Karel Philips Spierincks

Karel Philips Spierincks (many name variations: Spierinckx, Spierinck, Spieringh, Spiringh, Spirinck, Spirinx, Spirin, Carlo Filippo Fiammingo) (c. 1600 or 1609–1610, in Brussels – 22 May 1639, in Rome) was a Flemish painter who spent his active career in Italy. He painted mainly landscapes with putti or mythological scenes in a classicizing style which show the influence of François Duquesnoy and Nicolas Poussin as well as religious paintings.

Life The details about Spierincks’ early life and training are uncertain. Little information is available on his date of birth. He is usually stated to have been born in Brussels c. 1609–1610. However, he is mentioned as a pupil of Michel de Boerdous in Brussels in 1612 and as a master in the Brussels Guild of Saint Luke in 1622. It is therefore more likely that he was born around 1600. François Duquesnoy had previously shared lodgings with Nicolas Poussin. The influence of Duquesnoy can be seen in his Classicist tendencies and the theme of the putti.

Poussin had during his first decade in Rome (1624–34) created a series of mythological landscapes inspired by Titian’s series on the theme of the Bacchanales (one now in the National Gallery, London, and two in the Prado, Madrid) and on the pastoral love poetry of classical antiquity such as the Eclogues of Virgil. These Poussins are playful and erotic celebrations of the idyllic life of Arcadia but also have a serious undertone. Spierincks was inspired by Poussin's paintings to produce a series of mythological paintings often depicting putti in a bucolic setting. His work is sometimes confused with that of another follower of Poussin, the Italian painter Andrea de Leone.

Spierincks left incomplete paintings for the sacristy of Santa Maria dell'Anima which he had already started. These paintings have not survived although one of them, a Saint Norbert, was recorded on 2 March 1643 in the house of 'Petrus Piscator' i.e. Peter Visscher (or Pieter de Vischere), an Italian banker and patron of Flemish origin.