Johannes Lingelbach, sometimes also Jan (Frankfurt am Main, 10 October 1622 – Amsterdam, November 1674), Scene with Drinkers

Johannes Lingelbach, sometimes also Jan (Frankfurt am Main, 10 October 1622 – Amsterdam, November 1674)

Scene with drinkers

Oil on canvas, 44 x 34 cm

With frame, 54 x 44 cm

The painting under consideration is a fitting example of the genre painting that flourished in Rome in the 17th century, the work of Northern European artists, collectively known as the Bamboccianti. The work, attributed to Johannes Lingelbach (1622–1674), one of the most important members of the second generation of this group, captures a fragment of Roman popular life with a sharp, unidealized gaze.

Born in 1622 in Frankfurt am Main, he moved with his family to Amsterdam in 1634, where his father, David, had decided to establish his small business. Johannes, determined to devote himself to painting, began his training in the Dutch city, moving to Paris in 1642 and Rome in 1644. Returning to Amsterdam in 1653, he married and began his artistic career, striking up a friendship especially with the painter Jürgen Ovens, a promising student of Rembrandt. A long-standing collaboration with the renowned landscape painters Meindert Hobbema and Jan van der Heyden is also documented. He died in Amsterdam in 1674.

Lingelbach's painting was particularly influenced by the art of the Bamboccianti, whom he met and frequented during his extended stay in Rome; some of his works, very close to the style and themes of these painters, were long attributed to Pieter van Laer, the founder of the school. His broad views were initially influenced by the landscapes of the Dutch painter Philips Wouwerman, while in Italy he was in close contact with Viviano Codazzi, as evidenced by the German painter's numerous architectural capricci, so similar to the work of the Bergamo-born artist.

This painting, in style and subject matter, can be traced back to the art of the Bamboccianti. In the figures and their use of light, as well as in the scene's setting between ancient walls and an Italianate landscape, the painting clearly draws comparisons with the canvases of Northern artists living in Rome during the 17th century.

The Bamboccianti were an influential and controversial group of artists, predominantly Dutch and Flemish, who operated in Rome from the 1620s onward, introducing a radically innovative genre painting. The name derives from the nickname “Il Bamboccio” attributed to the leader of the school, Pieter van Laer (1599–c. 1642). Their artistic revolution consisted in abandoning the elevated subjects of history, mythology, and religion—favored by Roman academic art—to focus on the candid and anecdotal depiction of popular life. Their paintings, known as “bambocciate,” depicted lower-class figures such as beggars, street vendors, retired soldiers, peasants, and wayfarers.

This scene can be linked to a painting of the same subject, with the insertion of minimal variations, published several times in the RKD under the name of Johannes Lingelbach.