{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}} thumb|300px|''Eighteen Views of Rome – The Quattro Fontane Looking Toward Santa Maria Maggiore'' thumb|304x304px|''Veduti: Prospectus Basilicę Vaticanę D. Petri.''
'''Lievin Cruyl''' or '''Lieven Cruyl''' (name variations: Levin Cruijl, Lievin Cruijl, Levin Cruyl, Livinus Cruylius, Cruylius Livinus) (5 September 1634 – before 1720)<ref>Jatta 1992, pp. 7 (birth), 9 (death).</ref> was a Flemish priest and a draughtsman and etcher<ref>Esther 1996.</ref> of landscapes, seascapes, and architectural views.<ref>Benezit 2006.</ref> The drawings and etchings he made during his extended stays in Italy and Paris contributed to the development of the topographical views known as veduta.
==Life== He was born in Ghent, the illegitimate (later legitimised) son of Joannae (Joanna) Meyerts and Guglielmus (Willem) Cruyl.<ref>Jatta 1992, pp. 7, 23.</ref> The details about his life are not always clear, including with respect to the periods of his overseas residences. He studied theology, architecture, drawing and etching at the University of Leuven.<ref name=kbs>[http://www.heritage-kbf.be/collection/lieven-cruyls-veduti-or-city-views Lieven Cruyl’s veduti (or city views)]</ref> He was a priest in Wetteren near Ghent from 1660 to 1664.<ref name=NBN>[https://web.archive.org/web/20161220135428/http://www.academieroyale.be/academie/documents/FichierPDFBiographieNationaleTome2045.pdf#page=300 Biographical details] at the Nouvelle Biographie Nationale {{in lang|fr}}</ref> He was involved as an architect in the completion of the Saint Michael's Church, Ghent, the construction of which had been interrupted because of the iconoclastic troubles of the 16th century. He made a design for the unfinished western tower in a Brabantine Gothic style in 1662. The design was finally not implemented due to cost concerns.<ref>[https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/dibe/relict/25841 De Inventaris van het Bouwkundig Erfgoed Parochiekerk Sint-Michielskerk (ID: 25841)] {{in lang|nl}}</ref> 300px|thumb|''Prospectus Turris Babylonicae''
He travelled to Rome where he resided from 1664 to 1675.<ref name=rkd>[http://explore.rkd.nl/explore/artists/19315 Lieven Cruyl] at the Netherlands Institute for Art History {{in lang|nl}}</ref> He travelled in Italy and was in Venice in 1676. He spent time in France between 1680 and 1684 and returned to Ghent in 1684. He made trips to France and is recorded in Paris in 1688.<ref name=rkd/> In Ghent he was again involved in an architectural design project, this time for the spire of the Belfry of Ghent. His design for a Baroque spire dated 1684 was finally not implemented.<ref>[https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/dibe/relict/24555 De Inventaris van het Bouwkundig Erfgoed Parochiekerk Belfort (ID: 24555)] {{in lang|nl}}</ref>
He died in Ghent.<ref>Benezit 2006; Esther 1996.</ref>
==Work==
Lieven Cruyl is mainly known for his drawings and graphic work depicting cityscapes. He made series of drawings as well as individual renderings of the landmarks of Rome. Several of the drawings were later engraved by himself and others including by Giulio Testa.<ref name=hav/><ref>[http://budapestauction.com/lieven-cruyl/painter Lieven Cruyl] at Budapest Auction</ref> His drawings were dated, frequently by month, between 1664 and 1666 and convey a picture of a busy living city filled with ruins. This was a change from the more staged approach of classicizing painters.<ref>[http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-ruins-of-rome/ Robert C. Smith, The Ruins of Rome]</ref> The panoramic settings of the drawings and the precise technique are believed to have set a standard for veduta designers and painters after him such as the Dutchman Gaspar van Wittel.<ref name=hav>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VCCzi4lQ7eAC&pg=PA280 Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy. Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-century European Drawings: Central Europe, the Netherlands, France, England], Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, p. 280</ref> He also had a subtle influence on Giovanni Battista Falda's engravings of contemporary and antique structures in Rome.<ref name=eli>[http://www.elisasilva.com/img/02.pdf Elisa Silva, The Space of Representation and Falda’s Images of Rome] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140527214411/http://www.elisasilva.com/img/02.pdf |date=27 May 2014 }}</ref>
