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Lot Essay
Fourteen of van Opstal's mythological bas-reliefs in marble, similar in style though not in subject to the present piece, were recorded in Van Opstal's posthumous inventory, then in the Cabinet des Dessins du Roi, later reaching the Musée du Louvre. 'Dans cet art galant et élégant, Van Opstal deploie toute sa technique de sculpteur sur ivoire', as Mme Bresc has written (loc. cit.). Theuerkauff remarks that the sheer quantity and varying quality of the reliefs indicates that Van Opstal must have established a workshop to assist him in producing them all.
Of the reliefs in the Louvre, The Abduction of the Nereids by Tritons (no. 2767), is closest to the present composition in the frenzied melee of struggling bodies, with aggressive males dominating women and children in a battle that is enhanced by the opposing diagonals of their forms and implied movements. Van Opstal's handling of relief is masterly, with more substantial figures in bold relief set off against a foil of others in much shallower relief, the furthest away being barely drawn on the background plane. The viciously stabbing swords also featured in one of a pair of marble reliefs from Wilton House that were sold by the Earl of Pembroke in these Rooms on 2 June 1964, lots 82-3.
As to the Christian subject, rare in the mostly secular oeuvre of van Opstal, the nearest analogy is with a Flight into Egypt that is set into the chimney piece of the Salle de Diane in the Palace of Versailles (illustrated in Hoog, loc. cit.). It is of similar, but not identical, size and therefore - surprisingly - seems not to have formed an exact pendant to the present panel.
Of the reliefs in the Louvre, The Abduction of the Nereids by Tritons (no. 2767), is closest to the present composition in the frenzied melee of struggling bodies, with aggressive males dominating women and children in a battle that is enhanced by the opposing diagonals of their forms and implied movements. Van Opstal's handling of relief is masterly, with more substantial figures in bold relief set off against a foil of others in much shallower relief, the furthest away being barely drawn on the background plane. The viciously stabbing swords also featured in one of a pair of marble reliefs from Wilton House that were sold by the Earl of Pembroke in these Rooms on 2 June 1964, lots 82-3.
As to the Christian subject, rare in the mostly secular oeuvre of van Opstal, the nearest analogy is with a Flight into Egypt that is set into the chimney piece of the Salle de Diane in the Palace of Versailles (illustrated in Hoog, loc. cit.). It is of similar, but not identical, size and therefore - surprisingly - seems not to have formed an exact pendant to the present panel.