Name Giovanni Filippo | ||
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Giovanni di Filippo del Campo (also: Jean Ducamps, John Philip llamado del Campo, Jean Asol, Jean Duchamp or Giovanni del Campo, nickname: Braef, Braeff or Brave) (1600, Cambrai – 1648, Madrid), was a Flemish Baroque painter who spent most of his career in Italy where he enjoyed notoriety for his altarpieces and portraits.
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Biography
According to his first biographer Joachim von Sandrart he learned to paint from Abraham Janssens in Antwerp. He travelled to Rome where he became a follower of Caravaggio. There are different views about the length of his stay in Rome. The following dates have been proposed: from 1622 to 1641, from 1626 to 1638 and from 1622 to 1637 (also to the end of 1636).
He was in Rome actively involved in the creation of the Bentvueghels, an association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome. He took the nickname 'Braef ', 'Braeff' or 'Brave' (meaning the good or brave one) in the Bentvueghels. He was a spokesman and advocate of the Bentvueghels on various occasions and in dealing with disagreements, disputes and local agencies. He acted in a dispute with the Academy of St Luke, the local association of artists in Rome, which had the right to determine who could call himself an artist in Rome. He shared in the Via Margutta a residence with Pieter van Laer (whose tutor he might have been), Gerard van der Kuijl and Alexander van Wevelinckhoven.
Joachim von Sandrart cites financial hardship as the reason why del Campo left Rome. He travelled to Madrid in the company of the Marquis Castel Rodrigo, ambassador of Philip IV of Spain. In Madrid he is said to have obtained commissions from the Spanish king Philip IV as well as have worked for his compatriots from Flanders who had established themselves in Spain such as Filips Frans van Arenberg, the duke of Aarschot.
Work
During his stay in Rome he painted in the style of Caravaggio and he excelled in religious subjects, history paintings and landscapes. He also painted genre paintings and allegories. Although no signed works by him are known, it has been proposed he should be identified with the so-called Master of the Incredulity of St. Thomas, an anonymous Caravaggist in Rome in the period 1620-1640. This painter was responsible for several works grouped around a painting with this subject that are kept in the Palazzo Valentini in Rome and show a stylistic kinship with the Caravaggists Cecco da Caravaggio and Nicolas Tournier.
It is also possible that he was the Juan del Campo who collaborated in Madrid with Gaspar van Eyck and painted the staffage in van Eyck's harbour views.