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Lot Essay
This extraordinary painting is the product of collaboration by no fewer than five artists, each a specialist in his respective field. Ursula Härting, author of the catalogues raisonné on Abraham Govaerts and Frans Francken II, has proposed that the screen of foliage and light-filled landscape is the work of Govaerts, while the final soft, feathery brushstrokes in the uppermost layers of paint were added by Alexander Keirincx. She further attributes the figures to both Frans Francken II and his younger brother Ambrosius Francken II, with Frans also responsible for the still life elements. Finally, she sees in the cows, goats and sheep the hand of the figure and animal specialist Hans Jordaens III.
Such collaborations between specialists in different genres were standard practice among Flemish artists in the period. For their part, Frans Francken II and Govaerts appear to have collaborated on more than forty occasions, including in works like Europa adorning Jupiter in the guise of a Bull (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp). Particularly prized by contemporary collectors, these collaborative efforts proved to be of higher quality than if one master had undertaken the entire project. They also offered the knowledgeable connoisseur the opportunity to display his or her erudition by teasing out the various hand at work on the painting. The contemporary poet Cornelis de Bie, for example, praised Frans Francken II for the ‘endless bustle’ of his staffage in works like this. But the decision to collaborate here may also have been taken in part for more prosaic reasons. Härting dates the painting to the period between 1626 and 1632, which may suggest Keirincx was called upon to complete the landscape following Govaerts’ untimely death in 1626. This, coupled with Keirincx’s permanent departure from Antwerp in favor of the Dutch Republic around 1627, suggests the painting probably dates to the earlier part of Härting’s range.
Careful physical examination of the painting and documentary evidence broadly support the chronology proposed above. The composition was developed by means of an underdrawing, which determined the positions of the principal trees and figures and much of which is visible to the naked eye. Govaerts appears to have completed much of the landscape before the Francken brothers and Jordaens added the figures and animals, as the figures overlap the green landscape in a number of places. In other places Kierincx added finishing touches which overlap the outlines of the figures and integrate the various elements of the composition. Moreover, as Kathleen Borms has demonstrated, eleven painters, including the Francken brothers and Jordaens, were commissioned to complete pictures left unfinished in Govaerts' studio at the time of his death (see U. Härting and K. Borms, Abraham Govaerts: Der Waldmaler (1589-1626, Habichtswald, 2003, pp. 22-24). One might reasonably speculate that this panel was among those completed after Govaerts’ death.
Unlike the exceedingly similar but slightly earlier collaboration between Frans Francken II, Govaerts and Jordaens depicting The Meeting of Jacob and Joseph (fig. 1; circa 1624-26; sold Christie’s, New York, 1 May 2019, lot 11), the present painting is entirely secular in subject. A group of young lovers gathers around a sumptuous spread in the clearing of a verdant landscape dotted by livestock, a pair of amorous couples, a bagpiper and shepherds dancing with nymph-like figures wearing diaphanous robes. That a number of the figures carry crooks and staffs suggests they are shepherds and shepherdesses, but their beautiful features, refined gestures and brightly colored, flowing garments all suggest they are anything but typical herdsmen. They belong instead to the idyllic world of Arcadia.
As an Arcadian subject, this painting is among the earliest examples in Flemish art and may well be unique within the artistic production of Antwerp in the period. While pastoral subjects had already found widespread popularity in the Northern Netherlands, and especially among artists and patrons in Utrecht, they only came into vogue in the Southern Netherlands in the early 1630s with the pastoral landscapes of Rubens and artists in his circle. With its roots in classical literature, and particularly Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics, the idea of carefree shepherds and shepherdesses cavorting in an idyllic landscape must have had tremendous currency within a society that, following the expiration of the Twelve Years’ Truce in 1621, once again found itself susceptible to the ravages of war.
A reduced copy of this painting given to an artist in the circle of Adriaen van Nieulandt appeared Stockholms Auktionsverk, Stockholm, 6-7 December 2022, lot 695.
Such collaborations between specialists in different genres were standard practice among Flemish artists in the period. For their part, Frans Francken II and Govaerts appear to have collaborated on more than forty occasions, including in works like Europa adorning Jupiter in the guise of a Bull (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp). Particularly prized by contemporary collectors, these collaborative efforts proved to be of higher quality than if one master had undertaken the entire project. They also offered the knowledgeable connoisseur the opportunity to display his or her erudition by teasing out the various hand at work on the painting. The contemporary poet Cornelis de Bie, for example, praised Frans Francken II for the ‘endless bustle’ of his staffage in works like this. But the decision to collaborate here may also have been taken in part for more prosaic reasons. Härting dates the painting to the period between 1626 and 1632, which may suggest Keirincx was called upon to complete the landscape following Govaerts’ untimely death in 1626. This, coupled with Keirincx’s permanent departure from Antwerp in favor of the Dutch Republic around 1627, suggests the painting probably dates to the earlier part of Härting’s range.
Careful physical examination of the painting and documentary evidence broadly support the chronology proposed above. The composition was developed by means of an underdrawing, which determined the positions of the principal trees and figures and much of which is visible to the naked eye. Govaerts appears to have completed much of the landscape before the Francken brothers and Jordaens added the figures and animals, as the figures overlap the green landscape in a number of places. In other places Kierincx added finishing touches which overlap the outlines of the figures and integrate the various elements of the composition. Moreover, as Kathleen Borms has demonstrated, eleven painters, including the Francken brothers and Jordaens, were commissioned to complete pictures left unfinished in Govaerts' studio at the time of his death (see U. Härting and K. Borms, Abraham Govaerts: Der Waldmaler (1589-1626, Habichtswald, 2003, pp. 22-24). One might reasonably speculate that this panel was among those completed after Govaerts’ death.
Unlike the exceedingly similar but slightly earlier collaboration between Frans Francken II, Govaerts and Jordaens depicting The Meeting of Jacob and Joseph (fig. 1; circa 1624-26; sold Christie’s, New York, 1 May 2019, lot 11), the present painting is entirely secular in subject. A group of young lovers gathers around a sumptuous spread in the clearing of a verdant landscape dotted by livestock, a pair of amorous couples, a bagpiper and shepherds dancing with nymph-like figures wearing diaphanous robes. That a number of the figures carry crooks and staffs suggests they are shepherds and shepherdesses, but their beautiful features, refined gestures and brightly colored, flowing garments all suggest they are anything but typical herdsmen. They belong instead to the idyllic world of Arcadia.
As an Arcadian subject, this painting is among the earliest examples in Flemish art and may well be unique within the artistic production of Antwerp in the period. While pastoral subjects had already found widespread popularity in the Northern Netherlands, and especially among artists and patrons in Utrecht, they only came into vogue in the Southern Netherlands in the early 1630s with the pastoral landscapes of Rubens and artists in his circle. With its roots in classical literature, and particularly Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics, the idea of carefree shepherds and shepherdesses cavorting in an idyllic landscape must have had tremendous currency within a society that, following the expiration of the Twelve Years’ Truce in 1621, once again found itself susceptible to the ravages of war.
A reduced copy of this painting given to an artist in the circle of Adriaen van Nieulandt appeared Stockholms Auktionsverk, Stockholm, 6-7 December 2022, lot 695.