Jan Hovaert

Jan Hovaert or Giovanni Hovart[1][2][3] (c. 1615–1665)[4] was a Flemish painter who after training in Antwerp spent his known active career in Italy.

He was initially a collaborator in the studio of the de Wael brothers in Genoa and later developed an independent practice.

Genoa was also a thriving port city where a large number of potential customers and collectors lived.

[5] Cornelis de Wael was a painter as well as a merchant who had moved to Genoa with his brother Lucas from their native Antwerp around 1619.

[7] The workshop of the brothers de Wael in Genoa was the centre of the colony of Flemish artists who resided in or passed through the city.

The brothers provided a home, materials and tools, they assisted their compatriots with their local integration, passed on recommendations to clients and formulated competition rules.

[11] A painting representing St. Jerome together with his disciples St. Paula and St. Eustochium (Church of Saint Magdalene, Genoa) is the sole surviving religious work of the artist.

Hovaert has depicted Saint Jerome as the austere wise model portrayed by Antonello da Messina rather than the disheveled and gaunt figure devoured by penitence preferred by 16th and 17th century painters.

The work shows the stylistic characteristics of the artist: the use of rapid touches and a free brush in the physiognomies and palette of the painting.

[10] Hovaert may also have been active as the copyist who created many of the copies after van Dyck that are found in Genoa.