Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg
Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg or Willem Schubart van Ehrenberg was a Flemish painter mainly active in Antwerp who specialized in architectural paintings including of real and imaginary church interiors, Renaissance palaces and picture galleries.
Life
Most likely born in Antwerp where his baptism is recorded on 12 May 1630, he entered the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1662. He resided in Antwerp for most of his life. Some art historians have suggested that he may have travelled to Italy as he made drawings of Italian subjects. His interiors of St. Peter's Basilica and other Roman subjects, are, however, based on engravings by contemporary artists, some of which are datable to the period between 1656 and 1667. An Italian sejourn may therefore not have occurred and is unlikely in view of his documented presence in Antwerp. He did visit France and resided in Reims in the period from March to May 1673 as he declared in a notarial statement made in Antwerp 16 months later together with Remacle Serin that they had met and socialised with the Flemish painter Anthoni Schoonjans in Reims.He became a member of the local schutterij and the chambers of rhetoric 'De Olijftak' and 'De Violieren'.
He married on 5 August 1665 in Antwerp Maria Seys, daughter of the painter Jan Seys. Their children were Lucas Willem and Peter Schubert van Ehrenberg and 1707.
He was the teacher of the painter of architecture paintings Jacobus Ferdinandus Saey.
His son Peter Schubart von Ehrenberg was also an artist who had a successful career as a painter, engraver and stage designer in Vienna.
Work
General
The majority of van Ehrenberg's pictures were painted between 1660 and 1670. He often collaborated with other artists who added the figures or animals. This was a common practice in 17th century Antwerp. His collaborators included Hendrik van Minderhout, Gaspar de Witte, Hieronymus Janssens and Charles Emmanuel Biset.Architectural works
Van Ehrenberg painted many architectural paintings usually of imaginary church interiors, temples, palaces and art galleries.Paintings such as the Interior of the Saint-Carolus-Borromeus Church in Antwerp emphasize the Baroque architecture of the space depicted, but are more artificial than his Dutch Golden Age contemporaries such as Pieter Jansz Saenredam or Emanuel de Witte. His Interior of the St. Peters' Church in Rome stands in the tradition of Antwerp architecture art from the first half of the 17th century. However, the spatial effect in the oeuvre of van Ehrenberg is stronger. He showed a particular preference for the fantastic and pathetic, which he emphasized further with light-dark contrasts and a staffage of almost dwarfish figures.
Of particular interest are a set of paintings representing the Seven Wonders of the World such as the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and The Temple of Diana at Ephesus and the two paintings of ruined tombstones.