Hendrick van den Broeck


Hendrick van den Broeck or Arrigo Fiammingo was a Flemish painter, fresco painter, glass painter and sculptor of the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period. After training in Flanders, he travelled to Italy where he remained active in various cities for the remainder of his life. He was court painter to Cosimo I de Medici in Florence and worked as a fresco painter in Rome on the large decorative projects of pope Gregory XIII.

Life

Hendrick van den Broeck was born in Mechelen as the son of Hendrick van den Broeck, of whom it is not known whether he was an artist. His family also used the latinized name 'Paludanus'. The latinized name is based on the Latin translation of the Dutch word 'broeck' which is part of the family and means a marsh or swamp land. His family members included artists who were active in Mechelen. He was a brother of the sculptor Willem van den Broecke and the painters Joris and Pieter. The painter Chrispijn van den Broeck was likely a relative.
Hendrick was a pupil of Frans Floris. Frans Floris was one of the Romanist painters active in Antwerp. The Romanists were Netherlandish artists who had trained in Italy and upon their return painted in a style that assimilated these Italian influences into the Northern painting tradition.
Around 1557 van den Broecke moved to Italy. Here he would remain for the remainder of his life working in many different cities. It has been speculated that his frequent moves from one city to the other were motivated by his financial difficulties. In the years 1557 and 1558 he was in Florence where he worked mainly as a glass painter on commissions for Duke Cosimo I de Medici and his court. The Flemish priest Adriaan de Witte who was chaplain of the guard of the Duke played a role in calling van den Broeck to the Ducal court. He principally worked on glass paintings. He was commissioned to paint four glass windows in the Sala degli Elementi (Room of the Elements

Work

Hendrick van den Broeck was a prolific and multi-faceted artist who practised as a painter, fresco painter, glass painter and sculptor. He may have been forced by economic reasons to try his hand at various techniques. These financial difficulties likely also explain his frequent moves from one city to the other in Italy.
He worked in a Mannerist style influenced by Michelangelo and the Venetian school.