Lodewijk Toeput

Lodewijk Toeput, called il Pozzoserrato (/1550 – between 1603 and 1605) was a Flemish landscape painter and draftsman active in Italy. He is mainly known for his canvases and frescoes of landscapes and formal gardens with banquets and music-making groups. His landscapes had an important influence on the next generation of Flemish landscape artists such as Joos de Momper, Tobias Verhaecht and Gillis and Frederik van Valckenborch.

While the date of his departure from his home country is not documented, it is believed the artist arrived around 1573–74 in Venice. According to Carlo Ridolfi's Le maraviglie dell'Arte (1648), Toeput initially worked in the studio of Tintoretto.

Toeput is recorded in Florence in the late 1570s.

In Treviso there was at the time a high demand by religious and civilian patrons for artwork. One important assignment was for decorations for the Monte di Pietà, a communal pawnshop, for which Toeput created frescos of scenes from the Old and New Testament and parables alluding to the works of mercy. The artist married Laudamia Aproino in 1601 in Treviso. In Italy, the painter was known as Ludovico Pozzoserrato, the literal translation into Italian of his Flemish name Toeput which can be read to mean ‘'Closed Well'’. After he established his residence in Treviso, the artist referred to himself as Lodovico Pozzo da Trevigi.

Work Toeput painted frescoes, altarpieces and paintings with Biblical scenes, landscapes, city views and genre scenes of Venetian social life depicting formal gardens with banquets and music-making groups. Toeput was principally known for his landscape frescoes and canvases, which combine Flemish and Venetian styles. These landscapes typically depict spacious vistas, full of atmospheric and picturesque effects.

Toeput is also known for his allegorical compositions. In the frescoes of the Villa Chiericati-Mugna, executed between 1587 and 1590, he developed a series of allegorical landscapes, which represent the months of the year, each recognizable by their astrological sign. The series is complemented by a trompe-l'œil of a door that reveals a page with a dog, a painting above the fireplace with Apollo holding a lyre and friezes containing mythological figures along the walls. Toeput left various drawings representing the seasons and months of the year. The Allegory of Spring and Allegory of Winter in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery likely inspired Joos de Momper's own treatment of this subject.

Toeput painted various elegant gardens with figures engaging in courtly love or concerts. Many of his garden scenes were likely inspired by contemporary Flemish prints. For instance, his Pleasure garden with a maze (Hampton Court Palace) was likely inspired by the Garden with labyrinth by Hans Vredeman de Vries and Party in a garden, both engraved by Pieter van der Borcht the Elder. Toeput's best known garden scene Concert in a villa courtyard Musei civici di Treviso) appears to draw inspiration from Crispijn van de Passe the Elder's engraving of Adolescentia Amori after a design by Toeput's presumed master Maerten de Vos.

Toeput's earliest known drawing, Lot and his daughters, dates from 1573 (Städel). It shows his closeness to his presumed master Maerten de Vos. The influence of his Venetian master Tintoretto is also palpable. This work and other works by Toeput are also close to, and have often been confused with, those of his Flemish compatriot Paolo Fiammingo (Pauwels Franck) who also resided in Venice at the same time.

Toeput was in demand as a designer of prints. Flemish engravers who travelled through Venice such as Rafael I Sadeler would engrave after his existing designs or order new designs from him.