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Lot Essay
Jacob Jordaens' interest in the story of Mercury and Argus spanned his thirty-year career and he painted it on at least five occasions. The story comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses (I: 668-708) and relates how Jupiter tried to conceal his infidelity from Juno by turning Io, the object of his affection, into a white heifer. Not fooled by his deception, Juno asked for the heifer as a gift and placed her under the charge of the most vigilant of keepers, the hundred-eyed Argus. Jupiter gave Mercury the task of freeing Io which he did by lulling Argus to sleep with music and by telling him the drawn out story of Pan and Syrinx. Lingering on the mild subject of Syrinx's chastity, he lulled Argus to sleep and then killed him. Jordaens depicts the moment that Argus gives in to sleep, his chin falling to his chest, when Mercury silently reaches for his sword.
Two large and three small paintings of this theme by Jordaens are known: one in Lyon (Museé des Beaux-Arts) dating to the early 1620s; two small replicas of around the same time, one on panel (National Gallery of Victoria, Melborne) and one on canvas in (Museé d'Art Wallon, Liège); and two larger depictions of the subject from the 1640s, the painting in this sale and a similar composition in a private collection in Malmö. In his later paintings, Jordaens placed the scene in a more extensive landscape and it is this version of the subject, engraved by the artist's contemporary Schelte á Bolswert, that became the most widely known.
Indeed, it is the present painting of Mercury and Argus that appears in the upper right hand corner of Antoine Watteau's Enseigne de Gersaint (fig. 1; 1721, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin). It is depicted as one of many works for sale in Gersaint's shop, Le Grande Monarque, on the Pont Notre Dame and, while Gersaint claimed that Watteau painted the scene from life, it is almost certainly a composite of works that he handled in his more successful days and works that represent various genres and schools of painting. It is unclear whether Watteau knew Jordaens' painting in the original, from a painted copy, or through Schelte à Bolswert's print but both the orientation of the composition and the palette point to the former. Jordaens' composition appears in reverse in the print and Watteau clearly included Argus' red cape that was symbolic of his fate at Mercury's hands. The painting depicted by Watteau could only be this version of Mercury and Argus as the other large-scale painting with an extensive landscape in Malmö includes two additional cows on the left, neither of which appears in the miniature reproduction.
While the appearance of Mercury and Argus in Watteau's fictional gallery does not prove that the painting was ever in France, it does speak to its significance as a representative of Flemish history painting. Jordaens was among the most celebrated Flemish painters in the eighteenth century and the well established tradition of French artists copying seventeenth-century Dutch paintings extends to include another Mercury and Argus by Carel Fabritius (c. 1653, private collection, New York), which was copied by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Musée du Louvre, Paris; see C. Brown, 'Mercury and Argus by Carel Fabritius: a Newly discovered Painting,' The Burlington Magazine, vol. 128, November 1986, pp. 797-801). The subject of Mercury and Argus seems to have been equally popular in the northern Netherlands particularly with Rembrandt and his pupils. Five drawings of the theme by Rembrandt are known and Flinck, Bol and Eeckout all painted the subject. It is unclear whether the theme had any specific meaning for Jordaens and his contemporaries but the inscription on Schelte à Bolswert's print suggests at least some connection with moralizing literature: 'Chastity keeps watch with a hundred eyes, but is vanquished when she heeds the dictates of love.' Ironically it is the tale of Syrinx's chastity that lulled Argus to sleep and allowed for the release of Jupiter's lover.
The question of studio production inevitably emerges when multiple versions of paintings exist. While Jordaens had a large and productive studio in Antwerp in the mid 1640s, a document of 1648 confirms Jordaens' execution of our Mercury and Argus (see R-A. d'Hulst, Jacob Jordaens, Antwerp, 1983, p. 30). Indeed, it was one of five works that Jordaens delivered to Martinus van Langenhoven in 1646 and a notarial deed of 1648 states that two of the five, this painting and a Vulcan (now lost), were entirely by Jordaens' own hand. The bulk of Argus' aging yet muscular body and his ruddy complexion are typical of the master as is the expressive, almost animate landscape that surrounds him. His depiction of the cows is as accomplished as many of his animal studies and the view at the left may be the artist's most beautiful foray into the genre of landscape. This painting is without question the most important of Jordaens' depictions of the theme or Mercury and Argus and offers a rare opportunity to own a landmark of Flemish history painting.
