , the pontiff in 1623 - 1644, already led the offensive on them. Attempts by the pope to burden foreign artists with taxes led to powerful resistance. It lasted for years, and in the end, the Academy of San Luca lost. This was a significant defeat for the Academy, which tried to ban the sale of paintings by foreign artists on the streets of Rome. Foreigners won their own right to sell the work and earn a living without additional tax.
The freedom of the disobedient foreign artists was put to an end by the decisive order of the pope on the dissolution of society in 1720 .
Famous Representatives
The founders of the society consider the Dutch landscape painters Cornelis van Pulenburg , Paulus Bohr and Bartolomeus Brenberg . It is known that Peter Van Lara , an artist who took part in it since 1625, after the founding of the society, is also actively involved in society.
A member of the society was the German artist Joachim Zandrart , who lived and worked in the Netherlands for a long time. The standard differed from other artists with a sharp sense of the passage of time. In order to keep in mind the events and people whom fate had faced in Italy, he began to create portraits of artists. Thanks to him, almost the only portrait images of a number of masters of the Migratory Birds society were saved, including Peter van Lar , Claude Lorren and others. It was he who left documented exact memories of society during his stay in Rome.
Joachim Zandrart, engraving
Weybrant de Guest Senior, self portrait.
Jan Asselin , portrait of Rembrandt , 1647
Peter van Lahr, engraving
Wouter Crabet Jr
Leonard Bramer, engraving
Samuel van Hoogstraten
Cornelis de Brain
Selected Works of Migratory Birds Artists
Cornelis Scheuth. The Battle of Nordlingen, Ghent
Caspar van Vittel. "Villa Medici, facade in the garden", 1685, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Otto Marceus van Skrik , Poppy and the Lizard, 1670, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Matthias Vithos. “Vanity of vanities”, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
Johann Heinrich Schönfeld. The Heroic Death of Mark Curtius, 1655, Museum of the History of Art, Vienna
Willem Schellinks. "The Dutch invasion of Midway in 1667", 1668, Kent, UK
Joachim Zandrart. "Allegory of November", 1643, Munich
Philip Peter Roose. “Landscape and animals”, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Isaac de Moucheron. "Landscape with a satyr and a nymph"
Jan Moth, Genre scene, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Johann Liss. Tooth Extraction, Kunsthalle, Bremen
Jan Baptist Venix . “The Hunter Refreshing the Dead Deer,” National Gallery (London)
Samuel van Hoogstraten. Still Life - a Snag, 1664.
Samuel van Hoogstraten. Corridor, Louvre Museum, Paris.
Paulus Bor . "Allegory of Logic", bl. 1633.
Jan Asselein. "Italian landscape with the ruins of a Roman bridge", bl. 1650, State Museum (Amsterdam)
Bartolomeus Brenberg. "A fictional landscape with ruins, artists who paint sculpture, and a port." Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum , Madrid
Peter van Blumen. "School of horsemen near the ruins", 1700, private collection
Bartolomeus Brenberg. The Finding of Moses, 1639, private collection
Bartolomeus Brenberg. The Transfiguration of the Lord, 1635
Asselin, Jan , The Frightened Swan , 1650 Rijksmuseum , Amsterdam
Sources
- Wikimedia Commons has media related to migratory birds (artists)
- Cécile Michaud, Johann Heinrich Schönfeld: un peintre allemand du XVIIe siècle en Italie , Martin Meidenbauer Verlagsbuchhandlung, Monaco di Baviera, 2006
- Pamela H. Smith, The body of the artisan: art and experience in the scientific revolution , The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2004 , pag. 178
- Charles Callah Perkins, John Denison Champlin, Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings , 2009 , pag. 253
- Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Jean Baptiste Louis Georges Seroux d'Agincourt, Storia della scultura dal suo risorgimento in Italia fino al secolo di Canova , vol. V, Fratelli Giachetti, Prato, 1825 , pag. 518
- Gustave Staal, Les sociétés badines, bachiques, littéraires et chantantes , vol. II , Parigi, 1867 , pag. 211
- Michael Bryan, Dictionary of painters and engravers, biographical and critical , HGBohn, Londra, 1849 , pag. 125
- Shearjashub Spooner, A biographical history of the fine arts: being Memoirs of the lives and works of eminent painters, engravers, sculptors and architects , JWBouton, New York, 1865 , pag. 349-350