Jan Hovaert
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jan Hovaert or Giovanni Hovart[1][2][3] (c. 1615–1665)[4] was a Flemish painter who after training in Antwerp spent his known active career in Italy. He was initially a collaborator in the studio of the de Wael brothers in Genoa and later developed an independent practice. While he appears to have enjoyed the patronage of the nobility of Genoa, the scope of his oeuvre is not very well understood. A few portraits and a history painting have been attributed to him.[4]
Details about the life of the artist are scarce. The artist biographer Raffaello Soprani discusses Hovaert in his 1768 Vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti genovesi, in which he refers to the artist as 'Giovanni Hovart'.[5] His birthplace was likely Brussels but may also have been Antwerp.[2][4] He is believed to be the person registered under the name Hans de Houwer as a pupil of the otherwise obscure painter Jan Blanckaert in the records of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in the guild year 1633–33.[3]
He left Flanders soon after commencing his training in Antwerp. He is recorded in Genoa around 1635.[2] Genoa was at the time an attractive destination for artists since the competition between artists there was less intense than in the leading Italian cultural centres Rome, Florence and Venice. Genoa was also a thriving port city where a large number of potential customers and collectors lived.[6]
In Genoa Hovaert seems to have quickly been taken under the wing of Cornelis.[5] Cornelis de Wael was a painter as well as a merchant who had moved to Genoa with his brother Lucas from their native Antwerp around 1619.[7] The workshop of the brothers de Wael in Genoa was the centre of the colony of Flemish artists who resided in or passed through the city. These itinerant Flemish artists could take advantage of the work and artistic activity that their workshop attracted. The brothers provided a home, materials and tools, they assisted their compatriots with their local integration, passed on recommendations to clients and formulated competition rules.[8] When Anthony van Dyck visited Genoa, he also stayed with the de Wael brothers.[4] Several Flemish artists visiting Genoa became collaborators in the de Wael workshop. This was also the case of Jan Hovaert who is described as a pupil as well as a collaborator of Cornelis de Wael.[4][5]
It seems that later on Hovaert was able to establish himself as an independent painter of historical and religious subjects as well as portraits. These works were highly appreciated by the Genoese nobility but only a few of these have been located.[9] The contemporary fame of Hovaert is attested by his inclusion in his contemporary Luca Assarino's Giuochi di Fortuna, o sia gli avvenimenti di Astiage e di Mandane, of 1669. Assarino includes Hovaert, whom he refers to as 'Giovanni Havvorth', among the leading painters in Genoa of that time such as Salvatore Castiglione, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari and Giovanni Battista Carlone.[10]
Hovaert married Giovanna Anna Teodora Smit, daughter of Lambert Smit, the Consul of the Flemish-German nation in Livorno in 1631.[2] They had a number of children. One of their sons became a painter and studied in Rome.[5]
He died in Genoa in 1665.[2]
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