Jan Miel’s Signature and Inscription Uncovered - The Phoebus Foundation (2025)

Sven Van Dorst & Dr Leen Kelchtermans

Sometimes, a restoration reveals far more than expected. During the treatment of Merrymakers at a Market in Prati by Jan Miel (1599-1664), his signature and a handwritten inscription unexpectedly came to light. For a long time, it was assumed that the impressive painting was unsigned, as no inscription was visible on the front. However, the master had written his name on the reverse of the canvas, along with the place and year of its creation. Miel’s message remained hidden for nearly four hundred years… until now!

Honingh-bie

Jan Miel was born in Beveren but moved to Rome in the mid-1630s.¹ There, he built a successful career and joined the Bentvueghels, a notorious society of artists from the Low Countries. Each new member was given a nickname, and with a surname corresponding to the French word for ‘honey’, Jan Miel unsurprisingly received the Bent name ‘Honingh-bie’ (‘honey bee’).

Prestigious Patron

Miel’s lively scenes featuring feasting common folk, known as ‘bambocciate’, were particularly popular among aristocratic collectors. Previous research has shown that Merrymakers at a Market in Prati was most likely commissioned by the influential Marquis Tommaso Raggi (1595/6-1679). Originally of Genoese origin, he settled in Rome around 1629, where he became a renowned art patron with a particular appreciation for Flemish masters.

Raggi commissioned five paintings of the same format from Miel. The artist’s biographer, Filippo Baldinucci, mentioned two of them: ‘Per lo Marchese Raggi fecene due in quadri lunghi, in uno de’ quali fece vedere con bello artifizio il corso e le mascherate del Carnevale.’² It is assumed that the painting he described is Carnival in the Piazza Colonna in Rome, now in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut.³ The second painting was long believed to be lost, but it could be Merrymakers at a Market in Prati, as its dimensions (87.6 by 174 cm) closely match those of the painting in Hartford (88.9 by 175.9 cm). ⁴ The oblong format suggests that these works were sopraporte, probably intended to hang above doors in Raggi’s palazzo near the Campidoglio in Rome.

Furthermore, a highly detailed description of a painting in the collection of Count Jean Sellon d’Allaman, where Raggi’s paintings by Miel ended up in the eighteenth century, bears a striking resemblance to Merrymakers at a Market in Prati:

‘Sur toile, hauteur 2 pieds 10 pouces, largeur 5 pieds 6 pouces. Une foire derrière la Basilique de St. Pierre à Rome. Cette merveille du monde se dessine dans le clair obscur. Dans le fond l’on découvre le Monte Mario, célèbre par la vue des sept collines, dont on y jouit. Ce tableau fourmille de groupes dessinés avec esprit, et où le peintre n’a rien négligé pour faire connoître les costumes et les physionomies des habitans de Rome, et des pays environnans. Cette bambochade, comme on nomme ce genre en Italie, donne une idée très-juste des rassemblemens populaires de ce pays. Le coloris ainsi que la composition ne laissent rien à désirer.’⁵

All these elements strongly suggest that Miel’s Merrymakers at a Market in Prati was part of Raggi’s five-piece series, and that two of these works have now been identified.

Hidden Inscriptions

When the painting entered the collection of The Phoebus Foundation, it was dated to around 1655 and attributed to Jan Miel based on stylistic analysis, due to the absence of a visible signature. However, the restoration process resulted in unforeseen findings: the confirmation of the attribution, a more accurate dating, and potential further evidence supporting Marquis Raggi as the patron.

At the time of its acquisition, Merrymakers at a Market in Prati was in anything but optimal condition. A yellowed varnish layer with micro-craquelure cast a white haze over the entire surface, obscuring details and dulling the colour palette. Additionally, it was discovered that the canvas had been reinforced with an additional lining during an earlier restoration. This coarse-woven lining fabric had been applied using a traditional adhesive based on collagen glue and/or starch and flour, a technique known as paste lining, which was particularly popular in Italy during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.⁶

As the adhesion between the original and later-applied canvas weakened, visible distortions appeared on the surface. It was therefore decided to remove the old lining canvas and apply a new support. Once the old lining canvas had been detached, the reverse of the original canvas could be examined for the first time in centuries. What seemed like indistinct markings to the naked eye were revealed as handwritten text through infrared imaging – none other than the master’s signature: ‘Gio. Miele fecit et invent. / Roma 1650’ (‘Giovanni Miele made and invented this / Rome 1650’). Miel used a comparable signature – ‘Giov. Miele fecit / Roma, 1653’ – on the front, in the lower right corner, of his stylistically related Carnival in Rome, now in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.⁷

With his signature, Miel confirms that he not only conceived the composition of Merrymakers at a Market in Pratibut also painted it himself. Furthermore, his handwritten inscription allows the painting to be precisely dated and geographically pinpointed: in 1650 in Rome, aligning with the biographical data known about the artist. The scene is also set outside the city walls of Rome, with St Peter’s Basilica and Monte Mario visible in the background. The Italianisation of his name to ‘Gio[vanni] Miele’ reflects Miel’s long-term residence and professional success in the Eternal City.

