The contemporaries of the Münster-born painter Jan (Johann) Boeckhorst, known in Antwerp as "Langer Jan," lauded him as one of the best portraitists of his time. [1] Yet only very few of his works have been identified with any certainty, although the surviving inventories of Antwerp family estates frequently mention portraits painted by his hand. Boeckhorst unfortunately almost never signed his paintings. Art historians agree on the attribution of the "Double Portrait" in Pommersfelden and the "Portrait of a Young Man" in Munich to this artist, and more recently the "Study of a Girl's Head" in the Barber Art Institute of Birmingham and the "Portrait of a Girl" purchased in London for an American collection have also come to be recognised as his works. [2] The "Portrait of a Lady" in a white satin dress, acquired by the City Museum of Münster in 1987 as a Boeckhorst, was shown in the 1990 exhibition on the artist in Antwerp and Münster. [3] The attribution of the portrait of the Stuart prince Henry Duke of Gloucester (died 1660) to Boeckhorst remains controversial, although the close personal relationship between the painter and the English royal family is a fact established on the basis of his own estate inventory. [4] The above-mentioned exhibition of 1990 awarded Boeckhorst the high rank of "Painter of the Rubens Period," and since that time new attributions of previously unknown paintings — particularly portraits of historically important personalities — invariably arouse keen interest. After all, an anonymous author of the eighteenth century, who disposed of sources no longer available today, remarked that Boeckhorst had painted portraits in which one could more easily recognise his employment of the Van Dyck manner than in his history paintings. [5]

In September of 1986, the council of the Southern French city of Bayonne approved the purchase of a large picture stemming from a Biarritz art dealership for the Musée Bonnat. In the foreground of this painting is a group of three persons. A kneeling page is buckling a leading commander's spurs while a blue-liveried groom holds the reins of a grey steed. Over his metallically twinkling armour the commander wears a lace collar and a red-and-gold cape, red riding breeches and turndown boots. He is standing next to the ruin of a column in a kind of grotto and, as a symbol of his high rank, holds the typical rod of authority in his right hand. In the background a skirmish is taking place in front of a besieged fortress. The painting's style and conception indicate its origins in the Baroque. It is 272 cm high and 234 cm wide, bears neither signature nor date, and was initially attributed to the Ecole de Van Dyck, particularly in view of its similarities to the picture "Charles I in Hunting Dress" by Anthony Van Dyck (in the Louvre).

The purchase decision was based primarily on the assessment by Michael Jaffé, then the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge. [6] For stylistic reasons he ascribed the work's authorship to the Flemish painter Jan Boeckhorst and identified the military man as the Italian Ottavio Piccolomini, who commanded the imperial troops in Flanders for a time. The conservator Vincent Ducourau also stressed the affinity to paintings of Van Dyck when he introduced the new acquisition in a 1988 publication about the Musée Bonnat, where he erroneously attributed the work to the Dutch painter Jan Gerritsz. van Bronchorst. [7] The latter, however, did not paint in the Van Dyck manner at all but was active chiefly as a glass and genre painter. The confusion was soon cleared up in the Louvre documentation to which Anne-Marie Logan refers in the catalogue of the Boeckhorst exhibition. There is absolutely no doubt as to the identity of the Bayonne picture's subject, ascertained by means of comparing the work with other proven portraits of Piccolomini: We are familiar with his appearance through a half-length portrait in the National Museum of Prague, depicting the successful general with his thick black hair, moustache and goatee. A replica of this work is in the collection of the National Museum of Stockholm. [8]

Both of these works have been assigned to Justus Sustermans, who lived in Florence from 1619 on as court painter to the Medici, grand dukes of Tuscany. In this position Susterman produced a large number portraits. [9] The attribution seems plausible in view of the fact that Piccolomini was a Florentine and a Tuscan subject by birth, and regularly visited his home city. Nevertheless, in the past this portrait has also been associated with the imperial court painter Frans Luyckx who, like Sustermans, was a native of Antwerp. [10] Luyckx undisputedly portrayed the general after 1645 with the medal of the Golden Fleece, conferred upon him by the Spanish king; this oil painting was lost, however, and is known to us only in the form of an engraved copy.

A more well-known engraving is the one in copper by Cornelis Galle the Younger, based on a Piccolomini portrait by the Ghent painter Anselm van Hulle (ca. 1601 - after 1674) and often reproduced. [11] In 1646 van Hulle was commissioned by the Netherlandish governor Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Nassau-Orange to come to Münster, where he was able to complete hundreds of portraits of the envoys taking part in the long-drawn-out peace negotiations; in 1649 he followed the diplomats to Nuremberg where the post-war talks were carried out. During the peace conference of Nuremberg he recorded the great military man's appearance for posterity in a full-length portrait. The allegorically overloaded picture, in which a fanfare-blowing Fama proclaims the hero's glory, is an acquisition of the German Historical Museum in Berlin. As it bears no signature, its attribution to van Hulle is not absolutely certain. [12] Before a silhouette of Nuremberg, the city hosting the conference, Piccolomini is celebrated as a bringer of peace who has laid aside his now useless weapons and armour.

