Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts
Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts (also Gysbrechts; * before 1657; † after 1675) was a Flemish painter of still lifes and optical illusions.
Life
About Gijsbrechts life, there are few reliable data, neither his birth nor the year of birth is known. The first dated painting of him dates from 1659. Between 1659 and 1660 he worked in Antwerp, where he was a member of the Association of Sodaliteit the bejaerde jong mans and the Antwerp St. Lukas Guild. 1664 he was in Regensburg to 1667, he held probably on in Hamburg.
His most prolific period as a painter falls in the short period of his stay at the court of the Danish king Frederik III. and Christian V between 1668 to 1672 that is the source of most of his known today artistic work. In 1672, he moved to Stockholm, in 1675, he has resided in Breslau. From this time on his trail, date of death and place of death loses itself are not known.
Creation
Gijsbrechts had specialized as a painter in the 17th century to the extremely popular optical illusions and it brought the genre to perfection. His motives are, for example, the then-popular breadboards with all sorts of documents, newspaper sheets or everyday objects, Breakfast still life, vanitas still life, Kabinettschränkchen with all sorts of rarities and precious handicraft items or rare shells and minerals. Especially for the art-loving king Frederik III. created a number of these Kunstkammer inventories. For the followers of the king, Christian V, who loved the art of less than hunting, Gijsbrechts painted various hunting still life and two images with the equipment for coursing and falconry.
One of him like used means to deceive the viewer, are curtains, with which some of his paintings are covered partially. Gijsbrechts played with the usual procedure in the 17th century to protect precious pictures with a curtain. Maybe he wanted to allude to the story of the painter Zeuxis, who was deceived by his painting the birds, but was deceived himself by the painted curtain of his competitors Parrhasius.
One particularly bizarre example of his trompe l'oeil painting is 2.25 m high and at its widest point 1.23 m wide picture easel with fruit still life. It has the contour of a sawed wooden easel, leaning against the three images and all sorts of things are fixed. On the easel is a fruit still life, on the upper edge depends unfolded a letter. Prior to this, he painted various art supplies, including a mahlstick originally towered far into the room and a hook on which dangles the pallet. Before the image leans a little picture with the small oval portrait of his patron Christian V. In addition to the portrait of sticking a piece of paper with the signature of the painter. On the floor there is another image that is similar to a leg of the pallet. From this picture you can see only the back.
The motive back of a framed painting he painted a second time. On the recto side of the picture we see (each painted ) a frame, another frame with which the canvas was stretched, little nails that fix the clamping frame and a small piece of paper with an inventory number. The image itself is unframed, its back is the usual back of an oil painting: Gijsbrechts picture is the only picture of the world with two backs.
The precision of Gijsbrechts on his still life depicted objects can be viewed in part today in Danish museums. Because of its accurate detection of everyday items, from handcrafted pieces, musical instruments, scientific instruments, weapons or other hunting device of its time, his images are a valuable source for historians.
Works
- Quodlibet. 1675, Wallraf -Richartz Museum, Cologne
- Backside of a painting, 1670, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
- Image of an open closet, 1665, SOR Rusche collection
- Easel with fruit still life, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
- Memento Mori, 1663