Panorama von Neapel

The present drawing beautifully refutes the notion

of art on paper as the poor cousin of painting. With

its impressive size and artful execution, it practically

knocks the viewer over: a flamboyant translation

of penwerk (penwork) into topographic art. The city

of Naples is seen from its hinterland toward the

open sea. At right, the fortress of Castel Sant’Elmo

serves as a landmark, and down at the harbor, to

the left of Castel Nuovo, stands the Molo Grande.1

The view stretches far to the Gulf of Naples, with

Mount Vesuvius, at left, standing out among the

mountains, and the island of Capri visible on the

slightly curved horizon.2

Not much is known about Jan van Stinemolen

(1518–1589). His father was a wealthy goldsmith in

Mechelen, and he may have been trained in that

trade as well.3 The year 1554 saw him in Rome,4 but

whether for a short visit or a longer stay remains

unknown. From the 1560s to the 1580s, he is recorded

as residing in his hometown.5 However, there

must have been further connections to Italy, as his

son-in-law is mentioned as living in Naples in 1567.6

Our sheet itself serves as a document: it is signed

and dated, though in a somewhat clandestine

manner (fig. 1), telling us that the artist made the

drawing in 1582 at the age of sixty-four.7

Only three other drawings by Van Stinemolen

are known, all picturing the Naples region. Two of

these, in Edinburgh8 and Stockholm,9 were done

in the same painstaking manner in pen and ink. A

third drawing in a private collection (fig. 2), in red

chalk and of a somewhat more summary execution,

may have been an initial sketch—if this descriptor

may be applied to an artist working in such a

meticulous manner. Its subject, the amphitheater

of Pozzuoli, is seen in the Albertina’s drawing as

well, in the far-right distance amid the swelling

hills. Even more than the present drawing, figure 2

reveals the artist’s obsession with the meandering

lines in the volcanic ground that animate the

landscape and produce a swirling effect. A similar

imaginative undercurrent is likewise present in the

Vienna sheet, though cast in somewhat solid form

by the precise penwork.

Drawings by Van Stinemolen were highly sought

after. In a letter of September 20, 1593, the artist

Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1600) told his Antwerp publisher,

Abraham Ortelius (1527–1598), how he envied

him for his works by “Stinemeulen.”10 This may

surprise us if we consider Hoefnagel’s somewhat

different approach to topographical draftsmanship

[8]. But then, who would not be impressed by

drawings that were apparently made to impress?

Magnificent in size, perspective, and execution, the

drawing creates an overall sense of awe that was

likely familiar to the well-travelled, while also appealing

to the “armchair traveler” longing to leave

his native Low Countries.11

 

1. Some ships were apparently added later, in a different

tone of ink.

2. A research group at Biblioteca Hertziana led by Professor

Tanja Michalsky developed an interactive key to our drawing,

highlighting and identifying landmarks, churches, and castles:

Panorama del Stinemolen, maps.biblhertz.it/map?name

=biblhertz.it.

3. Monballieu 1978, 28.

4. Monballieu 1978, 31.

5. Monballieu 1978, 35.

6. Monballieu 1978, 34.

7. His age is given twice, seemingly because it interfered with

one of the vertical creases running through the paper.

8. Jan van Stinemolen, View of the Island of Ponza, c. 1582,

pen and brown ink, on paper, 29.4 x 42.6 cm, National Gallery of

Scotland, Edinburgh, D 1205; Andrews 1985, 82, fig. 539.

9. Jan van Stinemolen, View of Monte Maggiore and the Valley

of Capua, c. 1582, pen and ink, on paper, 26.6 x 39.2 cm,

Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Anck.200; the latter was copied by

Jacques de Gheyn II, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York,

1967.12; Stampfle 1991, no. 62.

10. First published by Van Regteren Altena 1932, 95; see also

Vignau-Wilberg 2017, 55.

11. For this expression, see De Rock 2019, 283. Ketelsen

and Wintermann 2011, 265, provide a fascinating parallel,

associating such awe-inducing landscapes with contemporary

travel reports that dwelled on the same emotions.

 

Emily J. Peters, Laura M. Ritter (Hg.), AK Tales of the City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, Cleveland Museum of Art 9.10.2022 - 8.1.2023, New Haven 2022, Kat. Nr. 13

Seewärts fällt der Blick auf die Stadt Neapel: Links liegt die Altstadt mit ihren Kirchen, rechts neben der Hafenmole das Castel Nuovo. Das würfelförmige Inselchen mit dem Torre San Vincenzo existiert heute nicht mehr, es wurde im 18. Jahrhundert bei der Neugestaltung des Hafenbeckens abgerissen. Rechts, etwas oberhalb der Stadt, erkennt man das Castel Sant’ Elmo auf dem Vomero. Bis weit über den Golf von Neapel reicht die Sicht–links ist der Vesuv und ganz am Horizont die Insel Capri auszumachen.

Dieses Panorama von Neapel ist eine beeindruckende Tour de Force, ein »Federkunststück« im Format eines Gemäldes. Die nuanciert abgestuften Tonwerte sind das Ergebnis variierender Strichstärke und unterschiedlich dichter Schraffur. Seit den Forschungen von Monballieu wissen wir, dass der aus Mechelen stammende Künstler vermutlich zum Goldschmied ausgebildet wurde, was die minutiöse Feinarbeit der Zeichnung erklären kann. 1554 war Jan van Stinemolen in Rom, und auch Neapel kannte er aus eigener Anschauung, denn dort lebte sein Schwiegersohn Pauwels Scheppers, den er 1567 besuchte. Die einzige weitere signierte Zeichnung des Künstlers, in gleicher Technik gearbeitet, zeigt die nördlich von Neapel gelegene Insel Ponza (Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Inv. D 1205).

Van Stinemolens filigrane Zeichnungen im Großformat waren im 16. Jahrhundert begehrte Sammlerstücke. In einem Brief vom 20. September 1593 beglückwünschte Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1600) den Kartografen und Verleger Abraham Ortelius (1527–1598) zu dem Besitz mehrerer Zeichnungen von »Steinemeulen«. Zu seinen Bewunderern zählte auch Jacob de Gheyn. Er zeichnete eine – heute verlorene – Ansicht von Neapel (Auktionskatalog Kornelis Kool, Amsterdam, 14.2.1702, S. 6, Nr. 9), vielleicht nach Vorlage des Wiener Blattes, das sich nach Ansicht Van Regteren Altenas möglicherweise sogar in De Gheyns eigener Sammlung befand.

Bosch, Bruegel, Rubens, Rembrandt. Meisterwerke der Albertina, hg. von K. A. Schröder und C. Metzger, Albertina, Wien, Ostfildern 2013, Abb. 133, S. 276.