TORRENTIUS, Johannes - b. 1589 Amsterdam, d. 1644 Amsterdam

Dutch painter, born Johannes Sijmonsz van der Beeck. An allegoric still-life intended to advertise the virtue of Temperance (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) is his only known painting. He hardly took to heart the temperance message of his still-life. Contemporary documents and references establish that he was notorious for his unorthodox conduct and his obscene pictures. He was tortured and sentenced to twenty-years imprisonment by Haarlem’s municipal authorities for immorality, blasphemy, and probably for membership in the outlawed Rosicrucian sect.

After his imprisonment, Charles I, who admired and collected his pictures, interceded on his behalf with Stadholder Frederik Hendrik. Through the latter’s good offices Torrentius was released from prison in 1630 and travelled to London bearing a few of his paintings, including, it seems, the allegory on Temperance; Charles’s brand on the panel’s verso places it firmly in his collection. It was anticipated that Torrentius would paint captivating pictures for the English court, but apparently he produced very little in England before returning to Holland.

Emblematic Still-Life

When the unusual combination of objects and inscription on this still-life is deciphered we learn that the tondo is an allegorical still-life intended to advertise the virtue of Temperance. The still-life, Torrentius’s only known painting, depicts a huge, half-full ‘roemer’ (a glass used for drinking wine) between a long-spouted water flagon and a wine jug, with a horse’s bridle above them. On the ledge there are two small clay pipes. The inscription on the sheet of music under the glass reads: ‘That which exists out of measure perishes in evil immeasurably’. To the initiated, the implication is clear. Overindulgence in drinking or smoking tobacco (an intoxicant recently introduced from the New World) should be curbed. Hence the horse’s bridle, and the water flagon and wine jug that flank the roemer, for if wine is diluted with water its intoxicating effect is tempered.