Judith Leyster Saves the Day (An Addendum of Sorts)

The Cheerful Drinker (or Jolly Toper), 1629, Judith Leyster. Geometry: 2022, DS.

"One perk is that I keep finding golden spirals in paintings... specifically from the Netherlands (in recent weeks)... and all of them from the 1600s (amongst some real Plague Years). Judith Leyster was a painter from an earlier part of that century, however, and one I didn't expect to find as it's unlikely that she and the other artists (who may be theoretically involved) ever crossed paths. While they were just blooming, Judith Leyster had already been cut down and claimed by matrimony, children, and, at the age of 50, death.

(Update 4/11/22) Note: Due to new information regarding the Italian painter, Caravaggio (1571-1610), Judith Leyster's involvement with pentagonal geometry becomes increasingly feasible.)"

- Quoting myself from the post: Judith Leyster and a Double Golden Spiral. (Added: 8/27/22) Inset right: Another spiral position for the Jolly Toper (above).  Also, Leyster is known for her puns using graphic symbols. Question: does the line-up of objects in the foreground (lying diagonally across the table) represent a word?

***

It's an odd thing, but whenever I find myself deeply involved in a specific subject, very often certain books will synchronistically fall into my hands which, upon opening, just happen to address the things I had recently been researching. The latest book - which appeared one day this week in the library's "Free Books" bin - was this gem: The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer by J.M. Nash, 1972... that is, a book about the Dutch Golden Age!

But, there's another book, too, a novel - The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith - which also fell into my hands in the same way. "Sara Vos" is a fictional character based on an actual artist from the Dutch Golden Age, Sara van Baalbergen, who, according to Wiki, was the first female member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke (Judith Leyster came a little later). As for her artwork, tragically: "No known works survive."

Anyway, so, while researching Sara I found an amazing spiral by Leyster - in this article - which has been posted above. And, really, finding this perfect spiral made my day. It immediately struck me as a confirmation: yes, Judith Leyster did know of the GTS... and (via the J.M. Nash book) I may have picked up a clue as to her source of knowledge...

 

St Sebastian Tended by Irene and her Maid, 1625, Hendrick Ter Brugghen. Geometry: 2022, DS.

 

The "clue" came in the form of one line Nash included in Judith Leyster's (brief) biographical section:

 "the following year, 1628, her parents moved to Vreeland, near Utrecht, where she seems to have discovered the work of ter Brugghen." *

 

Sadly, Nash adds nothing more to this vague statement... an unusual statement considering that, allegedly (via his Wiki entry), "No references to Hendrick Ter Brugghen written during his life have been identified."

Hendrick ter Brugghen was definitely, however, a member of the Utrecht Caravaggisti, who died at the end of the following year - in 1629 at the age of 42 - possibly a victim of the Plague.

 

Posted above is ter Brugghen's St Sebastian Tended by Irene and her Maid, which I first found in the Nash book and which I immediately recognized as a spiral painting. Finding the spiral, however, was another matter. I think it took me a couple of hours, but even then it's not quite right... the spiral needs more room, and it's easy to see why this isn't possible.

Which is why Leyster's spiral saved the day! Thank you, Judith!

Anyway, this is not formally a part of "Shadows of a Golden Age"... (expect Part III sometime next week)... it's just bits of information with no place else to go.

Meanwhile, I just found the spiral in a painting with the same theme as Ter Brugghen's (above) but it's done quite differently. The artist was another member of the Utrecht Caravaggisti (who appeared in Part I), Dirck van Baburen. I've had to add a tad more space to the top of the image to accommodate the spiral, but it actually could've used more space.

St. Sebastian Attended by Irene and her Maid, 1616, Dirck van Baburen. Geometry: 2022, DS.

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* A statement in Leyster's Wiki entry (which I somehow missed till now) reads:

 

"During this time her family moved to the province of Utrecht, and she may have come into contact with some of the Utrecht Caravaggisti."