Pieter Hofmans

In this interesting “Battle between European Militias” (oil on canvas, 65 x 125 cm without frame and 85 x 145 cm with frame), the author balances the inventiveness between the heart of the battle in the foreground on the center left, where a knight on horseback, with a sword, tries to strike a soldier on foot who, in turn, tries to unseat him, while even closer we can see a dead knight and a horse with a terrified look trying to get up to escape: in the background there is an opening on the left onto a mountainous background with a city, while on the right an interesting perspective opening opens and lengthens the painting, giving it the right balance. A typical scheme of Jacques Courtois, known as Borgognone, who was an undisputed leader of this genre, not only in Rome and Florence where he made his most famous works, but also for all the other Italian and even foreign "battle painters", for whom he was a primary point of reference. However, the figurative modes of our author, although in the wake of the aforementioned master, appear more raw and crude, while not lacking in qualities typical of a specialist in the sector with a loose and decisive manner in the delineation of horses and in the gestures of the fighters, also with effective glimpses such as the steed seen from the rear on the right side, whose knight with a red jacket has his sword in his right hand ready to strike. Turning to the typological, and equally stylistic and pictorial examination of the painting, I believe that it should be assigned to the Fleming Pieter Hofmans known as the Giannizzero (Antwerp 1642 c. - Rome 1692), who was remembered by the biographer Luigi Lanzi (Pictorial History of Italy, VI edition, Milan 1823, II, page 225), as his only direct follower, based primarily on a comparison with the two large "Battles between European and Turkish armies", formerly in the Sciarra collection, and then in the Almagià collection (see catalog edited by R.E. Spear, Renaissance and Baroque Painting, Bozzi ed., Rome 1972, nn. 37-38, pp. 74-75), which were the first essential finding for the recovery of this 'battle painter', as I had the opportunity to explain in the volume I edited on Battle Painters. Italian and foreign masters of the 17th and 18th centuries, De Luca ed., Rome 1999, pp. 354-355). In fact, the comparisons in the delineation of horses are very close between the painting examined here and the “Almagià” pair. Pieter, after being a pupil in his homeland of Nicolas I van Eyck, left for Italy around 1660, settling in Rome where in 1682 he married Margherita Gambari. But previously he had traveled to Turkey, apparently with the landscape painter Zurniter; an experience from which his nickname in the Roman Bent of Janitzer probably derived, even if N. Houbraken, who included him in his poem on the Bentvueghles, writes that the nickname was given to him because he stood as straight as a Swiss janissary. However, the knowledge of this neglected 'battle painter' can be expanded with new recoveries to his hand of convincing relevance. In particular with the pair of remarkable small paintings that I was able to examine directly - a nocturnal "Battle" and a "Standard Bearer", then sold at Sotheby’s in Milan in 2004 - on whose original frame appears the contemporary inscription "Di Monsieur Giannizzaro Scolare del Padre Giacomo" Jacques, in Italian Giacomo, entered the Society of Jesus in 1658), and which otherwise could have been mistaken for works by Courtois. However, even if it is certainly not yet possible to establish an evolutionary path of Hofmans, the present “Battle”, I believe that the present “Battle” should belong to the early years of his Roman phase, as it is still linked to a figurative imprint of Nordic taste. The paintings and works of art published here are my exclusive property and consequently are always available to be viewed in person, by appointment, at my exhibition venues located in Sanremo and Brescia. The work, like all our objects, is sold accompanied by a FIMA photographic certificate of authenticity and lawful origin; this document identifies the object adding value to the article. We personally take care of and organize the packaging and shipping of works of art with insurance all over the world. Dr. Riccardo Moneghini Art Historian