Simon Ardé

Simon Ardé (also Simon Ardi, Symon van Antwerpen and nickname Tovenaer) (Deventer, ca. 1596 – Rome, 1638) was a Flemish Baroque painter who was active in Italy for most part of his life.[1]

Biography

Orphaned at an early age, he was bought up by Catholic uncles in Liège and Brussels, and apprenticed on 11 August 1609 to the Brussels painter Jean Bouillon. In 1614 he left Brussels for France where he lived for about five years, before moving to Rome in around 1619. He was one of the co-founders in 1623 of the Bentvueghels, which was set up as a social club of principally Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome. The nickname he took in the Bentvueghels was 'Tovenaer', which means 'wizard'. His portrait appears on one of the anonymous drawings of members of the Bentvueghels made around 1623 and now kept in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The drawing shows Simon Ardé pouring liquor into the glasses of the other members of the Bentvueghels Jean Ducamps, Pieter Anthonisz. van Groenewegen and Joost Campen. Underneath his portrait is written ‘Sijmon van Antwerpen Alias Den Tooveaner’, which translates as 'Simon from Antwerp, aka the Wizard'. He remained in Rome until his death on 22 August 1638.

No works of his are known to have survived.[2]

References

  1. ^ (in Dutch) Biographical details at The Netherlands Institute for Art History
  2. ^ Biographical details at Hadrianus

Further reading

Suzanne Baverez and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, The Bentvueghels and a Brussels network: rediscovering the life of Simon Ardé (c. 1596–1638). Simiolus vol. 45, 2023-2024, no. 3/4, pp. 231-261.

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