Michael Sweerts/François Duquesnoy: A Flemish Paragone in Seventeenth-Century Rome

Abstract

This article addresses the long-overlooked artistic relationship between painter Michael Sweerts and sculptor François Duquesnoy through an examination of Sweerts' unusual inclusion of Duquesnoy's Apollo and Cupid in the 1652 painting In the Studio. Instead of depicting the Apollo and Cupid in its original bronze form, Sweerts transforms the sculpture into a fragmented plaster cast, emphasizing its affinity with the antique sculptural fragments that surround it, and drawing attention to Duquesnoy's realization of a classical ideal. Sweerts' representation of the Apollo and Cupid should be situated within the theoretical context of the paragone, the debate concerning the relative merits of painting and sculpture, as it not only demonstrates his ability to paint sculpture convincingly, but to transform and ultimately rival the work of Duquesnoy. Yet, as this article argues, Sweerts' depiction of the Apollo and Cupid also demonstrates his admiration for the achievements of his fellow Fleming, and brings to light their shared admiration for the antique and the commonalities between their artistic ideals. This article seeks to redefine Sweerts in more classicizing terms, while urging a broader reconsideration of the nature of artistic exchange among Flemish artists in seventeenth-century Rome.