or The Golden Cabinet of the Noble Liberal Art of Painting is a book by the 17th-century Flemish notary and rederijker Cornelis de Bie. It was published in Antwerp. Written in the Dutch language, it contains artist biographies and panegyrics with engraved portraits of 16th- and 17th-century artists, predominantly from the Habsburg Netherlands. The work is a very important source of information on the artists it describes. It formed the principal source of information for later art historians such as Arnold Houbraken and Jacob Campo Weyerman. It was published in 1662, although the work also mentions 1661 as date of publication.
Background Het Gulden Cabinet stands in a long tradition of artist biographies. This tradition goes back to Pliny and was revived during the Renaissance. In 1550, the Italian Giorgio Vasari published his Vite on the lives of famous artists. Karel van Mander was the first author to introduce this genre in the Dutch language with his Schilder-boeck of 1604. Cornelis de Bie explicitly placed himself in the tradition of van Mander and did what van Mander did for 15th and 16th Netherlandish artists for 17th-century artists.
In his Het Gulden Cabinet, de Bie presents himself as a rederijker whose duty it is to broadcast the fame of the artists. By doing so he followed an existing tradition already seen in Dominicus Lampsonius' 1572 Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae Inferioris effigies and the Antwerp painter and rederijker Alexander van Fornenbergh's 1658 Antwerpschen Proteus ofte Cyclopschen Apelles, which sang the praises of the painter Quinten Matsys.
The concept of Het Gulden Cabinet did not come from Cornelis de Bie himself, but from the Antwerp printer Joannes Meyssens. In 1649 Meyssens had already published Image de divers hommes, which contained engraved portraits of famous men, including painters, in imitation of Anthony van Dyck's Iconography. Most of the artist portraits in Het Gulden Cabinet are taken from this Image de divers hommes and only a few new engravings were made especially for de Bie's work.
The work
General The full title of the work is Het gulden cabinet vande edel vry schilder const: inhoudende den lof vande vermarste schilders, architecten, beldthouwers ende plaetsnyders, van dese eeuw, which translates as The Golden Cabinet of the Noble Liberal Art of Painting: Containing the Praise of the Most Famous Painters, Architects, Sculptors and Engravers of This Century. Despite its title, the book also deals with artists from the 16th century.
The work was dedicated to the Antwerp art collector Antoon van Leyen who had provided some of the information for the book and may also have helped finance the publication.Christiaan Schuckman. "Bie, Cornelis de." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed July 22, 2014Toon Houdt, On the Edge of Truth and Honesty: Principles and Strategies of Fraud and Deceit in the Early Modern Period, BRILL, 1 Jan, 2002, p 153 Other persons who had provided information on contemporary artists included de Bie’s own father, Erasmus Quellinus II, Luigi Primo and Hendrick ter Brugghen’s son Richard.
Structure and style The book has three parts. The first deals with artists who had died before de Bie's time and relies heavily on van Mander's Schilder-boeck. The second part deals with artists living at the time of de Bie and is mostly based on original research by de Bie and on the comments added to the engravings borrowed from Meyssens' Image de divers hommes. The third part deals with artists who had been omitted in the first two parts and also includes engravers, sculptors, architects, and painters.Het Gulden Cabinet on Flandrica.be A general treatise on the art of painting is woven into the entire work.
The book is mainly written in verse, some of them in Latin, and is as a result rather difficult to read today. There are also some prose sections. It is over 500 pages long and contains engravings of more than 50 painters derived mainly from Meyssens' earlier work.
Influence While The Gulden Cabinet never gained the level of popularity of van Mander’s Schilder-boeck, it is an important source of information on Flemish artists of the 17th century.Cornelis de Bie in the Dictionary of Art Historians. De Bie’s most important contribution was to provide a theoretical basis for his appreciation of (then) less valued painting genres such as still lifes, genre painting, portraits and landscapes. He unreservedly praised the artists who practised in these genres.
