Jan Frans Van Bloemen detto Orizzonte

Jan Frans van Bloemen, also known by the pseudonym Orizzonte, was born in 1662 in Antwerp into a family of painters. He began his apprenticeship following his older brother Pieter, and then continued with the painter Antonio Goubau.

At the age of eighteen he left for France, staying in Paris and Lyon, where he joined his brother. They then both arrived in Italy, settling in Turin and then Rome in 1688. From the following year on, they were present in the center of Flemish painters in Via Margutta, where they became part of the Schildersbent, an association of painters, mainly Dutch and Flemish, who were based in the city.

The two brothers spent eight months following a Dutch knight between Naples, Sicily and Malta. At the end of the trip they returned together to Rome, where they worked together in a studio in Via Margutta until 1693. At that date Pieter returned to his homeland, while Jan Frans married Mattea Rosa Barosini da Zagarolo.

The artist became one of the greatest representatives of the Roman-pastoral landscape, a genre that achieved success in the eighteenth century, inspired by the naturalism of Gaspard Dughet and the luministic sensibility of Claude Lorrain, aspects thanks to which he received the nickname Orizzonte (Horizon).

He therefore reused a model already used by his predecessors, which involved inserting small figures, ruins and cityscapes within a large landscape backdrop, often painted from life.

In fact, he painted several landscapes in the areas surrounding Rome from life, such as views of Zagarolo, Frascati, Vignanello, Tivoli and Albano, as Pascoli also tells us.

The painter established himself as one of the most valuable heirs of Lorrain’s atmospheric luminosity and idyllic sensibility.

In his first paintings, the collaboration with his brother is evident, especially in the depiction of animals, a genre in which Pieter excelled.

In the first decades of the 18th century the artist collaborated with various artists, especially to depict figures, such as Carlo Maratti, Pompeo Batoni and Giuseppe Passeri. His brushstrokes also became more vibrant and fleeting. From 1737 in particular he collaborated with Placido Costanzi, as in the case of View of the Colosseum from the Vialone della Vallicella, or the two canvases framed in stucco depicting the scene of The Good Samaritan and The Canaanite Woman at Jesus’ Feet, inside the Coffee-house in the Quirinal Gardens.

Van Bloemen’s patrons

Another painting set in the eternal city is Landscape with the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine, kept in the Pallavicini collection. Also in the Pallavicini palace are Landscape with the Vatican Belvedere and Figures and Landscape with the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli.

Many of his works are kept at the Doria Pamphilj Gallery, such as Landscape with Tower and Figures, Landscape with the Marmore Falls near Terni and Rainbow, Landscape with the Tivoli Falls, Landscape with Shepherd, Two Peasant Women and Lake in the Background and Landscape with Ruins, Bridge and Shepherd.

In recent years the light has reached such clarity as to recall the views of Canaletto. Among his patrons and collectors we can mention the Pallavicini and Rospigliosi families, the Pamphilj family, but also Louis Bonaparte, Humphry Morice and Pope Benedict XIV.

The painter died in Rome in 1749 and was buried in the church of the Agonizzanti.

The artist’s paintings have prices starting from 1000€ up to an auction record in 1996 of 320,000€.