thumb|300px|left|''The Tiber at Rome'', drawing
Cruyl's drawings depict the topographical aspects of the urban landscape. He preferred unusual and complex perspectives which reflect the scientific construction of his drawings.<ref name=kbs/> His drawings reconstruct the city anew according to a specific aesthetic taste and guidelines of a graphic structure.<ref name=eli/> Rome's cityscape was undergoing significant changes at the time because of the extensive building works promoted by pope Alexander VII to enhance the dignity of Rome and himself as the Head of the Catholic Church.<ref>Krautheimer, Richard (1985). The Rome of Alexander VII 1655–1667. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|069104032X}}, p. 3–7</ref> Cruyl's drawings with their idealised view of Rome can to a certain extent be regarded as propaganda for pope Pope Alexander VII's urban vision of Rome.<ref name=kbs/><ref name=mic>{{Cite web |url=http://michaelmillerliterary.com/publications/MiscTexts/Cruyl%20Prints%20acqu%20full.pdf |title=Lievin Cruyl, ''Prospectus Locorum Urbis Romae Insignium'' |access-date=26 May 2014 |archive-date=22 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422215125/http://michaelmillerliterary.com/publications/MiscTexts/Cruyl%20Prints%20acqu%20full.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The views of Lieven Cruyl were also published to meet the demand of foreigners who wanted to keep souvenirs of their visit.<ref>[http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T073229pg3 Anna Menichella, et al. "Rome."] Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 May. 2014</ref>
He also made drawings of other Italian cities such as Florence and Venice and of places in Paris. He further drew a number of imaginary cityscapes of Jeruzalem.
A drawing of the ''View of the construction of the Pont-Royal, Paris, in 1687'' was sold at Christie's in London in 2009 for £97,250.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sale 7743 / Lot 32|url=http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5221726|publisher=Christie's|accessdate=26 May 2014}}</ref>
==Selected works== thumb|300px|''Prospectus Fori Agonali'' *''A set of Twenty-three Plates of Ancient and Modern Rome''; L. Cruyl del. et scul. 1665. *''A set of Views of Roman Ruins &c.''; 1667. *''The Triumphs of the Roman Emperors''; after Andrea Mantegna; ten plates.
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * Benezit (2006). [https://doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00045025 "Cruyl, Liévin"], vol. 4, p. 249, in ''Benezit Dictionary of Artists''. Paris: Gründ. {{ISBN|9782700030709}}. * Esther, J.-P. (1996). [https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T020476 "Cruyl, Lieven"], vol. 8. p. 220, in ''The Dictionary of Art'', 34 volumes, edited by Jane Turner. New York: Grove. {{ISBN|9781884446009}}. *Jatta, Barbara; Connors, Joseph (1989). ''Vedute romane di Lievin Cruyl: paesaggio urbano sotto Alessandro VII'' (exhibition catalog). Rome: Accademia americana in Roma. {{OCLC|22188145}}. * Jatta, Barbara (1992). ''Lievin Cruyl e la sua opera grafica: un artista fiammingo nell'Italia del seicento''. Brussels/Rome: Institut historique belge de Rome. {{ISBN|9074461034}}.
==External links== *{{Commons-inline|Category:Lieven Cruyl|Lieven Cruyl}} *[http://adore.ugent.be/view?q=_id%3A%22archive.ugent.be%3A5C2CC3DA-AA85-11E3-8038-0DCBD43445F2%22&search_type=advanced Facsimile of the ''Prospectus locorum urbis Romae insicnium''] *[http://www.clevelandart.org/search?search=Cruyl Works of Lieven Cruyl at The Cleveland Museum of Art] *[http://www.artnet.com/artists/lievin-cruyl/past-auction-results Lievin Cruyl] on artnet *[http://irsa.com.pl/de/artibus/17 Colin Eisler – Power to Europe's Chosen Peoples. A New Maccabean Page for Louis XIV by Liévin Cruyl, in: Artibus et Historiae no. 17 (IX), 1988, pp. 31–38]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruyl, Lieven}} Category:17th-century Flemish engravers Category:18th-century Flemish engravers Category:Clergy from Ghent Category:1634 births Category:1720 deaths Category:Artists from Ghent Category:Flemish priests