Bartholomeus Breenbergh

Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598–1657) was born in Deventer and, after his father's death in 1607, moved with his family, probably to Hoorn. His recorded teachers are Pieter Lastman and Jacob Pynas. He is first documented as a painter in Amsterdam in 1619, and that same year he left for Rome. In Rome he lived and worked with Frans van de Kasteele and absorbed the landscapes of Paul Bril and then Cornelis van Poelenburgh, whose work can be hard to tell from his own; he in turn influenced Claude Lorrain. He was among the founders of the Bentvueghels, the society of Dutch and Flemish painters in Rome, who nicknamed him the ferret. Back in Amsterdam from 1630, he received a yearly wage from the court of Charles I and set biblical and mythological scenes, in the manner of Lastman and Moeyaert, within Italian landscapes. Here: Christ Healing the Deaf Mute of Decapolis.