Lucas Gassel
Lucas Gassel (* around 1500 in Helmond ; † after 1568) was a Flemish painter and draftsman . His detailed pictures in oil or water colors show predominantly biblical themes in the midst of invented, mostly mountainous and rocky landscapes.
Life
Nothing is known about Gassel's origins and his education. He is likely to have started his career as a painter in Antwerp between 1520 and 1530 , perhaps initially working with other artists, for whom he created backgrounds with landscapes. According to other sources, he worked in Brussels and was friends with Dominicus Lampsonius . His last (known) picture is dated 1568. Nothing is known about Gassel's further whereabouts (or e.g. about the place of his death).
Selection of works
- Mountainous landscape (two paintings, both 1538)
- A landscape. In the foreground the Savior, accompanied by St. Peter and St. John, healing the lame man: next to ..., 1538
- David and Bathsheba (nine versions, 1540–1559), oil on panel, plus a drawing
- Landscape with a Copper Mine (1544), oil on panel
- Flight into Egypt (1547)
- Judah and Tamar (1548)
- Christ and the Canaanite Woman (1550)
- Landscape with ' Noli me tangere '
- Mercury and Argus (lost, most recently at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna )
- The Three Angels Before Abraham (1568, last known work), pen drawing
Individual motifs were templates for copperplate engravings :
- Landscapes with Biblical Persons and Saints, five sheets, by Joannes and Lucas van Doetecum (published around 1562)
- Jerome in the desert
style
Gassel's landscape painting is in the tradition of Joachim Patinir and Herri (met de) Bles . Many of his paintings could be workshop work, so only in parts by his hand. Marcellus Coffermans possibly painted the inventory of figures in some of Gassel's paintings.
Gassel's landscapes with mountains, rocks and valleys are mostly structured spatially through color schemes (brownish in the foreground, bluish in the background), just as the richness of detail decreases with the depth of the image. The figures are conspicuous, their compact bodies and slightly oversized heads appear unrealistic.
The motif of David and Bathsheba , which Gassel painted in nine versions, is remarkable . It shows David's palace on the right and Bathsheba’s garden on the left, in between an area with a playing field for batting (the forerunner of tennis ), a grass field (probably for target practice) and in the background a circular hedge labyrinth. Some versions of the picture show a fountain with a Manneken-Pis figure; the figures of the version from around 1543 are presumably by an unknown hand.
literature
- JJM Heeren: Gassel. In: Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Volume 6. Sijthoff, Leiden 1924, columns 542-543.
- Hans Devisscher: Gassel, Lucas. In: The dictionary of art. Edited by Jane Turner. Macmillan, London 1996. ISBN 1-884446-00-0 ; Pp. 171-172.
- Gardens and courtyards from the Rubens period in the mirror of the Brueghel family of painters and the artists around Peter Paul Rubens. Edited by Ursula Härting. Hirmer, Munich 2000. ISBN 3-7774-8890-9 ; Pp. 373-375.
- Walter S. Gibson : Gassel. In: General Artist Lexicon. The visual artists of all times and peoples. Volume 50. Saur, Munich and Leipzig 2006. ISBN 3-598-22790-6 ; Pp. 42-43.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ DIRECTORY OF THE v.DERSCHAUISCHE Kunstkabinett zu NÜRNBERG .... Nuremberg, at the obligated auctionator Schmidmer., 1825., 250 p., Directory of rare art collections., 1825., Google Books, online , p. 16
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gassel, Lucas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gassel, Luc; Gassel, Lucas van |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Flemish painter and draftsman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1500 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Helmond |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 1568 |
| Place of death | Brussels |