Caspar Van Wittel

The Dutchman from Rome
(1652/53 - 1736)

Caspar Van Wittel, also known as Gaspare Vanvitelli, or Gaspare degli Occhiali (he used glasses), was born into a Roman Catholic family in Amersfoort, in the Netherlands.

Luigi Vanvitelli: [1711] - Portrait of Caspar van Wittel - Oil on canvas - Accademia di San Luca, Roma
Carlo Maratta: Portrait of the painter Gaspar van Wittel - Drawing - Red chalk - Hamburger Kunsthalle - Enhanced

 

As a young artist, after studying painting in Amersfoort, his home town, with Thomas Jansz van Veenendaal for 4 or 5 years and then with the better-known Matthias Withoos, van Wittel moved to the Art World in Rome, and he was first documented in Italy in 1675.

In that time, after the Dutch Golden Age (1588-1672) had ended in the Netherlands, Dutch painters were still involved into the 'Food-Still Life painting' or the 'Genre painting'.

 

Pieter Claesz: [ca. 1650] - Still life sovmestno - Oil on canvas - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Gerard ter Borch: [ca. 1668] - The Music Lesson - Oil on canvas

 

The country had started joining Protestantism in 1588, so the Catholic 'Religious painting idea' had sort of collapsed, and new tendencies of wall decoration were born.

The new artistic-realistic trends in the 1670s were the 'Still Life + Vanitas painting', with once more the use of skulls and morbid atmospheres, and the 'Trompe l'oeil painting'.

 

Edwaert Colyer: [1663] - Vanitas - Still Life with Books and Manuscripts and a Skull - Oil on canvas - The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo - Courtesy: Google Art Project
Samuel van Hoogstraten: [1666-78] - Trompe-l'oeil Still-Life - Oil on canvas - Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe - Courtesy: Google Art Project

 

This was replication of reality at its very best, and maybe van Wittel wasn't so much into this type of artistry, so the 23 years old painter left the Netherlands and established himself in Rome.

Getting to know Rome, in close contact with the Italian scenery, he must have decided to follow his artistic vein for painting landscapes.

 

Caspar van Wittel: [1715] - The Piazza del Popolo - Rome - Oil on canvas - Private Collection
Caspar van Wittel: [1715] - The Piazza del Popolo - Rome
Oil on canvas - Private Collection - size (HxW): 57x110 cm

Caspar van Wittel: A view of Amersfoort from the Eem river - Drawing - Bodycolor on vellum, traces of red chalk squaring, laid down on panel - Private Collection
Caspar van Wittel: A view of Amersfoort from the Eem river
Drawing - Bodycolor on vellum, traces of red chalk squaring, laid down on panel - Private Collection - size (HxW): 27.5x48 cm

 

Caspar van Wittel: [1691-1723] - View of Tivoli with the old Waterfall and left bank of the river Aniene - Oil on canvas - Private Collection
Caspar van Wittel: [1690-1710] - View of the Castel SantAngelo and the Vatican seen from Prati di Castello - Tempera on parchment - Musei Capitolini, Roma
Caspar van Wittel: Rome, a view of the Ponte Salario - Oil on canvas
Caspar van Wittel: [1674-1736] - A panoramic view of Rome from Piazza San Pietro in Montorio on the Janiculum - Drawing - Pen and brown ink, over black chalk - British Museum, London
Caspar van Wittel: [ca. 1716] - View of the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine - Oil on canvas - Private Collection, Holkham Hall & Estate
Caspar van Wittel: The Harvest - Oil on canvas - Prato, Museo Civico
Caspar van Wittel: Rome, a view of the River Tiber at the Porto della Legna looking towards Castel Sant'Angelo, with Saint Peter's Basilica in the distance - Oil on canvas
Caspar van Wittel: [1680-85] - Colosseum seen from the south east -recto - Drawing - Pen, ink, pencil, gray and brown watercolour, sanguine - National Central Library of Rome
Caspar van Wittel: [ca. 1700] - The Colosseum seen from the Southeast - Oil on canvas - Harvard Art Museums - Courtesy: Google Arts and Culture
Caspar van Wittel: The Grotto at Posillipo (Naples) - Oil on canvas - Museo del Prado, Madrid
Caspar van Wittel: [ca. 1690-1700] - View of Chiaia district, Napoli - Oil on canvas - Palazzo Pitti, Firenze
Caspar van Wittel: [1712] - View of Rome from Villa Medici - Oil on canvas - National Museum in Warsaw
Caspar van Wittel: [ca. 1700] - View of Florence's Oltrarno from the Cascine - Oil on canvas - Fondazione CR, Firenze
Caspar van Wittel: Castellammare with S. Michele at Pimonte in the Background - Drawing - Graphite on paper - The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Caspar van Wittel: [1685] - View of Rome with the Tiber and Castel Sant'Angelo - Oil on canvas - Palazzo Pitti, Firenze
Caspar van Wittel: Rome: View of St. Peter's and the Vatican seen from Prati di Castello - Oil on canvas - Private Collection
Caspar van Wittel: [before 1736] - Fontana dell'Acqua Paola - Oil on canvas
Caspar van Wittel: View of the Aventine - Drawing - Black chalk, pen and brown ink, on paper - The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Caspar van Wittel: [ca. 1710] - Rome, a view of the church of Santi Marcellino e Pietro, from the Vigna Ciccolini - Oil on canvas
Caspar van Wittel: [1685] - The Villa Medici and Garden in Rome - Tempera on Parchment - Palazzo Pitti, Firenze
Caspar van Wittel: [ca. 1700-18] - The Darsena, Naples - Oil on canvas - Carmen Thyssen Collection, Madrid
Caspar van Wittel: [1685] - View of Tiber in Rome - Oil on canvas - Kunsthistorishes Museum, Wien
Caspar van Wittel: View of Tivioli with the temple of Vesta - Oil on canvas
Caspar van Wittel: The Tiber, Rome, with the Ponte Sisto - Oil on canvas - Private Collection, France

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