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拍品專文
Jegher's delightful pair of woodcuts of The Garden of Love is closely related to a painting by Peter Paul Rubens from around 1630-35, which is today at the Prado in Madrid (inv. n. P001690). The prints were conceived in close collaboration with Rubens and his workshop, as two highly detailed preparatory drawings attest to (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. n. 58.96.1-2). From around 1619, Rubens had regularly worked with engravers to produce often quite large-scale prints after his painted compositions. Not only did these engravings offer another source of income, they also helped promoting his workshop and spreading his fame. Quite why, around 1630, he decided to turn to Jegher for this purpose or whether in fact Jegher approached the painter, is not known. Either way, compared to engravings the woodcut medium offered a less labor-intensive and costly way of creating large, eye-catching prints, which focused not so much on the chiaroscuro light-effects of Rubens paintings than on the composition of the figures.
Rather than just 'copying' the main components of the painting, Rubens and Jegher reconfigured the scene and developed the rather tight, centralized composition of the painting into a frieze-like panorama, a format much better suited to the broad, bold lines of the woodcut. Despite - or perhaps because - of this transformation, the woodcut retains the charm and complexity of Rubens painting, which Alejandro Vergara summed up perfectly: 'We are confronted here with one of Rubens’s greatest gifts as a painter: his ability to create images of a joyful way of being in the world related to love and inspired by ancient literature and Renaissance art. In the case of the latter, this means primarily Titian. This painting is especially close in mood to the Bacchanal of the Andrians and the Worship of Venus. Many features of this scene call to mind Titian’s paintings: the coexistence of mythic and real-life characters, the presiding statue of Venus, the flying children, the natural setting and its rich colouring, the sensuous atmosphere and sexual insinuation, the presence of music, the relative size of the figures within the composition. Rubens knew Titian’s works, most likely through copies (they had not yet arrived in Spain when he last visited in 1628-29), and painted two versions of them around the time when he made the Garden of Love. In this painting we see that Rubens has fully assimilated the influence of the Venetian master. [...] The matronly Venus implies that love pervades the scene. The winged children bring still more love, some of it of a kind specifically associated with matrimony, as we have seen. The crowd gathered dresses in clothes contemporary with the time when the painting was made...'
Vergara also observed an amusing variation between Rubens' canvas and the print: 'One of the men touches the breast of a woman while protecting another from a water sprout with his hat. (In a print by Christoffel Jegher made not long after the painting, the hand that touches the breast has been moved down slightly. Rubens was less concerned with modesty than many of his contemporaries).'
(A. Vergara, Alejandro, 'Comentario ', in: Pasiones mitológicas, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2021, p.106-110, n. 9; quoted from: https://www.museodelprado.es [31 August 2024])
Rather than just 'copying' the main components of the painting, Rubens and Jegher reconfigured the scene and developed the rather tight, centralized composition of the painting into a frieze-like panorama, a format much better suited to the broad, bold lines of the woodcut. Despite - or perhaps because - of this transformation, the woodcut retains the charm and complexity of Rubens painting, which Alejandro Vergara summed up perfectly: 'We are confronted here with one of Rubens’s greatest gifts as a painter: his ability to create images of a joyful way of being in the world related to love and inspired by ancient literature and Renaissance art. In the case of the latter, this means primarily Titian. This painting is especially close in mood to the Bacchanal of the Andrians and the Worship of Venus. Many features of this scene call to mind Titian’s paintings: the coexistence of mythic and real-life characters, the presiding statue of Venus, the flying children, the natural setting and its rich colouring, the sensuous atmosphere and sexual insinuation, the presence of music, the relative size of the figures within the composition. Rubens knew Titian’s works, most likely through copies (they had not yet arrived in Spain when he last visited in 1628-29), and painted two versions of them around the time when he made the Garden of Love. In this painting we see that Rubens has fully assimilated the influence of the Venetian master. [...] The matronly Venus implies that love pervades the scene. The winged children bring still more love, some of it of a kind specifically associated with matrimony, as we have seen. The crowd gathered dresses in clothes contemporary with the time when the painting was made...'
Vergara also observed an amusing variation between Rubens' canvas and the print: 'One of the men touches the breast of a woman while protecting another from a water sprout with his hat. (In a print by Christoffel Jegher made not long after the painting, the hand that touches the breast has been moved down slightly. Rubens was less concerned with modesty than many of his contemporaries).'
(A. Vergara, Alejandro, 'Comentario ', in: Pasiones mitológicas, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2021, p.106-110, n. 9; quoted from: https://www.museodelprado.es [31 August 2024])