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Lot Essay
Painted on an imposing scale, this picture is an important rediscovery, restoring a work of spectacular scope and narrative ambition to the oeuvre of Otto van Veen. It was acquired, and probably commissioned, by the Balbi family from Genoa, who were key patrons and collectors of Antwerp artists during sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
A distinguished and scholarly artist, van Veen ran a large workshop in Antwerp, and is well known as a teacher of Rubens, who studied with him from 1596 to 1598 and then assisted him for another two years before leaving for Italy. The composition has long been known through a preliminary drawing by van Veen (fig. 1; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada), formerly given to Rubens before being sold as Erasmus Quellinus by Colnaghi, as an unspecified triumphal procession. It was only later recognised as being by van Veen, but all trace of the finished picture had been lost. The striking pink hair of the horse leading the chariot was an invention that van Veen used regularly and to notable effect, an idea that probably derived from Italian models. Horses with brightly coloured manes were also painted by Rubens and Jan Breughel the Elder during the same time as this work, which dates to circa 1600-10.
The subject is the Capture of Rome: the personification of Rome, Dea Roma (Goddess Rome), is led away, with her hands behind her back with the she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus at her feet. Rome meanwhile burns in the distance, with the Torre delle Milizie in the left background, the Pantheon to the right, and the Palatine Hill in the centre. Its pendant, The Triumph of Rome, is presumed lost, but the preliminary drawing for that composition can likely be identified with that sold at Christie’s, 21 November 1967, lot 124, subsequently with Brian Sewell (fig. 2). The identities of the warriors on the chariot are not entirely clear but there are some indications, based on other representations, that they show the leaders of the tribes who defeated Rome – the Gauls, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths and the Vandals. The crowned king might perhaps be Totila, King of the Ostrogoths, who captured Rome in 546 AD. A portrait of Totila by Francesco Salviati (Como, Pinacoteca Civica di Palazzo Volpi) bears a close resemblance, and another Antwerp artist, Gaspar de Crayer, took up a subject involving the king in his Saint Benedict receiving Totila, King of the Ostrogoths (Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario). To his left might be Brennus, the Gaul who conquered Rome in 390 BC, while the figure seated front left, with the lion mane over his head, may represent Alaric I, King of the Visigoths, who sacked Rome in 410 AD. The crouching knight in armour is likely a personification of war.
The picture is listed, as Roma Capta (The Capture of Rome), together with a pendant, Roma Trionfante (The Triumph of Rome), in the inventory of Gio. Agostino Balbi, a key member of the wealthy Genoese family who made their fortune through the silk trade, and forged special links with Antwerp. The business dealings of Gio. Agostino’s father, Bartolomeo, and his uncle, Gerolamo, meant they both moved to Antwerp in the 1560s, embedding themselves in the cultural milieu of the city. Bartolomeo died in 1592 and was buried
in Sint Jacobskerk in Antwerp and Gerolamo returned permanently to Italy three years later, however, Gio. Agostino would move between Genoa and Antwerp in the subsequent decades, continuing a unique form of cultural exchange between the two cities, founding the convent of Saint Francis of Paola in Antwerp, located close to Rubens’s house, and creating arguably the most important collection of Flemish pictures in Italy at the time. The inventories of Gerolamo and Gio. Agostino bear witness to their patronage of key Antwerp artists; they owned pictures by van Veen, Pieter Aertsen and the set of magnificent Seven Liberal Arts by Frans Floris, bought from Nicolaes Jonghelinck. The collecting of the Balbi family was defined by an ‘understanding of the value of the artists and the importance of the works’ (‘l’interesse collezionistico di Gerolamo e Gio. Agostino Balbi fosse condotto dalla consapevolezza del valore degli artisti e del significato delle opere’, op. cit., p. 165). The Balbis’ strong ties to Antwerp meant they played a key role in bringing Anthony van Dyck to Genoa in 1621.
We are grateful to Bert Schepers, Elizabeth McGrath and David Jaffé for confirming the attribution after first-hand inspection. Dr. Schepers suggests that the Balbi family almost certainly acquired the picture, together with its pendant, in Antwerp while they were living there (see also E. Grendi, I Balbi. Una famiglia genovese fra Spagna e Impero, Turin, 1997, pp. 57-62). The Italianate subject of the pair – The Capture of Rome and The Triumph of Rome – indicates that they were indeed probably also commissioned by the Balbis.
