Lot Essay
The present picture is one of a set of four modelli for tapestries executed by Teniers to commemorate Don Juan of Austria's journey from Barcelona to Brussels to take up his appointment as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1656. No tapestries are known to have been made from the modelli, but in 1686 the Alcázar inventory included two large paintings by Teniers showing the entry of Don Juan into Brussels (J. Bottineau, L'Alcazar de Madrid et l'inventaire de 1686, Bulletin hispanique, 1958, p. 175). The other three modelli depict The Embarkation of Don Juan of Austria (whereabouts unknown), The Arrival of Don Juan of Austria (Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. M.N.R. 731) and The Entry of Don Juan of Austria into Brussels (The Wallace Collection, London, inv. P191).
Don Juan embarked at Barcelona on 4 March 1656 at six in the evening; his boats were subsequently attacked by a Turkish squadron between Mallorca and Minorca - the subject depicted in the present picture - and he had to put in at Alghero in Sardinia at mid-day on 13 March, before finally disembarking at Genoa on 23 March - the Louvre picture; he continued overland, arriving in Brussels on 12 May - the Wallace Collection picture.
Teniers may have made the series for the Spanish royal collection. In 1657 Teniers was owed 8,000 guilders by Don Juan, whose principal painter he then was. The Embarcation, The Arrival and the present picture were all included in the Pacully sale together in 1908 with the Duke of Pastrana provenance. The Duke of Pastrana was the illegitimate son of the Duke of Infantado and although he inherited part of his father's collection in 1841, there is no mention of Teniers in the Infantado collection given by Ponz, Viaje de España, V, 1782, p. 301. The Pacully collection was principally formed in Spain and Portugal in the late nineteenth century.
Don Juan embarked at Barcelona on 4 March 1656 at six in the evening; his boats were subsequently attacked by a Turkish squadron between Mallorca and Minorca - the subject depicted in the present picture - and he had to put in at Alghero in Sardinia at mid-day on 13 March, before finally disembarking at Genoa on 23 March - the Louvre picture; he continued overland, arriving in Brussels on 12 May - the Wallace Collection picture.
Teniers may have made the series for the Spanish royal collection. In 1657 Teniers was owed 8,000 guilders by Don Juan, whose principal painter he then was. The Embarcation, The Arrival and the present picture were all included in the Pacully sale together in 1908 with the Duke of Pastrana provenance. The Duke of Pastrana was the illegitimate son of the Duke of Infantado and although he inherited part of his father's collection in 1841, there is no mention of Teniers in the Infantado collection given by Ponz, Viaje de España, V, 1782, p. 301. The Pacully collection was principally formed in Spain and Portugal in the late nineteenth century.