LOON, Theodoor, van
Flemish painter. His style was developed in Rome, where he worked from 1602 to 1608, taught by, among others, the little-known Jacob de Haze (1575-1634). Van Loon was again in Rome in 1617 and 1628; during this last visit he executed a St Anne (untraced) for Santa Maria dell’Anima, the parish church of the German nation (which included the Netherlanders). Apart from these interludes, he was active mainly in Brussels and after c. 1639 also in Leuven.
In Brussels he benefited from the patronage of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, through whom in 1613 he was commissioned to make a cycle of paintings on the Life of the Virgin for the church of the Discalced Carmelites, which had been built on the Archduke’s initiative. In 1620 van Loon produced three paintings, two of them representing St Hubert, for the archducal hunting lodge at Tervuren (now Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts). Between 1623 and 1628, and again in 1632, he painted seven monumental scenes from the Life of the Virgin for the pilgrims’ church founded by the Archdukes at Scherpenheuvel (in situ). These commissions involved close collaboration with the court architect, Wenceslas Cobergher.
Van Loon spent his later life in the university town of Leuven, where he had long-standing contacts stemming from his friendship with the humanist scholar Erycius Puteanus (d. 1625), whose portrait he painted.
