Dirck de Vries was one of those adventurous painters of the Low Countries who had travelled to Italy to study its Mannerist painting. He settled probably already before 1590 in Venice, where he spent the rest of his life.

 

We are here at the crossroads of Italian and Dutch painting: in a very Venetian way de Vries has turned a simple meal in a tavern into a complex masterclass of perspective lines. The table is set at another level than the kitchen and the light is pouring in from two windows into a room that was traditionally depicted poorly lit. 

 

 

Dutch painter

Born in Friesland, date unknown

Passed away in Venice in 1612

 

Rare painter of genre scenes, kitchen interiors and fruit still lifes.

His last name, de Vries, refers to the Northern-most region of Holland, Friesland. He is also known as Theodorus Frisius.

 

De Vries left for Italy and settled in Venice circa 1587/1590. He remained there in the Serenissima until his death in 1612. He had a successful career along other Nordic painters, such as Pauwels Franck (Paolo Fiammingo, circa 1540 – 1596), who is said to have been his Master. 

 

The famous Dutch draughtsman and printmaker Hendrick Goltzius (1558 – 1617) stayed with de Vries in his house in the contra dei Santi Apostoli, when he was in Venice in 1590-1591. At the age of 21 Goltzius had married a rich, elder widow. Their unpleasant relationship forced him away in 1590, travelling through Germany to Italy. He returned to Haarlem at the end of 1591. Goltzius began successfully painting around 1600, at the age of 42; he more or less gave up engraving at that stage.

 

During this stay in Venice Goltzius must have made a drawing of our painter, dated 1590, currently in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem.

There exists an engraving from 1597 by Hendrick Goltzius representing Dirck de Vries’s son, Frederik, with Goltzius’s dog. Frederik passed away in 1613.

 

 

In the gospel of Luke we are told how, on the day after his resurrection, two of Jesus’ disciples met him on their way from Jerusalem to the town of Emmaus. They did not recognize Christ in the guise of a traveller. It was not until the evening, when Jesus blesses and breaks the bread at the humble inn where they stayed, that they recognised him. 

 

 

Because it is such a highly original composition: an important religious moment is enriched by a partial kitchen view and the elegant Mannerist figure of a kitchen aid climbing up the stairs.