Ludovico Toeput, called Pozzoerrato

Italian, 1550 - c. 1603

Biographyb Antwerp, c. 1550; d Treviso, c. 1605).

Flemish painter and draughtsman, active in Italy. He was apparently a pupil of Marten de Vos and went to Italy probably after 1573. In Venice he presumably joined Tintoretto’s workshop. Toeput may have witnessed the event he commemorated in his Fire in the Doge’s Palace (1577; Treviso, Mus. Civ. Bailo). Either before or after this commission, he made six landscape frescoes (c. 1575 or 1577–9) for the abbey of Praglia, which reveal a strong adherence to Flemish conventions. Some years later he painted three frescoes in the church of S Giustina in Padua. He was in Florence in the late 1570s and visited Rome in 1581; by February 1582 he is documented in Treviso, near Venice, where he settled. He remained in close contact with Venetian masters, particularly through another Flemish artist active there, Pauwels Franck (1540–96), whose influence is evident in Toeput’s representation of the Four Seasons (c. 1584; Venice, priv. col., see Crosato, pp. 120–21, pls 1–4), of which two tondi versions exist, which are attributed to Toeput (e.g. Providence, RI Sch. Des., Mus. A., and England, priv. col.). Around 1585 he painted a friezelike series: two canvases (in situ), each with two biblical scenes, for the chapel of the Rettori in the church of the Monte di Pietà in Treviso. These compositions were inspired by Netherlandish engravings and works by Tintoretto and Jacopo and Leandro Bassano. Probably dating from the same time is Susanna and the Elders (Würzburg, priv. col., see Wegner, 1961, p. 112, fig.). One of Toeput’s favourite motifs was a formal Mannerist garden containing trellises and sculptures, which he included in Dives and Lazarus (Kassel, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe). It also appears in his versions of the Banquet in the Open Air (Treviso, priv. col., see Menegazzi, 1961, p. 122, fig.) and in his Outdoor Concert. Only a few of Toeput’s church paintings mentioned in early literature survive in Treviso, in the churches of S Leonardo, S Maria Maggiore and S Agostino; similarly the surviving frescoes are scarce and in a poor state of preservation. Around 1590 Toeput painted six landscapes representing The Months for the Villa Chiericati-Magna, Vicenza, and in 1593 he decorated the interior of the Scuola dei Battuti in nearby Conegliano with figures of sibyls and prophets and Old Testament scenes.

Toeput’s landscape frescoes and canvases are his finest achievements; they are distinctive in their combination of Flemish and Venetian styles, typically showing spacious vistas, full of atmospheric and picturesque effects. This is well shown in such paintings as the Fall of Phaeton (1599; Hannover, Niedersächs. Landesmus.), the Landscape with a Hermit (1601) and Town on a River (both Munich, Alte Pin.). The View of a Villa (Venice, Ca’ d’Oro), the Pleasure Garden with a Labyrinth (London, Hampton Court, Royal Col.) and the Deer Hunt (Treviso, Cassa di Risparmio). These developments in the painterly treatment of landscape had a strong influence on the work of Paul Bril, Frederik van Valckenborch, Josse de Momper and Tobias Verhaecht. Toeput also introduced a new kind of genre painting, of well-to-do gatherings, which anticipated the Dutch 17th-century merry company pieces by Willem Buytewech and others. Examples include the Company in an Interior (Augsburg, priv. col., see Wegner, 1961, pp. 116–18, fig.), the Ball in a Palace (sold Christies, London, 9 July 1976, lot 106) and the Allegory of Autumn (Prague, N.G., Šternbeck Pal.).

Toeput’s interest in topography is reflected principally in his drawings. His Panorama of Treviso and View of Aquapendente were engraved and included in vol. v (1598) of G. Braun and F. Hogenberg’s six-volume atlas, the Civitates orbis terrarum (Cologne, 1572–1618). Other drawings depict imaginary landscapes, such as the Landscape with St John on Patmos (New York, Pierpont Morgan Lib.), showing his characteristic trees with windswept foliage framing a finely detailed panorama seen from a high viewpoint.

Teréz Gerszi. "Toeput, Lodewijk." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T085349 (accessed April 16, 2012).

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