A second, much larger inscription is also present on the reverse of the original canvas. In a different handwriting, ‘TR33’ was noted. This appears to be an inventory number. Most likely, it refers to the collection of the previously mentioned patron of the painting: Tommaso Raggi. If this is indeed the case, this discovery confirms that Merrymakers at a Market in Prati belonged to the five-part series that the marquis commissioned from Miel.

Reassessing Miel’s oeuvre

The discovery of Miel’s signature on the reverse of Merrymakers at a Market in Prati provides new impetus for research into the oeuvre of the Beveren-born master. Until now, it was assumed that Miel rarely signed his works. Might there be other paintings attributed to him that also bear an inscription on the reverse?

Moreover, the dating recorded by Miel himself serves as a key reference point within his oeuvre. It enables art historians to map the painter’s stylistic development more precisely and compare undated works against it. Since Tommaso Raggi most probably commissioned Carnival in the Piazza Colonna in Rome in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art together with Merrymakers at a Market in Prati, it is also possible to date the former work to around 1650. Perhaps it, too, bears a similar inscription on the reverse.

Conclusion

Thanks to the meticulous restoration process, during which the yellowed varnish was removed and the original gilded frame restored, Merrymakers at a Market in Prati has regained not only its vibrant colours and intricate details.⁸ The inscription ‘TR33’ reinforces previous research indicating that the Genoese Marquis Tommaso Raggi was the patron of the work. Moreover, because of Jan Miel’s handwritten inscription in an unexpected location – the reverse of the canvas – the painting’s attribution and dating, hidden for centuries, have now been definitively established. These discoveries not only revise a small chapter of art history but also pave the way for further insights into the work of Jan Miel, a fascinating Flemish Baroque painter in Rome.

1. On the painter and the Bentvueghels, see, among other publications, A. De Witte, ‘Kunstschilder Jan Miel: doopdatum, familie en verwanten in Beveren (begin 17de eeuw)’, Het Land van Beveren, 59, 4 (2016): 195-208; L.M. Helmus, De Bentvueghels: een berucht kunstgenootschap in Rome, 1620-1720, Amsterdam, 2023.[↩]
2. F. Baldinucci, Notizie de’ professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, vol. 6, Florence, 1728: 367.[↩]
3. For an image, see https://5058.sydneyplus.com/argus/final/Portal/Public.aspx?lang=en-US&g_AABJ=final+%7cObject+%7cPortalAggr+%3d+%27jan+Miel%27&d=d, accessed 25.02.2025. See also T.J. Kren, Jan Miel (1599-1664). A Flemish Painter in Rome, 3 vols., doctoral thesis, Yale University, 1978: vol. 2, 26-30 and 166; E. Haverkamp-Begemann (ed.), Wadsworth Atheneum Paintings: The Netherlands and the German-speaking Countries, Fifteenth-Nineteenth Centuries, mus.cat., Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1978: 162-164; E. Zafran (ed.), Renaissance to Rococo: Masterpieces from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, New Haven, 2004: 120-121.[↩]
4. London, Christie’s, 06.07.2018, lot 152.[↩]
5. Catalogue raisonné Des 215 Tableaux les plus capitaux du Cabinet de M.^r le Comte de Sellon d’Allaman […], s.l., 1795: 42-43, nr. 117.[↩]
6. S. Van Dorst, Technical Examination Report, dated 25.07.2022.[↩]
7. His Caritas, auctioned as lot 307 at Dorotheum in Vienna on 24.04.2018, also bears a similar signature at the lower left on the front of the canvas: ‘Gio. Miele/fecit… Roma/1653’. For images of this work and that in the Prado, see https://www.dorotheum.com/de/l/5136563/ and https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/el-carnaval-en-roma/a2ac0b11-3d19-474a-b42e-3cac5df9a9ad, accessed 25.02.2025.[↩]
8. With warm thanks to the restorers at IPARC for their treatment of the canvas, Alexandra Taylor for assisting with the varnish removal during her Phoebus Fellowship (https://phoebusfoundation.org/en/beleef/meet-our-phoebus-fellow-alexandra/), Titania Hess for completing the restoration, Bart Welten for restoring the frame, and Katrijn Van Bragt for the preliminary research.[↩]