In the process of executing portraits of high-ranking personalities, the use of substitute persons as models during the preliminary phase was common practice. A drawing made by Rubens for his famous portrayal of the Duke of Lerma on horseback, for example, provides evidence that the painter used a model wearing nearly the same costume and sitting on the same horse. [13] Similarly, in an oil sketch of the equestrian portrait of Charles I of England, Van Dyck did not paint the monarch himself but another horseman with shorter hair. [14] The same is true of the picture of Bayonne: A preliminary sketch for the work, painted in a smaller format (54 x 42 cm), turned up in a private English collection in 1988. Except for the head of Piccolomini, the execution of the sketch is nearly identical to that of the full-size painting. The provenance of the small oil appears certain: [15] Around 1800 an agent of the British art collector Henry Blundell of Ince purchased it in Rome from a certain Signore Dappieri who had obtained it as a security. Its present whereabouts are unknown.

The Bayonne painting can be defined as an equestrian portrait even though the general is not mounted but standing beside his steed. This arrangement is relatively uncommon. The highly esteemed art historian Gustav Glück (1871-1952), an expert on Flemish Baroque painting, knew of only two such paintings and made reference to a picture in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts which he regarded to be a work of Erasmus Quellinus (1607-1678) of Antwerp. [16] Here an older, self-confident-looking cavalier, dressed in the rich garb of his time, stands leaning on a stick beside a horse led by a groom. According to the coat of arms and inscription in the right-hand corner, the subject is "Messire de Halmale," a long-time burgomaster of the city of Antwerp whom the Spanish king had elevated to the nobility in 1649 in appreciation of his services. [17] Again, the painting lacks a signature.

The painting's attribution was and still is disputed. Viewing it at an 1857 exhibition in Manchester, the art critic Théophile Thoré (1807-1869) supposed it to be a work of Diego Velázquez, but even Glück's assignment of the authorship to Erasmus Quellinus has not been generally accepted. In Boston it was shown for a while as a "Peter Thys" and is presently ascribed to the hand of the Northern German painter Jürgen Ovens (1623-1678), also a quite doubtful solution. [18] In my view it could more justifiably be attributed to Boeckhorst, who is known to have had contact to Halmale. And incidentally, it is quite possible that Piccolomini was also personally acquainted with Hendrik von Halmale, for Antwerp was chosen as the assembly place for his regiments when they gathered in Flanders in 1635 to support the Spanish Cardinal Infante Ferdinand. The latter had succeeded the deceased Infanta Clara Isabella Eugenia in the office of the General Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. His army was reinforced by a number of imperial and electoral Bavarian units for a military invasion of France intended to bring about a turn of events in the conflict between the estranged Houses of Hapsburg and Bourbon. Despite certain initial successes, however, this undertaking had no significant effect on the overall course of events.

Ottavio Piccolomini, an officer characterised by extreme thirst for success and fame, began his war career with the auxiliary troops sent to Bohemia by the Spanish king to aid his German kinsman Ferdinand II. He went on to serve as lieutenant colonel in the cavalry regiment of Count Pappeheim in Northern Italy and, for a time in 1627, as the colonel in command of Wallenstein's lifeguard; he distinguished himself by exceptional bravery in the 1632 Battle of Lützen. Three —other sources say five — horses having been killed under Piccolomini's saddle, the duke immediately promoted him to General Master-at-Arms. Following Wallenstein's dismissal and murder, he was awarded the Bohemian territory of Nachod and the field marshal's commission for his loyalty to the imperial house. [19] In 1636, having joined the army of the Cardinal Infante, he participated in the invasion of Picardy which caused great dismay in Paris and nearly led to the downfall of Cardinal Richelieu. This phase marked the beginning of Piccolomini's close association with the Flemish aristocracy, whose most outstanding representatives were grandly portrayed for posterity by Anthony Van Dyck in 1634-35. These were the years in which Van Dyck produced the famous equestrian portraits of the Spanish generals Prince Thomas of Savoyen-Carignan and Albert de Ligne-Arenberg, Prince of Barbancon. [20]

