Naval Battle Between Christians And Turks – Johannes Lingelbach (1622 – 1674)

Oil on oak panel. Dutch school circa 1670, Johannes Lingelbach, signed on the rock at the bottom center. Artwork listed in RKD n°37418.
Our tight-framing composition depicts the din of the battle which opposes the belligerents in a fierce struggle. In the faint light of the rising sun and under a threatening sky, the burning ships are beached and the soldiers find themselves on boats where they engage in bloody hand-to-hand combat. In this chaos, panic is perceptible with characters trying to escape drowning and others clinging to the oars to escape the enemy's blade.
The subject, which is none other than a representation of the Battle of Lepanto, attracted Johannes Lingelbach who painted it several times. And the database of the Dutch Institute for the History of Art RKD lists seven autograph works on this theme including ours under the number 37418, but also Naval battle between the Christians and the Turks preserved at the Alte Pinakoteck in Munich, or even Naval battle between the Turks and the Christians preserved at the City Art Gallery in York.
“Hope changed sides, the fight changed soul”, this famous verse by Victor Hugo (Les Châtiments, Book V, L'Atonement) could alone sum up the geopolitical effect that the Battle of Lepanto had. on his time. Indeed, when on October 7, 1571, at the exit of the Gulf of Patras, a coalition of the main Christian powers of the Mediterranean led by Don Juan of Austria, the Holy League, crushed the Ottoman fleet led by Ali Pasha in just a few hours, the fear that reigned until then gives way to confidence. Without calling into question Ottoman power, the Battle of Lepanto had an immense impact in Europe, freeing Westerners from the fear of the Turks who had dominated the Mediterranean since the 16th century, and putting an end to the expansion of the Sublime Porte.

We have chosen to present our painting to you in a large Dutch blackened wooden frame with a reverse profile.
Dimensions: 39.5 x 54.5 cm the panel - 61 x 76.5 cm with the frame
Provenance: since 1960, private collection H. Klug, Berlin.
Sold with invoice and certificate of expertise

Biography: Johannes Lingelbach (Frankfurt 1622 - Amsterdam 1674) is a Dutch painter of German origin whose family settled in Amsterdam in 1634. From 1640 to 1650, he undertook a long journey in Italy . There, he developed a real talent for painting Italianate landscapes or genre scenes combining the elements of Italy as it was perceived by travelers from Northern Europe: a light of incomparable clarity, monuments Romans drawn with great precision, a taste for Antiquity, picturesque characters and the superposition of different sites creating an unreal setting. The most beautiful illustration of these combinations specific to Lingelbach is The Imaginary View of Rome with the Castel Sant'Angelo preserved in the Sarah Campbell Beaffer Foundation in Houston. Both influenced by the landscapes of Philips Wouwerman and the bambochades of Pieter van Laer, Lingelbach found a personal style and distinguished himself from his peers. Attached to the second generation of Bamboches, which brings together painters of genre scenes, called the "bambochades" (The name comes from the Italian "bamboccio" which means puppet or puppet and is used to define figures that look like puppets, similar to those of Pieter van Laer).

Bibliography:
- LEVINE, David A., Bamboccianti, Electa, 1991
- BRIGANTI, Giuliano, TREZZANI, Ludovica, LAUREATI, Laura, I Bamboccianti, Hugo Bozzi Edotore, 1983
- WEICK-JOCH, Katharina, Kulturtransfer im Rom des 17. Jahrhunderts: Die Malerei der Bamboccianti, VDG, 2015
- VERBRAEKEN, René, Landscape painting in Holland in the 17th century, Paris, Les Editions du Panthéon, 1995