Two large and three small paintings of this theme by Jordaens are known: one in Lyon (Museé des Beaux-Arts) dating to the early 1620s; two small replicas of around the same time, one on panel (National Gallery of Victoria, Melborne) and one on canvas in (Museé d'Art Wallon, Liège); and two larger depictions of the subject from the 1640s, the painting in this sale and a similar composition in a private collection in Malmö. In his later paintings, Jordaens placed the scene in a more extensive landscape and it is this version of the subject, engraved by the artist's contemporary Schelte á Bolswert, that became the most widely known.
Indeed, it is the present painting of Mercury and Argus that appears in the upper right hand corner of Antoine Watteau's Enseigne de Gersaint (fig. 1; 1721, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin). It is depicted as one of many works for sale in Gersaint's shop, Le Grande Monarque, on the Pont Notre Dame and, while Gersaint claimed that Watteau painted the scene from life, it is almost certainly a composite of works that he handled in his more successful days and works that represent various genres and schools of painting. It is unclear whether Watteau knew Jordaens' painting in the original, from a painted copy, or through Schelte à Bolswert's print but both the orientation of the composition and the palette point to the former. Jordaens' composition appears in reverse in the print and Watteau clearly included Argus' red cape that was symbolic of his fate at Mercury's hands. The painting depicted by Watteau could only be this version of Mercury and Argus as the other large-scale painting with an extensive landscape in Malmö includes two additional cows on the left, neither of which appears in the miniature reproduction.
While the appearance of Mercury and Argus in Watteau's fictional gallery does not prove that the painting was ever in France, it does speak to its significance as a representative of Flemish history painting. Jordaens was among the most celebrated Flemish painters in the eighteenth century and the well established tradition of French artists copying seventeenth-century Dutch paintings extends to include another Mercury and Argus by Carel Fabritius (c. 1653, private collection, New York), which was copied by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Musée du Louvre, Paris; see C. Brown, 'Mercury and Argus by Carel Fabritius: a Newly discovered Painting,' The Burlington Magazine, vol. 128, November 1986, pp. 797-801). The subject of Mercury and Argus seems to have been equally popular in the northern Netherlands particularly with Rembrandt and his pupils. Five drawings of the theme by Rembrandt are known and Flinck, Bol and Eeckout all painted the subject. It is unclear whether the theme had any specific meaning for Jordaens and his contemporaries but the inscription on Schelte à Bolswert's print suggests at least some connection with moralizing literature: 'Chastity keeps watch with a hundred eyes, but is vanquished when she heeds the dictates of love.' Ironically it is the tale of Syrinx's chastity that lulled Argus to sleep and allowed for the release of Jupiter's lover.
The question of studio production inevitably emerges when multiple versions of paintings exist. While Jordaens had a large and productive studio in Antwerp in the mid 1640s, a document of 1648 confirms Jordaens' execution of our Mercury and Argus (see R-A. d'Hulst, Jacob Jordaens, Antwerp, 1983, p. 30). Indeed, it was one of five works that Jordaens delivered to Martinus van Langenhoven in 1646 and a notarial deed of 1648 states that two of the five, this painting and a Vulcan (now lost), were entirely by Jordaens' own hand. The bulk of Argus' aging yet muscular body and his ruddy complexion are typical of the master as is the expressive, almost animate landscape that surrounds him. His depiction of the cows is as accomplished as many of his animal studies and the view at the left may be the artist's most beautiful foray into the genre of landscape. This painting is without question the most important of Jordaens' depictions of the theme or Mercury and Argus and offers a rare opportunity to own a landmark of Flemish history painting.