Late in the year 1636, Piccolomini wed a daughter of the House of Barbancon; little is known about the marriage. Perhaps the wedding was initially kept secret because Prince Albert had been imprisoned in 1634 for participating in a conspiracy against the Spanish reign. The evidence did not suffice for a conviction, but the prince nevertheless remained in custody until Christmas of 1642 and was not reappointed to his official functions until Madrid had seen the enthronement of a new ruler. His wife Marie, who for a time was compelled to share his mild imprisonment — or better: internment —, gave birth in 1640 to a son who was christened Octave, Piccolomini standing godfather to him. [21] Immediately upon Prince Albert's pardon, the general returned the chain of the high order of the Golden Fleece to him. Piccolomini's young wife, whose Christian name was presumably Dorothée-Caroline, died in 1642. In the printed genealogies of the Arenberg Family she does not appear as the wife of the field marshal, but the fact of their espousement can hardly be disputed. The marriage, perhaps never consummated because of the wife's youth, produced no children.

On July 16, 1638, as the commander of the imperial auxiliary corps, Piccolomini succeeded in relieving the fortress of Saint Omer which had long been under siege by the French. This achievement improved the overall position of the Spanish on the Flemish theatre of war. Less than a year later, on June 17, 1639, he defeated the army of Marshal de Feuquières near Thionville (Diedenhofen). The severely wounded marshal died in captivity, preventing Piccolomini from collecting the ransom; to compensate, the emperor gave him 34,000 guilders. King Philipp IV of Spain made him Duke of Amalfi, an event marking the phase in which the painting in Bayonne is likely to have been executed. Sir Anthony Van Dyck had emigrated to England, where he painted a barely conceivable number of portraits of the British aristocracy in rapid succession. It can be assumed that Boeckhorst was entrusted with the portrait commissions of Flanders for which Van Dyck, as court painter to the English monarch, was no longer available.

Piccolomini was not only an experienced military leader in the service of the Austrian and Spanish Hapsburgs, but an "exceptionally sensitive, art-loving person who purchased all kinds of pictures — this was also typical of the higher nobility's lifestyle." [22] In 1639, during his stay in Brussels where the Cardinal Infante resided, he paid the painter Gerard Seghers the large sum of 2,161 pattacons for paintings whose identities are unknown to us. [23] Seghers was an art dealer with good connections to the art market in Seville, having been in Italy and Spain between 1611 and 1620 according to his biographers. He worked with Boeckhorst on the festive decorations for the Cardinal Infante's entry into Antwerp as well as on paintings for the St. Joseph's Chapel of the Augustinian convent there. [24] Thus it appears possible that Seghers served as the connecting link between Piccolomini and Boeckhorst. We can assume that the scene in the background of the Bayonne equestrian portrait depicts the relief provided to the fortress of Saint Omer when it was under French siege. Gerard's son Jan Baptiste Seghers was later received in Piccolomini's household for a time following his journey to Italy. Joachim von Sandrart praised Jan Baptiste as a promising young painter, and Piccolomini recommended him to the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, a renowned collector of paintings. [25] In 1654 Jan Baptiste Seghers accompanied Piccolomini to the Imperial Diet of Regensburg. Unfortunately we are not acquainted with any of this artist's works; we do know, however, that in 1667-68 he mediated in a dispute between Jan Boeckhorst and the carver Matthias van Beveren. [26] Analysis of material in the Czech State Archive of Zámrsk pertaining to the Piccolomini estate in Nachod might provide art historical research with new insights.

We are aware that in Brussels Piccolomini commissioned Pieter Snayers (1592-1667), a battle painter highly esteemed by his contemporaries, to produce several large pictures glorifying his wartime successes. They originally hung in Nachod Castle and today some of them are in the collection of the Military History Museum of Vienna. The field marshal specified the pictures' size and supplied precise instructions for the depiction of the participating troop units. Thus the works certainly possess documentary value, for example the scenes of the crossing of the Somme in the French campaign of 1636 or the attack on the Swedish general Carl Gustaf Wrangel near Dachau in the final year of the war. According to information obtained from the Nachod archivist Otto Elster, [27] Piccolomini paid Snayers 2,060 taler for his painting of the Battle of Diedenhofen. For five further paintings a total of 7,553 guillders was agreed upon in 1649 but, according to a letter written by the painter, the debt had not yet been settled in 1651. By 1657 a sum of 12,250 guilders had accrued, which Piccolomini's widow Maria Benigna was compelled to pay off.