Het Gulden Cabinet is included in the Basic Library of the Digital Library for Dutch Literature, which contains 1000 works of Dutch-language literature from the Middle Ages to today, which are deemed by its compilers to be of particular importance to Dutch-language literature.Website of the Basic Library of the dbnl, the section on the Golden Age
Second edition De Bie seems to have planned a second edition of the work, but this was never published. The hand-written manuscript of de Bie is still extant and is kept at the Royal Library of Belgium. The manuscript is dated 1672. In it de Bie mentioned his intention to have a second edition published. The reason why the second edition was never published is unclear. It may have been due to the fact that the publisher and promoter of the first edition Joannes Meyssens had died in 1670 and de Bie had difficulty finding another publisher.
Historical reliability Like Vasari and Van Mander before him, de Bie's biographies are interspersed with amusing anecdotes. Although such literary motifs belong to a long rhetorical tradition, many of these stories were labelled "historically unreliable" by leading historians in the 19th century. Only recently have some of the stories been reinstated. Since the book was often the only surviving source of information on certain painters, these stories have often been repeated as hard facts about the lives of the painters described.
For instance, Cornelis de Bie postulates certain apprenticeships, which are now considered improbable because the pupil painted in a completely different genre than the teacher. De Bie's statement that Philips Wouwerman trained with Frans Hals was deemed implausible by later historians since Wouwerman painted landscapes with horses and Hals was principally a portrait painter. Some scholars still consider this apprenticeship as unlikely, but in view of Hals' large workshop it cannot be entirely excluded.
Artists in Het Gulden Cabinet, Part I The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Book I are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text. The first illustration is of Antoon van Leyen, to whom the book is dedicated.
Adam van Noort p 37 Otto van Veen p 39 Abraham Bloemaert p 45 Tobias Verhaeght p 47 Adam Elsheimer p 49 Guido Reni p 52 Petrus Paulus Rubens p 57 Frans Snyders p 61 Guiliam Nieulandt p 63 Abraham Janssens p 65 Anthony van Dyck p 75 Gillis Mostaert p 79 Pieter Brueghel p 89 Adriaen Brouwer p 91 Gerard Seghers p 97 Lodewijk de Vadder p 98 Wenceslas Cobergher p 101 Jan Antonisz. van Ravesteyn p 102 Palamedes Palamedesz. (I) p 102 Michiel van Mierevelt p 103 Cornelis Schut p 103 Jan Snellinck p 104 Cornelis de Vos p 104 Orazio Gentileschi p 105 Andries van Eertvelt p 105 Adriaen van Utrecht p 106 Willem Backereel p 108 Gilles Backereel p 108 Jan de Wael I p 108 Joos van Craesbeeck p 109 Abraham Matthys p 110 Adam Willaerts p 111 Jean Guiliam Bouwer p 113 Nikolaus Knüpfer p 115 Jan van Bijlert p 117 Jan van Balen p 119 Roelant Savery p 125
Johannes Parcelis p 126 Jan Wildens p 126 Hendrik vander Borght the elder p 127 Jacob Adriaensz Backer p 129 Paulus Moreelse p 131 Hendrick ter Brugghen p 132 Deodat del Monte p 133 Peter vande Plas p 139 Jacques Blanchard p 139 David Teniers the Elder p 140 David de Haen p 142 Vincent Malo p 143 Franciscus Perreer p 143 Jan van Hoeck p 143 Augustijn Brun p 145 Hans Holsman p 145 Frederick Brentel p 145 Jacob van der Heyden p 145 Hesselien (Crabbeken van Amsterdam) p 145 Peeter Meulenaer p 145 Raphael Coxie (son of Michiel) p 145 Spanjolet p 145 Gillis Peeters p 145 Adriaen van Nieulandt the younger p 146 Remigius van Rheni p 149 Peeter van Loon p 149 Padovanino p 150 Lucas Franchois the Younger p 152 Peter Franchois p 152 Peter Soutemans p 154 Pieter Neefs I p 155 Dirck van Baburen p 155 Jan Both p 156 Pietro Testa p 158 Christoffel Jacob vander Laenen p 159 David Beck p 160 Nicolaes vander Horst p 162
Johann Matthias Kager p 162 Theodor Rombouts p 163 Henrick de Clerck p 163 Anthoni Salart p 163 Gerrit van Honthorst p 164 Thomas Willeborts Bossaert p 166 Daniel van Alsloot p 168 Jacques Focquier p 168 Guiliam Mahue p 168 Pieter van Laer p 169 Bonaventura Peeters p 171 Franciscus Wouters p 174 Hendrik Andriessens p 176
Artists in Het Gulden Cabinet, Part II The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Book II are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text. Book II begins on page 181.
