JACOB TOORENVLIET (Leiden, 1635 or 1636 - 1719) Banquet Scene Signed on the step at lower right Oil on canvas, 63X80.5 cm Provenance: Rome, Tito Gobbi Collection Trained with Frans van Mieris the Elder and Matthijs Naiveu, Jacob Toorenvliet was a precocious artist, already active at the age of 15, and in 1662 we know him travelling to Rome with Nicolaes Roosendael. In 1664 he is attested in Venice where he resides until 1667. It is during this period that he produced a drawing signed 'J. Torenvliet Venetie f.' taken from Tintoretto and today kept in the collections of the University Library in Leiden (inv. AW 320). This datum is interesting for understanding the work in question, which well evokes the scenic lagoon taste also breathed in Vienna, where he lived from 1668 to 1670, as can be deduced from the paintings in the Austrian collections. The artist was in Leiden again in 1686, when he joined the Guild of St. Luke and founded the Academy of Drawing with Willem van Mieris (1662-1747) and Carel de Moor (1655-1738).