.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Regarded by some authorities in the past as an autograph work by Van Oostsanen, this picture is generally accepted as a studio version of a missing composition by the Master, the leading North Netherlandish artist at the turn of the sixteenth century. Dated to circa 1510-5, its composition, divided architecturally into different scenes, is comparable to other works by Oostsanen of that date, including the Scenes from the Life of Saint Hubert of circa 1511 (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Bode-Museum), whilst the pilasters can be compared with the Saint Jerome altarpiece of 1511 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) or the Nativity of 1512 (Naples, Museo e Gallerie Nazionale di Capodimonte). Given the date, this composition is of particular interest not only as the only known secular subject by Oostsanen, but also as the earliest known painted depiction of the theme, which is generally regarded as having been introduced from printed sources to painting by Quinten Metsys, whose depictions of the theme are generally dated to circa 1522-3.
The subject, the pairing of a somewhat grotesque old man and a knowing, youthful beauty, was very popular in sixteenth-century art; presenting as it did a somewhat lascivious image under the guise of a morality lesson, it afforded the artist an opportunity of depicting a degree of licentuousness that might not otherwise have been acceptable. A theme of unimpeachable antiquity - Cicero, Plutarch, Ovid and Plautus, for example, all wrote comedies dealing with the theme - its growing popularity as a subject for printmakers at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries was probably due to its inclusion in contemporary literature, including most famously Erasmus' reference to it in his Praise of Folly (quoting Aristophanes' scorn for old men as 'nasty, crumpled, miserable, shrivelled, bald, toothless and wanting their baubles', who are so delighted with life that they dye their grey hair, acquire false teeth and propose to dowryless young women).
The early sixteenth century saw a considerable burst of interest in the theme amongst printmakers, probably stimulated by the satirical warnings against folly common to much contemporary writing, for example Brant's Ship of Fools (first published in 1494), Erasmus' above-mentioned work (1511) and Thomas Murner's Exorcism of Fools and Guild of Rogues (1512). That Oostsanen might have been familiar with one of those sources is suggested by his inclusion of the fool in the background of the painting; interestingly, and as discussed by Stewart, loc. cit., the latter's gesture, looking through his fingers, carries with it implications of adultery, for example as in a passage illustrated by Dürer for Brant's Narrenschiff (1494): 'If through his fingers one can see And lets his wife promiscuous be, As cat she views the mice with glee.'
Oostsanen's depiction of the scene is remarkable not only for its very early date, but also for his depiction in the same picture of both types of couple: old man and young woman and vice versa. Until that moment the juxtaposition is known only in printed form, and then only exceptionally: a contemporary German wooodcut, possibly recording an earlier work by the Housebook Master or the Master ES, depicts both pairs in adjacent frames, and another by Israhel van Meckenem combines two other motifs of the Housebook Master. Jacob's setting of the pairs in a jeweller's shop with the foreground couple engaged ostensibly in purchasng spectacles is presumably designed as a direct pun on the Dutch brillen verkopfen, which means both 'to sell glasses' and 'to fool through deception'.
What is additionally exceptional about the present composition, is the inclusion in the right background of a well-matched couple, designed presumably as a contrasting illustration of the pleasures of that more decorous and virtuous pairing. Two images stress the contrasting virtue of that couple: before them is placed a bowl of cherries, regarded as the Fruit of Paradise and a reward for the virtuous, and thus symbolizing heaven, whilst, as noted by Carrol, op. cit., p. 296, the book held by the youth is not touched by his hand, but held with a cloth in the manner of missals held by the Virgin in medieval art.
These varying elements of the composition are summarised by the inscription below the fool: 'LX SIIN TIIT', an abbreviation for the Dutch' elk sijn tijt' or 'everything in its time': this can be seen to refer not only to the fact that everyone in time acts like a foool, but also that everything should be in its proper time and everyone should act their own age; in addition, as noted by Stewart, loc. cit., the abbreviation of elk to LX (the Latin for sixty) is a further gentle dig at the ages of the old protagonists.
The subject, the pairing of a somewhat grotesque old man and a knowing, youthful beauty, was very popular in sixteenth-century art; presenting as it did a somewhat lascivious image under the guise of a morality lesson, it afforded the artist an opportunity of depicting a degree of licentuousness that might not otherwise have been acceptable. A theme of unimpeachable antiquity - Cicero, Plutarch, Ovid and Plautus, for example, all wrote comedies dealing with the theme - its growing popularity as a subject for printmakers at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries was probably due to its inclusion in contemporary literature, including most famously Erasmus' reference to it in his Praise of Folly (quoting Aristophanes' scorn for old men as 'nasty, crumpled, miserable, shrivelled, bald, toothless and wanting their baubles', who are so delighted with life that they dye their grey hair, acquire false teeth and propose to dowryless young women).
The early sixteenth century saw a considerable burst of interest in the theme amongst printmakers, probably stimulated by the satirical warnings against folly common to much contemporary writing, for example Brant's Ship of Fools (first published in 1494), Erasmus' above-mentioned work (1511) and Thomas Murner's Exorcism of Fools and Guild of Rogues (1512). That Oostsanen might have been familiar with one of those sources is suggested by his inclusion of the fool in the background of the painting; interestingly, and as discussed by Stewart, loc. cit., the latter's gesture, looking through his fingers, carries with it implications of adultery, for example as in a passage illustrated by Dürer for Brant's Narrenschiff (1494): 'If through his fingers one can see And lets his wife promiscuous be, As cat she views the mice with glee.'
Oostsanen's depiction of the scene is remarkable not only for its very early date, but also for his depiction in the same picture of both types of couple: old man and young woman and vice versa. Until that moment the juxtaposition is known only in printed form, and then only exceptionally: a contemporary German wooodcut, possibly recording an earlier work by the Housebook Master or the Master ES, depicts both pairs in adjacent frames, and another by Israhel van Meckenem combines two other motifs of the Housebook Master. Jacob's setting of the pairs in a jeweller's shop with the foreground couple engaged ostensibly in purchasng spectacles is presumably designed as a direct pun on the Dutch brillen verkopfen, which means both 'to sell glasses' and 'to fool through deception'.
What is additionally exceptional about the present composition, is the inclusion in the right background of a well-matched couple, designed presumably as a contrasting illustration of the pleasures of that more decorous and virtuous pairing. Two images stress the contrasting virtue of that couple: before them is placed a bowl of cherries, regarded as the Fruit of Paradise and a reward for the virtuous, and thus symbolizing heaven, whilst, as noted by Carrol, op. cit., p. 296, the book held by the youth is not touched by his hand, but held with a cloth in the manner of missals held by the Virgin in medieval art.
These varying elements of the composition are summarised by the inscription below the fool: 'LX SIIN TIIT', an abbreviation for the Dutch' elk sijn tijt' or 'everything in its time': this can be seen to refer not only to the fact that everyone in time acts like a foool, but also that everything should be in its proper time and everyone should act their own age; in addition, as noted by Stewart, loc. cit., the abbreviation of elk to LX (the Latin for sixty) is a further gentle dig at the ages of the old protagonists.