Henrick Terbrugghen

• 1588: Born in Deventer; a pupil of Bloemaert.
• 1604: Journey to Italy, where he would remain ten years in Rome, and return via Milan; first of the northern painters to discover Caravaggio.
• 1616: Joins the St. Luke Guild in Utrecht.
• 1629: Passes away in Utrecht.

The Caravaggism that Henrick Terbrugghen introduced to Utrecht drastically changed the accepted rules of painting, for it replaced elegant mannerist effects with dramatic effects born of dense compositions and violent contrasts between light and shadow. Caravaggism's influence can be recognized in the chiaroscuro of the Dutch school's greatest master: Rembrandt.
 

Saint Sebastian Attended by Saint Irene, 1625, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio.

In this painting, Hendrick Terbrugghen revolutionizes the theme of Saint Sebastian. Traditionally, this saint is depicted standing and heroically suffering. Terbrugghen chose to show him prostrate and unconscious, at the very moment when Irene comes to his rescue. Evoking the descent from the Cross, the work is built along a diagonal that, running from Saint Sebastian's right hand to his left foot, drags us along in his fall. In a manner taken directly from Caravaggio, this oblique is underscored by the succession of three heads that lend rhythm to the downward thrust, and by the light that painfully fragments the victim's body.
 

The Concert, 1626-1627, London. National Gallery.