Daniel Seghers p 213 Jan Davidsz. de Heem p 216 Peter Snayers p 220 Jacob van Es p 227 Adriaan van Stalbemt p 228 Lucas de Wael p 229 Cornelis de Wael p 229 Adriaan de Bie p 231 Adriaen van de Venne p 235 Paul de Vos p 236 Simon de Vos p 237 Jacques Jordaens p 238 Lucas van Uden p 240 Theodoor van Thulden p 241 Justus Sustermans p 242 Johannes Lievens p 243 Simon Vouet p 243 Gaspar de Crayer p 244 Pieter Jansz. Saenredam p 246 Abraham Willaerts p 247 Jan Thomas van Ieperen p 247 Balthazar Gerbier p 248 Salomon Koninck p 250 Justus van Egmont p 251 Carolus Creten p 251 Leonardus Bramer p 252 Jan van Bockhorst p 254 François Eyckens p 255 Jan Eyckens p 255 Peter vander Borght p 255 Cornelis Poulenbourgh p 257 Ostadi p 258 Herman Swaenvelt p 259 Hans Haringh p 259 Erasmus Quellinus II p 260 Claude Lorrain p 265 Johannes Cossiers p 266 David Bally p 271 Philippe de Champaigne p 273 Alexander Andriaensen p 273 Herman Saftleven p 275 Jacob Sandraet p 276 Gerrit Dou p 277 Jan Weenix p 277 Jan van Bronckhorst p 278 Goovaert Flinck p 280 Pietro da Cortona p 280 Dirk van Delen p 281 Francesco Maltese p 282 Bartholomeus Vander Elst p 283 Jean Francisco Datsent p 283 Abraham van Diepenbeeck p 284 Giovanni Francesco Romanelli p 286 Andreas Vacar p 297
Nicolas Poussin p 297 Peter Danckerse de Ry p 288 Rembrandt p 290 Peeter van Aelst p 291 Albaen p 291 Daniel van Heil p 292 Cavailler Calabres p 294 Giardino di Fiori p 295 Gaspar Du Que p 295 Andrea Sacchi p 296 Bibiano p 296 Michelangelo delle Battaglie p 297 Cornelis Janssens p 298 Jacques d'Arthois p 300 Salvator Rosa p 303 De Colonnen p 304 Jan Benedetti Castilion p 305 Hoscof p 305 Peter van Lint p 306 David Ryckaert p 308 Monsieur Hans p 311 Bernar p 311 Pierre Patel p 311 Nicolaes de Helt Stocade p 312 Karel van Mander III p 314 Dominiquin p 315 Gonzales Coques p 316 Cavailler Massimo p 319 Charles Le Brun p 319 Luigi Primo p 320 La Hiere p 327 Peter Tysens p 328 Lanfranck p 330 Sébastien Bourdon p 333 David Teniers p 334 Johannes Fyt p 339 Robert van Hoeck p 340 Jan Baptiste van Heil p 342 Jan Philip van Thielen p 344 Maria Theresa van Thielen p 347 Anna Maria van Thielen p 347 Françoise Catharina van Thielen p 347 Johannes Coeper p 348 Franciscus de Neve p 349 Pieter Meert p 350 Anthonius Rocka p 353 Jan Peeters (I) p 354 Peter Boel p 362 Johannes van Heck p 365 Gaspar van Eyck p 367 Jan Meel p 368 Cornelis de Heem p 369 Johannes de Duyts p 370 Jan Sibrechts p 373
Joris van Schooten p 373 Lucas Franchois p 374 Karel Dujardin p 377 Carel van Savoyen p 378 Peter van Bredael p 380 Hendrik van der Borcht II p 382 Peter Tentenier p 384 Gysbrecht de Hondecoten p 384 Peter Lely p 385 Cornelis van Berchom p 385 Jan Meyssens p 386 Nicolaes van Eyck p 388