Cornelis de Wael was an important and influential Flemish figure painter who was active almost all his life in the thriving port city of Genoa; he also lived in Rome during the last ten years of his life and for a short period circa 1625/26.

 

 

Flemish painter

Antwerp 1592 – 1667 Rome

 

Versatile painter of human activity: genre and market scenes, lively feasts or figures in landscapes, of sea battles between Christians and Turks and of other military subjects. He also painted several series of the Seven Works of Mercy. There seems to be only one fully signed painting known by Cornelis de Wael, while there are also a few signed drawings known by him.

 

Cornelis’ father was the painter Jan de Wael I (Antwerp 1558 – 1633 Antwerp), who had been a pupil of Frans Francken I. His grandfather on mother’s side was the cartographer Gerard de Jode; her brother was the engraver Pieter de Jode I

 

Our Cornelis de Wael spent his complete active career in Italy, in Genoa and in Rome:

 

- in 1610 he left Antwerp for Genoa, together with his elder brother, Lucas (Antwerp 1591 – 1661 Antwerp), who specialised in landscape painting and in genre scenes;

- by the end of 1625 and in 1626 Cornelis and Lucas are documented in Rome. In 1627 Cornelis’ brother, Lucas, returned to Antwerp and remained there until his death;

- Cornelis had returned to Genoa until the plague forced him to leave town again, some thirty years later, around 1656/57;

- he settled in Rome where he stayed until his death, except for a brief sojourn in 1660 in Genoa.

 

Genoa was one of the major harbour towns and financial cities of Italy, and thus of the Mediterranean. As economy was booming its aristocracy formed a rich caste of potential patrons for painters. While Rome worked as a magnet for Italian and foreign artists, this was much less the case for the Ligurian capital. 

The climate in Rome seems to have been too hot, especially for Lucas de Wael (who was rather corpulent). Above all both brothers did not specially enjoy the loud company of the Flemish painters grouped in the Schildersbent (founded in or circa 1623). Shortly after they left the Eternal City one its members (Cornelis Schut), called the ‘Bentvueghels’ (“group of birds”), was even arrested in September 1627 for the murder on a Dutch painter (Joost uit den Haech?) and later expelled from Rome.

 

Probably at their return in Genoa both de Wael brothers were portrayed together by Sir Anthony van Dijck (Antwerp 1599 – 1641 London); this famous portrait hangs today at the Pinacoteca Capitolina in Rome.

 

The importance and success of Cornelis de Wael in Italy cannot be stressed enough: 

 

- with his Flemish art he influenced Italian painters;

- he received and helped many Flemish painters who visited Italy in his homes of Genoa and Rome. For example Anthony van Dijck stayed periodically with both brothers in Genoa between 1621 and 1627; Andries van Eertvelt stayed with Cornelis in Genoa between 1627 and 1630;

- he helped many Flemish painters and international patrons as an art dealer, looking also after shipments, deliveries, etc. He also dealt in other luxury goods, among these there were a lot of liturgical texts; 

- he worked together with landscape painters, such as his brother Lucas and Jan Wildens;

 

There seems to be only one fully signed painting known by Cornelis de Wael, while there are also a few signed drawings known by him.

 

 

The Romani or Gypsies are a nomadic people who left NW India roughly 1500 years ago and arrived in Western Europe from the East in the 15th century. Although they were at first welcome in most countries and towns, this attitude changed rapidly and dramatically. Just as the Jews they were being stigmatized and criminalized. This was the start of a long history of accusations of bringing the plague, of spying for the Turks, of stealing and cheating. This resulted in discrimination, forced labour, persecution, abduction of their children, ethnic cleansing, deportation, expulsion and killing. 

 

During the 17th and 18th century the Romani were called 'Egyptians' or 'pagans'. The designation 'Egyptian' (hence 'gypsy') refers to the story that they had fled from Egypt after the Muslim conquest of the country during the 7th century AD.

 

Romani were active as muscians, fortune tellers, dealers in herbs and medication, seasonal workers in the farms, etc. Some survived as beggars. They literally lived at the edge of society, in tents and huts, in regions where the vegetation and the conditions of the ground made it difficult for a central control.

 

Why were the Gypsies persecuted?

- because they had a dark skin, this in Christian society where a light skin referred to the angels, a dark one to the devils;


- because they were nomads and therefore outcasts;


- because of prejudices against their customs;


- because no one understood their language;


- because they had invented a story that they were the descendants of the Egyptians who had enslaved the Israelites and who therefore had been condemned by God to perpetual wandering;


- because through fortune telling and palmistry they competed with the priests to win the superstituous minds;


- because they worked outside the rigid system of the trade guilds.