Quite unfortunately, we are not acquainted with the particulars of Piccolomini's contact to the painter and friend of Rembrandt Jan Lievens (1607-1674), to whom he had 1,550 taler remitted in 1639. Lievens lived in Antwerp from 1635 on and was so influenced by Anthony Van Dyck's manner of painting that he gave up his previous style and acquired the latter artist's sweeping brushstroke before emigrating to Amsterdam in 1643. [28] The picture in Bayonne can by no means be associated with him. Piccolomini commissioned Joachim von Sandrart — actually famous for his writings on art — to paint a life-size double portrait for Nachod Castle, a work carried out during the peace negotiations of Nuremberg in 1651. It measures 257 x 165 cm, was stored in the National Gallery of Prague, and is meant to capture Piccolomini "commanding his Colonel Ranft to charge the fortifications of the city near Regensburg, where a breach had already been opened" — at least according to the biography written by Sandrart's friends on the basis of his own statements. In the Sandrart catalogue raisonné, Christian Klemm assesses the work as follows: "The execution satisfies the high expectations place on it; the broken purplish-red of the sashes dominates over the light brown and yellow tones of the foreground and the bright grey, partially blue sky." Yet it is doubtful whether the subject of the painting was really the military action of 1634, for Piccolomini is depicted here as a corpulent elderly gentleman, which will have corresponded more to the time of the painting's execution. Colonel Hans Christoph Ranfft, who was raised to the peerage as "von Wiesenthal," [30] was among Piccolomini's entourage at the conference of Nuremberg, where he was frequently employed by the duke to carry out confidential missions. The portrait of Piccolomini by Anselm van Hulle, now in a Berlin museum collection, has already been referred to above.

It remains to be mentioned that in 1651 the "imperial chamber painter Cornelis Sottermann," a brother of the above-mentioned Justus Sustermans who lived and worked in Florence, requested payment for a painting commissioned for Nachod; the work is unfortunately unknown to us. From 1629 on, Cornelis Sustermans was a free master of the Lucas Guild in Antwerp. [31] We possess no information which would indicate the significance of the Italian painters — Marco Balessi, Giacomo Bonvicini and a certain Formarini — who, according to Elster, were temporarily employed by Piccolomini. The prince spent large sums of money on Gobelins from Brussels, and paid a painter whose name cannot be established 550 taler for his design of a Gobelin wall hanging. [32] Let us refer finally to the deaf-mute artist Wolfgang Heimbach (ca. 1613/15-1678), who visited Nachod Castle in 1651, leaving behind a portrait of Piccolomini whose present whereabouts have remained a mystery. On July 18, 1652, during a stay in Oldenburg, Heimbach wrote a letter to his patron about the work; this document was published in the supplement to a regional newspaper in 1907. [33] Heimbach later became court painter to the prince bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen of Münster, of whom he executed several portraits. [34]

As mentioned above, during the years 1644-47 Piccolomini was active as a commander of the Spanish army in Flanders; in the spring of 1648, however, he resigned from this position because of his differences with the Spanish ministers. In the final year of the war, following the death of General Lieutenant Peter Melander, Count of Holzappel in the Battle of Zusmarshausen (May 17, 1648), Emperor Ferdinand III placed Piccolomini at the head of the chief imperial army. On June 9 he reached the imperial Bavarian army at its position between Braunau and Schärding, where he was cheeringly welcomed by the soldiers. The latter had just retreated 200 kilometres — from the Lech to the Inn — and had to be reorganised and encouraged to muster up extreme resistance to a much stronger enemy. Faced with the two armies of the Swedes and the French under Carl Gustaf Wrangel and the Viscount de Turenne, Piccolomini — whose authority was also recognised by the Bavarian generals — limited himself to defence, [35] particularly in view of the enemy's distinct artillery advantage. The advance of the united Swedish-French army came to a halt at the Inn and the Donau, although after the disaster of Zusmarshausen the imperial troops were in a state of near-dissolution. It was due to the Italian commander that the shaky military balance between the warring parties could be maintained throughout the autumn of 1648. On November 4, Piccolomini received news of the peace finally negotiated in Münster and led his regiments to their winter quarters. "Wegen seiner großen Wissenschaft in Staats-Sachen schickte ihn der Kayser als Principal-Gesandten auf den Executions-Convent zu Nürnberg, allwo er in der That zeigte, daß er ein so großer Staatsmann als Feldherr sey," was the praise he received. [36] When the executory conference of Nuremberg was over, Ferdinand III agreed to the request of the German estates of the empire to elevate General Lieutenant Piccolomini to the rank of imperial princedom. He remained an advisor to the emperor until his death on August 11, 1656, which was caused by injuries incurred when he tried to help a peasant who was caught under an overturned wagon; the prince fell with his horse. He was entombed in the Viennese Servite church he had endowed in the Rossau. [37] He had lived extravagantly and depleted his great wealth during the final year of the war. His young widow Maria Benigna Francisca [38] thus inherited considerable debts; she died in Vienna in 1701.

FOOTNOTES