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Bloemaert.
Dutch family of artists. Cornelis Bloemaert I (b Dordrecht, c. 1540; d Utrecht, bur 1 Nov 1593) was an architect, sculptor and teacher, whose pupils included Hendrick de Keyser I. In 1567 he visited ’s Hertogenbosch in order to repair the city gates and the pulpit of the St Janskerk, which had been damaged in 1566 during the Iconoclastic Fury. From 1576 he lived in Utrecht, where in 1586 he collaborated on decorations for the ceremonial entry of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and self-styled Governor General of the United Provinces. From 1591 to 1593 Bloemaert was master builder of Amsterdam. His son (1) Abraham Bloemaert (b 1566) was the most gifted member of the family and became one of the most important painters working in Utrecht in the first half of the 17th century. Four of Abraham’s sons also worked as artists, all of them receiving their initial training from their father. The eldest son, Hendrick Bloemaert (b Utrecht, 1601–2; d Utrecht, 30 Dec 1672), was a painter and poet. Hendrick travelled to Italy and was in Rome in 1627; he returned to Utrecht c. 1630. His oeuvre includes religious works, mythological and genre scenes and portraits. His best works are those in which he combined the style of the Utrecht Caravaggisti with the decorative manner of his father. As a poet, Hendrick is best known for his rhymed translation of Guarini’s Il pastor fido (Venice, 1590). Abraham Bloemaert’s second son, Cornelis Bloemaert II (b Utrecht, 1603; d Rome, ?1684), studied with his father, Gerrit van Honthorst and Crispijn de Passe I, but although he was originally trained as a painter, he devoted himself primarily to printmaking (see Hollstein, nos 1–321). In 1630 Cornelis the younger travelled to Paris and then to Rome, where he made prints after paintings and sculptures in major collections. He also made engravings after works by his father (e.g. six Pastorals, Hollstein, nos 212–15). Another of Abraham’s sons, Adriaen Bloemaert (b Utrecht, c. 1609; d Utrecht, 8 Jan 1666), was a painter, draughtsman and perhaps also an engraver. He travelled to Italy and worked for a time in Salzburg, where in 1637 he painted eight canvases: the Mysteries of the Rosary (all U. Salzburg, Aula Academica). The landscapes signed A. Blommaert, which are attributed to him, are now believed to be the work of Abraham Blommaert ( fl 1669–83) from Middelburg (see Bok and Roethlisberger). Frederick Bloemaert (b Utrecht, c. 1616; d Utrecht, 11 June 1690) worked exclusively as an engraver; almost all his prints were after his father’s compositions. These include the engravings for his father’s Konstryk tekenboek (‘Artistic drawing book’), which was reprinted many times up to the 19th century. The following members have entries:
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