BOTH, Dutch family of painters

This Dutch family of painters, draughtsmen and etchers was active also in Italy. The brothers Andries Both and Jan Both were the sons of Dirck Both (d. 1664), a glass painter from Montfoort, who by 1603 had settled in Utrecht, where he apparently specialized in painting coats of arms on windows. Andries and Jan were in Italy between 1638 and 1641, when they shared a house on the Via Vittoria in the parish of S Lorenzo in Lucina. In 1641 they set off together for Holland, but on the way home Andries drowned in a canal in Venice, and Jan returned alone. The 17th-century biographer Joachim von Sandrart, followed by later writers, claimed that the brothers had collaborated on the greater part of the production. This view, however, has been largely revised by late 20th-century critics, and the two artists are better understood independently.