Maarten van Heemskerck

It is difficult to present Maarten van Heemskerck as a complete unknown, even though that is what the great Dutch artist is in the eyes of the public: we must therefore begin by saluting the resources deployed by the three museums hosting this retrospective organised, between Haarlem and Alkmaar, under the aegis of Christi M. Klinkert, who took up her post at the Frans Hals Museum in February 2024 after spending fifteen years at the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar. This tripartition will come as a surprise only to foreign visitors, as none of the three museums could host such a rich exhibition on its own, and we have nothing but praise for it. This exemplary event is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant successes of the year, with its three fascinating stages, very well put together to bring out the full artistic personality of this great name that enthusiasts more or less associate with the "import" of the Italian Renaissance to the old Netherlands. Heemskerck is the author of one of the most fascinating self-portraits of 16th-century Europe, in which he depicts himself in front of the Colosseum: kept at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, this one (ill. 5) has of course made the trip - all the way to Alkmaar - where it stands alongside the Lille painting, a "Roman postcard" as the museum’s website puts it.

1. Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574)
Self-portrait in Front of the Colosseum, 1553
Oil on panel - 42.2 x 54 cm
Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam Museum
Photo: Andrew Normant

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Built around this seminal Roman experience, the three-part tour begins in Haarlem, where visitors are advised to start their journey at the Frans Hals Museum before moving on to the Teylers Museum and then the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, as the two cities are easily connected by very efficient trains. This chronological tour provides a better understanding of the artist, although each stage can be approached independently. The teams at these museums worked closely with Ilja M. Veldman, the undisputed specialist on the artist who supervised the retrospective and wrote the accompanying catalogue in the form of a monograph, in which the art historian also points out that she has been publishing on Heemskerck since 1971. Although this first stage had to be shoehorned into the museum rooms named after another artist being celebrated this year (see article), the presentation (ill. 2) does not suffer, and offers stimulating comparisons between Heemskerck and other painters of his time.

2. View of the Marten van Heemskerck exhibition at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem
Photo: Mike Bink

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Plunging the modern visitor back into the artistic effervescence of the city in the early 16th century, the first part of the triptych effectively places Heemskerck among his predecessors and contemporaries such as Jan Gossaert and Jan van Scorel, whose portraits from Amsterdam and Berlin frame the two husband and…