JACOB VAN HUCHTENBURG (Haarlem, Netherlands, ca. 1639/60 - Amsterdam, 1675)
"Battle."
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Attached certificate of authenticity issued by Jan de Maere, member of the Chambres des Expertés chargés des missions judiciaires et d'arbitrage, president of Vlaamse Vereniging van Experten voor Kunst en Antiquiteiten, member of Ordinex and of the Chambre belge des Experts en Oeuvres d'art.
Measurements: 63 x 71 cm; 80 x 88 cm (frame).
We see in this canvas a battle scene in a landscape setting, stylistically framed within the full Dutch Baroque, in its most dynamic aspect, heir to the influence of Rubens. Thus, the main action takes place in the foreground, where we see large characters, unlike the traditional multiple small figures of the Dutch landscape in earlier times. Likewise, in this foreground the moving diagonal lines dominate, which reinforce the tension, dynamism and violence of the scene depicted. These aspects are further enhanced by the play of light, with strategically placed brightness over well-worked and nuanced half-shadows, which denote the knowledge of Italian naturalism. The scene is bounded in the first terms by a gentle slope that rises, again diagonally, from the left side, crowned by trees, on which we see other horses galloping. Behind it, a fluvial landscape worked with soft and blurred tones, reflecting the depth of the space. Finally, above the landscape we see a typically baroque scenographic sky, with flashes of golden light.
A painter of battles and landscapes belonging to the Dutch Golden Age, Jacob van Huchtenburg was the brother of Jan van Huchtenburg and a disciple of the landscape painter Nicolaes Berchem. Like his brother, he was born in Haarlem and later settled in Paris, although he also acquired a certain reputation in Italy. After completing his training, he traveled to Rome in 1662, remaining in the Italian capital until 1667. There he produced a large series of Italian landscapes, stylistically close to the contemporary "bamboccianti". On his return trip to Holland he spent a little more than a year in Paris, probably with his brother. In 1669, just back in his hometown, he joined the guild of St. Luke in Haarlem. Jacob van Huchtenburg is currently represented in the Copenhagen Museum and the Brukenthal in Sibiu (Romania), as well as in various private collections.