Hendrick Aerts

Training under Paul Vredeman de Vries is recorded. Places of work recorded in the authority are Gdańsk and Prague. Works named in the authority record are Phantasy Renaissance palace. Work by Hendrick Aerts is recorded in the collections of Rijksmuseum, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Museum Bredius and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Little is known about the origins, formation and life of Hendrick Aerts. It was originally assumed that he was from Lille, which at the presumed time of his birth was part of the Spanish Netherlands. Recent research, in particular that conducted by Bernard M. Vermet, has questioned the previous assumptions about the life of the artist. Aerts is now assumed to be a native of Mechelen and that he was born there as the son of Jacob Aerts and Elisabeth van Egheem. • Illustration — Allegory of Love and Death Vermet has further suggested that the clear influence of the work of the Flemish architecture painter Paul Vredeman de Vries is likely due to Aerts having been a pupil of Paul Vredeman de Vries. The training probably took place when both artists resided in Gdańsk in the period from 1592 to 1595. Aerts would then have accompanied Vredeman de Vries to Prague from 1596 to 1599, where he worked as his assistant in the decoration of the ceilings and the reception rooms of Emperor Rudolf II's castle. From 1599 Aerts may have returned to Gdańsk, where he probably died in 1603.

Only a few paintings of Hendrick Aerts have been preserved. Research attributes less than ten paintings to him. The earliest reliable work is dated 1600 and the last known work 1602. Like his presumed master Paul Vredeman de Vries, he mostly painted fantastic architectural works of imaginary and luxurious palaces and church interiors, in which the human figures often represent allegories. He also painted a view of the interior of a church, presumably the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. Jan van Londerseel's print made before 1608-1609 after Aerts' painting was used by a number of artists as a model for further paintings of that church interior.

• Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum • Imaginary renaissance palace. 1602 • Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum • Interior of a Gothic church. • The Hague, Museum Bredius • Allegory of death. 1602 • Whereabouts unknown • Allegory of love and death. c. 1600/01 (2002 in Paris, Galerie De Jonckheere) • Marketplace. (until at least 1913 in a private collection in Schwedt an den Oder) • Interior of a Gothic church. (attributed - auctioned on 7 June 1994 by the Dorotheum in Vienna) • The inside of a cathedral with procession. (on 5 July 2000 auctioned by Bonhams Knightsbridge)