David Teniers, design piece for the frontispiece of the Theatrum Pictorium, 1658. Courtesy the Courtauld Institute
Rachel Hayward discovers the forerunner to the glossy art catalogue at the Courtauld’s latest exhibition
Velázquez may be the painter’s painter but David Teniers was the cataloguer’s cataloguer; his 1660 publication of the Theatrum Pictorium or Theatre of Painting was the first illustrated printed catalogue of a major paintings collection.
So we’ve got David Teniers to thank for those sumptuous modern catalogues that illuminate our gallery visits nowadays, and the Courtauld Institute of Art is examining for the first time the history and production of the Theatrum Pictorium in an exhibition running until January 21 2007.
David Teniers the Younger (1610-90) was already an accomplished and renowned painter in his own right when, in 1651, he was appointed court artist to the Governor of the Southern Netherlands (now most of modern Belgium).
His new master, the Habsburg Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, had amassed one of the greatest art collections of his generation and Teniers acted as curator to masterpieces by Holbein, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Van Eyck, Raphael, Giorgione, Veronese and Titian. These works can now be seen in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum.
David Teniers, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Picture Gallery in Brussels, c. 1651. Courtesy the Courtauld Institute
Teniers’ skills as an artist were put to the test by his new patron, as his first depiction of the collection – a large-scale painting entitled, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Picture Gallery (1651) – demonstrates.
It provided an innovative through-the-keyhole approach to portraiture; the Archduke, surrounded by courtiers, fellow collectors and much of his collection, is being shown an Annibale Carracci picture by Teniers. Interestingly, most of the paintings had previously belonged to King Charles I and were sold on after the Royalist defeat in the English Civil War.
The Archduke had even acquired more than 500 paintings from the Duke of Hamilton, who was executed in 1649. The Duke’s collection rivalled the King’s in quality and was certainly a jewel in the Habsburg crown with Titian’s Nymph and Shepherd and Raphael’s St Margaret amongst its works.
The artist-curator, Teniers, dutifully documented the collection in a series of gallery pictures – Leopold Wilhelm even sent one as a gift to his cousin, King Philip IV of Spain. Is it possible that the Archduke was keen to show off his wealth of art to Philip IV, one of his few collecting rivals?
Jan van Troyen, engraving of Giorgione's Three Philosophers for the Theatrum Pictorium. Courtesy the Courtauld Institute
Then, the exacting Teniers went further. He produced an illustrated catalogue of 243 of the Archduke’s finest Italian works which would form the Theatrum Pictorium. The project was a highly ambitious one because it was designed to reach audiences beyond courtly circles.
Theatrum Pictorium was quite simply a labour of devotion to the masters of the past; Teniers even painted beautiful and skillful small copies of each picture for his team of 12 engravers to use when making their reproductions. He then went on to publish the volume at his own expense in 1660 as the Archduke was now in Vienna with his collection.
Teniers’ exquisite copies now constitute a valuable historical resource; tragically, paintings such as Giorgione’s The Three Philosophers were later altered or lost. Theatrum Pictorium was printed in four further editions and was a reference book well into the 18th century. Its systematic construction also had a lasting influence on future collections.
David Teniers, St Sebastian (copy after Mentegna), c. 1655. Courtesy the Courtauld Institute
You can see Teniers’ mini-masterpiece copies on display in the exhibition alongside the engravers’ prints as well as Teniers’ views of the Archduke’s gallery housing the original works themselves.
No less remarkable are examples of the Theatrum Pictorium. Of special note is a 1660 edition owned by Sir Joshua Reynolds, on loan from the British Library.
As a postscript, if you’ve not visited the Courtauld before, why not take in the Gallery’s stunning collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works before you leave. They fill in some important blanks in the National Gallery’s ‘must see’ Manet to Picasso display; Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1881-2) is one of the defining paintings of the period as is a version of his Déjeuner sur L’Herbe.
The National may also have such important works such as Cézanne’s Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) (c. 1894-1905) in its exceptional Cézanne in Britain exhibition, but you can see the artist’s monumental Montagne Sainte-Victoire (c. 1887) in the Courtauld’s collection.
