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Lot Essay
The present works by Teniers are two of a set of four, of which the first, also in the Pacully sale, still remains untraced, while the fourth was also probably briefly in the Pastrana collection and was later acquired by Sir Richard Wallace and is in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. no. P191).
The set of four paintings depict episodes in the journey of Don Juan of Austria (1629-1679), the illegitimate son of King Philip IV of Spain and a noted military commander, from Barcelona to Genoa, which he undertook to take up his post as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1656. An account of the journey is found in the Relación del Viaje que Sr. D. Juan de Austria, Lizo a des Cataluno á Flandes, published in 1880 and summarised by Ingamells. He embarked on 4th March 1656 (fig. 1) whereupon his galley and escort were attacked by a Turkish squadron. He disembarked at Genoa on 23rd March and reached Brussels in the second week of May where he was weclomed into the city with a carefully staged Triumphal Entry (fig. 2), where he was given the keys to the City.
The first of the two present paintings is likely to be Teniers' only depiction of a naval engagement. It shows two Spanish galleys, close-hauled and under oars, evading five European-style men-of-war flying converted Turkish flags. The second shows the Governor's galley under oars, off the Genoese coast, identifiable by the famous lanterna or lighthouse. The Governor is shown standing, looking in the direction of the spectator, prominent and wearing a commander's sash, with his entourage behind him. Like the two other paintings in the series, the scenes are embellished by decorative swags - in both the present cases, chiefly made up of fish, shells and fishermen's implements; these are put in place by putti. Teniers was here inspired by Rubens' designs for tapestries, most notably the Achilles series.
The Louvre Catalogue Sommaire Ecole Flamandes et Hollandaise (1979, p. 140) suggested that the fish and shells were the work of Jan van Kessel, though as Ingamells pointed out, there is no such participation in the Wallace Collection picture. This is likely also to be the case in the present two works, although Van Kessel's influence is evident enough.
Teniers' series, too, is a design for a set of tapestries and the present lots are among his few modelli from which the cartoons would have been worked up for the weaver. The project, however, seems never to have been finished, as no tapestries are recorded. It may have been one of Don Juan's few commissions to Teniers, who was his court painter and chamberlain. That the project was never completed may have been because of Don Juan's short tenure of office in the Spanish Netherlands. He left the Netherlands in 1659, following his defeat at the Battle of the Dunes in May 1658.
The set of four paintings depict episodes in the journey of Don Juan of Austria (1629-1679), the illegitimate son of King Philip IV of Spain and a noted military commander, from Barcelona to Genoa, which he undertook to take up his post as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1656. An account of the journey is found in the Relación del Viaje que Sr. D. Juan de Austria, Lizo a des Cataluno á Flandes, published in 1880 and summarised by Ingamells. He embarked on 4th March 1656 (fig. 1) whereupon his galley and escort were attacked by a Turkish squadron. He disembarked at Genoa on 23rd March and reached Brussels in the second week of May where he was weclomed into the city with a carefully staged Triumphal Entry (fig. 2), where he was given the keys to the City.
The first of the two present paintings is likely to be Teniers' only depiction of a naval engagement. It shows two Spanish galleys, close-hauled and under oars, evading five European-style men-of-war flying converted Turkish flags. The second shows the Governor's galley under oars, off the Genoese coast, identifiable by the famous lanterna or lighthouse. The Governor is shown standing, looking in the direction of the spectator, prominent and wearing a commander's sash, with his entourage behind him. Like the two other paintings in the series, the scenes are embellished by decorative swags - in both the present cases, chiefly made up of fish, shells and fishermen's implements; these are put in place by putti. Teniers was here inspired by Rubens' designs for tapestries, most notably the Achilles series.
The Louvre Catalogue Sommaire Ecole Flamandes et Hollandaise (1979, p. 140) suggested that the fish and shells were the work of Jan van Kessel, though as Ingamells pointed out, there is no such participation in the Wallace Collection picture. This is likely also to be the case in the present two works, although Van Kessel's influence is evident enough.
Teniers' series, too, is a design for a set of tapestries and the present lots are among his few modelli from which the cartoons would have been worked up for the weaver. The project, however, seems never to have been finished, as no tapestries are recorded. It may have been one of Don Juan's few commissions to Teniers, who was his court painter and chamberlain. That the project was never completed may have been because of Don Juan's short tenure of office in the Spanish Netherlands. He left the Netherlands in 1659, following his defeat at the Battle of the Dunes in May 1658.