Jean Ducamps

Jean Ducamps, Giovanni di Filippo del Campo or Giovanni del Campo (1600, Cambrai or Cambrai – 1648, Madrid), was a Flemish Baroque painter who spent most of his career in Italy where he enjoyed renown for his religious compositions, genre scenes and allegories.

Life His first biographer Joachim von Sandrart stated that Ducamps learned to paint from Abraham Janssens in Antwerp. He travelled to Rome where he became a follower of Caravaggio. Ducamps may also have shared that residence with Gerard van der Kuijl and, possibly, Alexander van Wevelinckhoven.

On 8 July 1631 Ducamps and his friend Jacomo Cabrijol (Capriola) were involved in a drunken brawl in which they attacked the painters Marcus Wouters and Hendrik van Houten. The legal complications arising from the brawl dragged on until 1 August.

It is not clear when he died as all trace of him is lost in Spain. By retaining a certain classicism, these works combine the more elegant aspects of Caravaggism with a lyrical and monumental approach. They further incorporate the innovations brought about by Giovanni Antonio Galli, also known as Spadarino, who reinterpreted Caravaggism in the 1630s. This approach imbued Caravaggesque painting with the dignitas that fuelled the meditations of the Bamboccianti.

The art historian Francesca Curti identified in 2019 the Master of the Incredulity of St. Thomas with the painter Bartolomeo Mendozzi, who was active in Rome between the 1620 and the 1640s. He trained in the workshop of Bartolomeo Manfredi. The identification is based on documentary research and stylistic comparisons with the paintings depicting the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence and the Martyrdom of St. Stephen in the Cathedral of Rieti. In an 18th-century document, the canvases were recorded as the works of a "Mendozzi", a painter born around 1600 in Leonessa. It is not clear what this finding means for the identification of the works of the Master of the Incredulity of St. Thomas that were earlier attributed to Ducamps.

It is possible that he was the Juan del Campo who collaborated in Madrid with the Flemish marine artist Gaspar van Eyck and painted the staffage in van Eyck's harbour views.