Pieter Lastman
Encyclopedia
Jan Lievens
Jan Lievens was a Dutch painter, usually associated with Rembrandt, working in a similar style.-Biography:According to Arnold Houbraken, Jan was the son of Lieven Hendriksze, a tapestry worker , and was trained by Joris Verschoten. He was sent to Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam at about the age of 10...
. In his paintings Lastman paid a lot of attention to the faces, hands and feet.
Pieter Lastman was born in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, the son of a town-beadle, who was dismissed in 1578 for being a Catholic. His mother was an appraiser of paintings and goods. His apprenticeship was with Gerrit Sweelinck, the brother of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. He was among the first major keyboard composers of Europe, and his work as a teacher helped establish the north German organ...
. Between approximately 1604 and 1607 Lastman was in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where he was influenced by Caravaggio
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...
(as were the painters of the Utrecht School
Utrecht School
Utrecht Caravaggism refers to those Baroque artists, all distinctly influenced by the art of Caravaggio, who were active mostly in the Dutch city of Utrecht during the early part of the seventeenth century....
a few years later) and by Adam Elsheimer
Adam Elsheimer
Adam Elsheimer was a German artist working in Rome who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century. His relatively few paintings were small scale, nearly all painted on copper plates, of the type often known as cabinet paintings. They include a variety of light...
. Back in Amsterdam he moved in with his mother in the Sint Antoniesbreestraat
Sint Antoniesbreestraat
The Sint Antoniesbreestraat is a street in the centre of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The street runs south from Nieuwmarkt square to the Sint Antoniesluis sluice gates....
, living next to mayor Geurt van Beuningen
Geurt van Beuningen
Geurt van Beuningen was the son of a cheese-dealer, mayor of Amsterdam and administrator of the Dutch East India Company . He was one of the first of the VOC's subscribers in 1602. For years he was a member of the Amsterdam vroedschap.-Life:...
. Lastman never married although he promised to marry the sister of Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero
Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero
Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero was a Dutch poet and playwright in the period known as the Dutch Golden Age.-Life:...
. Because of his health Lastman moved in with his brother in 1632. He died the next year and was buried in the Oude Kerk.
Because Rembrandt never visited Italy, it is likely that he was influenced by Caravaggio (see e.g. chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro in art is "an Italian term which literally means 'light-dark'. In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted"....
) mainly or significantly via Lastman.
