Pieter Stalpaert

Pieter Stalpaert or Peeter Stalpaert (1572 in Brussels – before 1639 in Amsterdam) was a Flemish painter who was active in the Dutch Republic. He is known for his landscape and marine paintings.

Life Stalpaert was born in Brussels as the son of Jeremyas who was a tapestry worker. The family was likely of the Protestant conviction and left the Southern Netherlands after it was reconquered by the Spanish in 1585. They settled in 1588 in Delft. It is not clear with whom Pieter trained. He worked in Dordrecht from 1597 to 1598. From 1598 he was in Amsterdam where he married on 28 March 1599 Beyken de Hertoge from Antwerp. At the time of his wedding he declared to have lived in Amsterdam for a year. On 13 November 1603, their son Johannes Jeremyas was baptized in the Old Church (Oude Kerk) in Amsterdam. Of the small number of his works that have been located, only a few are signed or dated.

A marine painting with the biblical story of Christ calming the storm is in an unknown collection in Germany. Painted in 1617, the design likely goes back to the print made by Cornelis Galle the Elder after a design by the Flemish artist Maerten de Vos. That print depicting The storm on the sea of Galilei was plate 8 in the 12-part Vita, passio et Resvrrectio Iesv Christ which was published by Adriaen Collaert in Antwerp in 1598. The print also shows the boat in a forward tilting position but its portrait format favours the focus on the main motif, which almost fills the entire space. Pieter Stalpaert, on the other hand, used a landscape format in which he integrated the story of Christ into the larger seascape. Through the wider framing of the story the figures of Christ and the disciples can only be recognised on closer inspection. As Stalpaert gives ample space to the raging ocean scene, the biblical figures appear to have been reduced to mere staffage.