Jan Hovaert

Jan Hovaert or Giovanni Hovart (c. 1615–1665) was a Flemish painter who after training in Antwerp spent his known active career in Italy. He was initially a collaborator in the studio of the de Wael brothers in Genoa and later developed an independent practice. While he appears to have enjoyed the patronage of the nobility of Genoa, the scope of his oeuvre is not very well understood. A few portraits and a history painting have been attributed to him. His birthplace was likely Brussels but may also have been Antwerp. St. Jerome together with his disciples St. Paula and St. Eustochium

In Genoa Hovaert seems to have quickly been taken under the wing of Cornelis. The workshop of the brothers de Wael in Genoa was the centre of the colony of Flemish artists who resided in or passed through the city. These itinerant Flemish artists could take advantage of the work and artistic activity that their workshop attracted. The brothers provided a home, materials and tools, they assisted their compatriots with their local integration, passed on recommendations to clients and formulated competition rules. When Anthony van Dyck visited Genoa, he also stayed with the de Wael brothers. The contemporary fame of Hovaert is attested by his inclusion in his contemporary Luca Assarino's Giuochi di Fortuna, o sia gli avvenimenti di Astiage e di Mandane, of 1669. Assarino includes Hovaert, whom he refers to as 'Giovanni Havvorth', among the leading painters in Genoa of that time such as Salvatore Castiglione, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari and Giovanni Battista Carlone.

Hovaert married Giovanna Anna Teodora Smit, daughter of Lambert Smit, the Consul of the Flemish-German nation in Livorno in 1631.

A painting representing St. Jerome together with his disciples St. Paula and St. Eustochium (Church of Saint Magdalene, Genoa) is the sole surviving religious work of the artist. The altarpiece was most likely commissioned to celebrate the second dedicatee of the church of the Magdalene, Saint Jerome. Saint Jerome was dear to the Somaschi Fathers who owned the church since 5 October 1576 as their founder Gerolamo Emiliani was named after the saint. The Somaschi Fathers initiated a total renovation of the church interior in 1635. It is therefore plausible to take the year 1635 as the earliest date for the execution of Hovaert's altarpiece. The canvas has a pyramidal composition. Saint Jerome is sitting at the center of the group of three saints Paula, Blaesilla and Eustochium. He is shown reading out from a big book that is on his lap. He is reading the genesis of the Vulgate, an educational theme that was dear to the Somaschi Fathers. Hovaert has depicted Saint Jerome as the austere wise model portrayed by Antonello da Messina rather than the disheveled and gaunt figure devoured by penitence preferred by 16th and 17th century painters. The work shows the stylistic characteristics of the artist: the use of rapid touches and a free brush in the physiognomies and palette of the painting. The face of Gerolamo is marked by study and age, and weighed down by dark and voluminous circles. His eyes are vivid and very mobile and their liquidity and brightness is highlighted through carefully placed highlights and dots of color. The hands follow less the diaphanous and elongated form of the Vandyckian model. The fingers have an earthy and fleshy consistency. The style and palette are close to the works of Cornelis De Wael.

Hovaert may also have been active as the copyist who created many of the copies after van Dyck that are found in Genoa.