Michiel Sweerts

Michiel Sweerts
Self-portrait, c.1660
Born	(1618-09-29)29 September 1618 Brussels
Died	1 June 1664(1664-06-01) (aged 45) Goa
Nationality	Flemish
Known for	Painting
Movement	Baroque

Michiel Sweerts or Michael Sweerts (29 September 1618 – 1664) was a Flemish painter and printmaker of the Baroque period, who is known for his allegorical and genre paintings, portraits and tronies. The artist led an itinerant life and worked in Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam, Persia and India (Goa).

While in Rome Sweerts became linked to the group of Dutch and Flemish painters of low-life scenes known as the Bamboccianti. Sweerts' contributions to the Bamboccianti genre display generally greater stylistic mastery and social-philosophical sensitivity than the other artists working in this manner. While he was successful during his lifetime, Sweerts and his work fell into oblivion until he was rediscovered in the 20th century as one of the most intriguing and enigmatic artists of his time.

Michiel Sweerts was born in Brussels where he was baptized on 29 September 1618 in the St. Nicholas Church as the son of David Sweerts, a linen merchant, and Martina Ballu. Little is known about the artist's early life and nothing about his training.

He arrived in Rome in 1646 where he remained active until 1656. In Rome he became soon linked to the circle of Flemish and Dutch painters associated with Pieter van Laer, who is considered the founder of the Bamboccianti. By the time Sweerts arrived in Rome van Laer himself had already left the city. The Bamboccianti brought existing traditions of depicting peasant subjects from sixteenth-century Netherlandish art with them to Italy. They created small cabinet paintings or etchings of the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside.

In Rome, Sweerts painted genre paintings in the manner of the Bamboccianti as well as a series of canvases on the activities and training of painters in their studios, attending classes or working from live models. He resided near Santa Maria del Popolo. In 1647, Sweerts became an associate (aggregato) of the Accademia di San Luca, a prestigious association of leading artists in Rome. Sweerts is also recorded as having connections with members of the Congregazione Artistica dei Virtuosi al Pantheon. The Congregazione was a corporation of artists who organised annual exhibitions of their own paintings on the metal railings in front of the Pantheon. There is no evidence that Sweerts became himself a member of the Virtuosi. Sweerts lived from 1646 to 1651 in the Via Margutta where many foreign artists resided. While in Rome, Sweerts was the teacher of Willem Reuter, another Flemish painter from Brussels who spent time in Rome where he was influenced by the Bamboccianti.