Jan Porcellis

[2][3] This style of greater simplicity surrounding maritime art, with the majority of the canvas displaying sea and sky, set the grounds for later works in this genre.

Also notable from this period is Porcellis' rendition of Sea Battle at Night which, as its name indicates, features a marine conflict in dim light, with enemy ships barely visible and a gradual recognition of the subjects.

[5] He gained more popularity because of the detail in his paintings, particularly in portraying the Beach View of Haarlem, various of which were found scattered in other European places and palaces, such as Palazzo Venezia in Rome, or in the collection of the Emperor of Germany.

In these years Porcellis' series of twenty etchings, Verscheyden Stranden en Water Gesichten, was published in Haarlem by Jan Pietersz.

Around this time, in 1627, a set of twelve prints after Porcellis's designs were published in Amsterdam by C. J. Visscher, the Icones Variarum navium hollandicarum, the first 'iconography' of ship types since Pieter Bruegel's in 1565.

Henrick Vroom, whom Houbraken claims was Porcellis' teacher, was skillful at ship-painting, covering subjects such as fish, fishermen and other boatmen.

These effects were never attempted by Vroom or his contemporaries, and in fact they were very advanced for this early date, which will be continued in Porcellis' lifelong preoccupation with the subtleties of weather.

Whether Porcellis' paintings have a moral message is uncertain, but the arrangement as seen in Sea Battle by Night, where the fights go on the distance while fishing continues in the foreground, seems to inspire thinking on human mortality.

[4] Nine out of ten of Porcellis' works before 1620 portray vessels of the Dutch fleet, representing battles, storms, or harbour views.

[5] Jan Porcellis established an original manner of Marine painting focusing on tonal effects, fostering vivid atmospheres and seascapes in a monochromatic fashion.

[2] He was celebrated by Samuel Hoogstraten as the great Raphael of marine painting, and was even honored with a poem composed by the prominent Joachim Oudaan concerning his talents.

His followers included his son Julius, as well as his wife's brother, Henrick van Anthonissen, and Simon de Vlieger[2] (Slive, p. 218).