View source for Utrecht Caravaggism

{{Short description|Art movement influenced by Caravaggio}}
[[File:Gerard van Honthorst - The procuress - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|330px|''[[The Matchmaker (Honthorst)|The Procuress]]'' by van Honthorst, 1625]]

'''Utrecht Caravaggism''' ({{langx|nl|Utrechtse caravaggisten}}) refers to the work of a group of artists who were from, or had studied in, the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] city of [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]], and during their stay in Rome during the early seventeenth century had become distinctly influenced by the art of [[Caravaggio]].<ref name=Murray>Murray, P. & L. (1996), ''Dictionary of art and artists''. Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-051300-0}}</ref>  Upon their return to the Dutch Republic, they worked in a so-called Caravaggist style, which in turn influenced an earlier generation of local artists as well as artists in Flanders.  The key figures in the movement were [[Hendrick ter Brugghen]], [[Gerrit van Honthorst]] and [[Dirck van Baburen]], who introduced Caravaggism into Utrecht painting around 1620. After 1630 the artists moved in other directions and the movement petered out.  The Utrecht Caravaggisti painted predominantly [[history painting|history scenes]] and [[genre painting|genre scenes]] executed in a realist style.<ref name=oxo>[https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T087469 Paul Huys Janssen, ''Utrecht Caravaggisti''], at Grove Art Online, accessed on 16 January 2021</ref>

==History==
Painters such as [[Dirck van Baburen]], [[Gerrit van Honthorst]], [[Hendrick ter Brugghen]] and [[Jan van Bijlert]] were all in [[Rome]] in the 1610s, a time when the [[Tenebrism|tenebroso]] of Caravaggio's later style was very influential. [[Adam Elsheimer]], also in Rome at the same time, was probably also an influence on them.  Back in [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]], they painted mythological and religious [[history painting|history subjects]] and genre scenes, such as the card-players and gypsies that Caravaggio himself had abandoned in his later career.  
[[File:Hendrick ter Brugghen (Dutch - Bacchante with an Ape - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|260px|''Bacchante with an Ape'' by ter Brugghen, 1627]]

Utrecht was the most Catholic city in the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]].  Its population was about 40% Catholic in the mid-17th century and the rate was even higher among the elite groups, who included many rural nobility and gentry with town houses there.<ref>Wayne Franits, Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting, p.65, Yale UP, 2004, {{ISBN|0-300-10237-2}}</ref>  It had previously been the main centre, after [[Haarlem]], of [[Northern Mannerist]] painting in the Netherlands. [[Abraham Bloemaert]], who had been a leading figure in this movement, and taught van Honthorst and other artists,  was receptive to the influence of his pupils. He changed his style many times before his death in 1651.  The painter [[Matthias Stom]] is often associated with Utrecht Caravaggism. There is no evidence that he spent time in Utrecht or studied under any of the members of the movement.  It is not even clear that he was Dutch rather than Flemish. His style is generally regarded as being close to that of van Honthorst.<ref name="met">{{Cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110002210?rpp |title=Matthias Stom, ''Old Woman Praying'' |publisher=Metropolitan Museum |access-date=2020-03-28}}</ref>
[[File:Dirk van Baburen - Kroning met de doornenkroon.jpg|thumb|280px|left|''Crowning with Thorns'' by [[Dirck van Baburen]] (1622)]]

The brief flourishing of Utrecht Caravaggism ended around 1630. At that time, major artists had either died, as in the case of Baburen and ter Brugghen, or had changed style, like Honthorst's shift to [[portrait painting|portraiture]] and history scenes informed by the [[Flemish Baroque painting|Flemish]] tendencies associated with [[Peter Paul Rubens]] and his followers. They left a legacy through their influence on [[Rembrandt]]'s use of chiaroscuro and [[Gerrit Dou]]'s "niche paintings" (a genre developed by Honthorst).

Along with other [[Caravaggisti]] active in Italy and Woerden, they set the stage for later artists who worked in a Caravaggio-inspired manner such as [[Georges de La Tour]] in [[Duchy of Lorraine|Lorraine]].  They may have also influenced Flemish Caravaggisti such as [[Theodoor Rombouts]], [[Gerard Seghers]], [[Jan Cossiers]], [[Adam de Coster]] and [[Jan Janssens]], most of whom had spent time in Italy where they had been influenced first-hand by the same artists who had influenced the Utrecht Caravaggists.<ref>Gregori, Mina, Luigi Salerno, and Richard E. Spear, ''The Age of Caravaggio'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985</ref>

==Work==
The Utrecht Caravaggisti painted mainly history paintings and genre scenes. They broke with the dominant [[Northern Mannerism]] previously in favour in the Dutch Republic, preferring a heightened realism borrowed from Caravaggio.  Their works were characterized by a direct and lifelike representation of figures in powerful compositions. They preferred the use of [[chiaroscuro]] effects which raised the dramatic impact of their compositions which were filled with a small number of figures which are portrayed in close-up.  The saints in their biblical compositions are depicted as ordinary people.<ref name=oxo/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commons-inline|Category:Utrecht Caravaggisti|Utrecht Caravaggisti}}
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/13424 ''Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi''], a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Utrecht Caravaggism (see index)
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/74278/rec/1 ''Fifteenth- to eighteenth-century European paintings: France, Central Europe, the Netherlands, Spain, and Great Britain''], a collection catalog fully available online as a PDF, which contains material on Utrecht Caravaggism

{{Art of the Dutch Golden Age}}
{{Caravaggisti}}
{{Caravaggio}}

[[Category:Baroque painting]]
[[Category:Art movements in Dutch painting]]
[[Category:Dutch Golden Age painters|*]]
[[Category:Art of the Dutch Golden Age]]
[[Category:Caravaggisti| ]]
[[Category:Artists from Utrecht (city)]]