A distinguished and scholarly artist, van Veen ran a large workshop in Antwerp, and is well known as a teacher of Rubens, who studied with him from 1596 to 1598 and then assisted him for another two years before leaving for Italy. The composition has long been known through a preliminary drawing by van Veen (fig. 1; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada), formerly given to Rubens before being sold as Erasmus Quellinus by Colnaghi, as an unspecified triumphal procession. It was only later recognised as being by van Veen, but all trace of the finished picture had been lost. The striking pink hair of the horse leading the chariot was an invention that van Veen used regularly and to notable effect, an idea that probably derived from Italian models. Horses with brightly coloured manes were also painted by Rubens and Jan Breughel the Elder during the same time as this work, which dates to circa 1600-10.
The subject is the Capture of Rome: the personification of Rome, Dea Roma (Goddess Rome), is led away, with her hands behind her back with the she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus at her feet. Rome meanwhile burns in the distance, with the Torre delle Milizie in the left background, the Pantheon to the right, and the Palatine Hill in the centre. Its pendant, The Triumph of Rome, is presumed lost, but the preliminary drawing for that composition can likely be identified with that sold at Christie’s, 21 November 1967, lot 124, subsequently with Brian Sewell (fig. 2). The identities of the warriors on the chariot are not entirely clear but there are some indications, based on other representations, that they show the leaders of the tribes who defeated Rome – the Gauls, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths and the Vandals. The crowned king might perhaps be Totila, King of the Ostrogoths, who captured Rome in 546 AD. A portrait of Totila by Francesco Salviati (Como, Pinacoteca Civica di Palazzo Volpi) bears a close resemblance, and another Antwerp artist, Gaspar de Crayer, took up a subject involving the king in his Saint Benedict receiving Totila, King of the Ostrogoths (Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario). To his left might be Brennus, the Gaul who conquered Rome in 390 BC, while the figure seated front left, with the lion mane over his head, may represent Alaric I, King of the Visigoths, who sacked Rome in 410 AD. The crouching knight in armour is likely a personification of war.
The picture is listed, as Roma Capta (The Capture of Rome), together with a pendant, Roma Trionfante (The Triumph of Rome), in the inventory of Gio. Agostino Balbi, a key member of the wealthy Genoese family who made their fortune through the silk trade, and forged special links with Antwerp. The business dealings of Gio. Agostino’s father, Bartolomeo, and his uncle, Gerolamo, meant they both moved to Antwerp in the 1560s, embedding themselves in the cultural milieu of the city. Bartolomeo died in 1592 and was buried
in Sint Jacobskerk in Antwerp and Gerolamo returned permanently to Italy three years later, however, Gio. Agostino would move between Genoa and Antwerp in the subsequent decades, continuing a unique form of cultural exchange between the two cities, founding the convent of Saint Francis of Paola in Antwerp, located close to Rubens’s house, and creating arguably the most important collection of Flemish pictures in Italy at the time. The inventories of Gerolamo and Gio. Agostino bear witness to their patronage of key Antwerp artists; they owned pictures by van Veen, Pieter Aertsen and the set of magnificent Seven Liberal Arts by Frans Floris, bought from Nicolaes Jonghelinck. The collecting of the Balbi family was defined by an ‘understanding of the value of the artists and the importance of the works’ (‘l’interesse collezionistico di Gerolamo e Gio. Agostino Balbi fosse condotto dalla consapevolezza del valore degli artisti e del significato delle opere’, op. cit., p. 165). The Balbis’ strong ties to Antwerp meant they played a key role in bringing Anthony van Dyck to Genoa in 1621.
We are grateful to Bert Schepers, Elizabeth McGrath and David Jaffé for confirming the attribution after first-hand inspection. Dr. Schepers suggests that the Balbi family almost certainly acquired the picture, together with its pendant, in Antwerp while they were living there (see also E. Grendi, I Balbi. Una famiglia genovese fra Spagna e Impero, Turin, 1997, pp. 57-62). The Italianate subject of the pair – The Capture of Rome and The Triumph of Rome – indicates that they were indeed probably also commissioned by the Balbis.