Orizzonte

Jan Frans van Bloemen (baptized 12 May 1662 - buried 13 June 1749) was a Flemish landscape painter mainly active in Rome. Here he was able to establish himself as the leading painter of views (vedute) of the Roman countryside depicted in the aesthetic of the classical landscape tradition.

Born in Antwerp, Jan Frans van Bloemen was a younger brother of Pieter van Bloemen. He likely trained with his brother. Between 1681 and 1684, he was in his native Antwerp a pupil of Anton Goubau, a painter of market scenes and bamboccianti (low-life) subjects situated in Roman or Mediterranean settings.

He travelled to Paris around 1682 and resided there for a few years. He then moved to Lyon where his brother Pieter van Bloemen was staying. He probably met the painter Adriaen van der Kabel around this time. Via Turin, Jan Frans and Pieter van Bloemen travelled on to Rome where in 1688 they were registered in the parish of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte. In 1690 a third painting brother, Norbert van Bloemen (1670-1746), joined them as well. Whereas Pieter returned to Antwerp in 1694 and Norbert left for Amsterdam before 1724, Jan Frans remained in Rome for the rest of his life, except for a few trips to Naples, Sicily and Malta, which he undertook with his brother Pieter. The Dutch-born painter Caspar van Wittel, who lived in Rome since 1675, became the godfather of his first child.

Van Bloemen was successful in Rome and received commissions for the painting of large vedute from prominent patrons such as the Queen of Spain Elizabeth Farnese, the Roman nobility and the Pope.

He joined the Bentvueghels, the association of Dutch and Flemish artists in Rome, where he took the nickname Orizzonte or Horizonti. This nickname referred to the distance he painted in his landscapes. While van Bloemen was a much locally patronized painter, he was unable to gain acceptance into the pre-eminent Roman painter's guild, the Accademia di San Luca, until he was over 70 years old. Some of the resistance may have arisen from the Roman establishment's disdain for landscape painting as a demonstration of skill.

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