Michiel Sweerts

1618 - 1664 • Flemish • Painter • Baroque

"[Sweerts] eats no meat, fasts almost every day, sleeps on a hard floor and gives possessions to the poor; each week he takes communion three or four times." - De Chameson, 1661

Sweerts was one of the BAMBOCCIANTI and among the so-called Birds of a Feather, as the association of NETHERLANDISH artists in Rome was known. He returned home to Brussels and in 1656 received permission to open an academy for life drawing, especially for painters of tapestry CARTOONS. It was not a success, however. He called himself an Eques, or knight, although it is not clear if, or how, he might have acquired the title. About 1660 he became a lay brother and missionary with the Lazarist Fathers, but he seems to have lost his sanity during a trip to the Orient, was dismissed from the mission, and died in India in 1664. He is one of the 17th century's most mysterious painters. In Visiting the Sick (from the series the Seven Acts of Mercy, c. 1651-52.), he infused his humble subjects with stillness, solemnity, and quiet dignity. In his strong contrasting of light and shadow, he seems stylistically akin to the LE NAINS and de LA TOUR.