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拍品專文
The story of Diana and Callisto is recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (II:401-530). Callisto was the favourite companion of the goddess of the hunt, Diana. Like her mistress, she prized chastity and was dedicated to hunting. When she was resting alone in the forest one day, Jupiter came upon her and was taken with her. Having disguised himself as Diana, he seduced her and left her pregnant. After a tiring hunt sometime later, Diana and her nymphs were bathing in a woodland spring. Callisto was hesitant to undress, but the nymphs lifted up her clothes, which revealed her secret. As a result, Diana banished her from her company and Jupiter’s wife, Juno, changed her into a bear and set dogs upon her. Eventually Jupiter intervened and transformed Callisto and her newborn into a constellation.
Despite a successful career as court painter to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella in Brussels, remarkably little is known about Denijs van Alsloot. He was probably born in Brussels around 1568, the son of a tapestry worker of the same name. He is first recorded as a master in the Brussels painters' guild in 1599, the year in which he took on his first apprentice. It was also around this time that he entered the service of the archducal couple. Van Alsloot probably initially made designs and cartoons for tapestry weavers. His activities as a painter probably only began around 1606, with dated examples of his work known until 1621. While the majority of van Alsloot’s works are cabinet-sized paintings executed on panel, he occasionally produced large-format (dobbeldoeken) canvases like the present example. In recognition of his official title as court painter, he often added ‘Serenissorum Archiducum Pictor’ to his signature. On account of his short career, paintings by Alsloot are rare: in her 2014 catalogue raisonné, Sabine van Sprang catalogued only forty-four signed or fully autograph works (S. van Sprang, Denijs van Alsloot (vers 1568?- 1625⁄26). Peintre paysagiste au service de la cour des archiducs Albert et Isabelle, I, Turnhout, 2014, pp. 89-137, nos. B2.1.1-B2.1.44), to which only a few more, the present example among them, have been added in recent years.
Van Alsloot specialised in forest landscapes. While some are purely fanciful, others represent identifiable places like the Priory of Groenendael and the royal estates at Mariemont and Tervuren in the Forêt de Soignes near Brussels. The scene here is located not far from the ancient Priory of Groenendael, seen in the central clearing, outside Brussels. The priory and the bodies of water act as a well of light, intensifying the dark character of the dense and mysterious forest. This dense foliage is characteristic of van Alsloot and can easily be compared stylistically to the Forest Landscape with Abraham and Isaac Leaving for Sacrifice, dated 1613 in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Van Alsloot frequently turned to specialist figure painters like Sebastiaen Vrancx, Otto van Veen and Hendrik de Clerck for the staffage in his paintings. De Clerck, alongside artists in his studio, was van Alsloot’s principal collaborator from about 1606 to 1614.
The subject of Diana discovering the pregnancy of Callisto features in a number of van Alsloot’s forest landscapes. The earliest of these is the example in the Musée du Louvre, in Paris (fig. 1), which dates from around 1609-10, and shows a very different arrangement of figures. The present painting is most comparable to the somewhat smaller variant in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe (fig. 2), dating from around 1610-11. The principal figural groups in that painting are by de Clerck and are echoed in ours; however, numerous details of the forest setting and subsidiary figures have been rethought. Various groups of figures can also be found in other versions, including an example last sold as the work of David Vinckboons and Hans Rottenhammer at Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 23 October 1973, lot 50 (op. cit., no. 20). The present painting is the culmination of van Alsloot’s summertime forest scenes: those that post-date 1614 are entirely winter landscapes.
In addition to the patronage of the archducal couple, van Alsloot enjoyed the favour of foreign princes and diplomats. Two of his paintings are listed in the 1632 inventory of works belonging to the Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange, and his wife Amalia van Solms. A further two were in the esteemed collection of the Marqués de Leganés, an ambassador of the Spanish court in Brussels. In short, van Alsloot was an artist who enjoyed a truly international reputation.
We are grateful to Dr. Sabine van Sprang for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.
Despite a successful career as court painter to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella in Brussels, remarkably little is known about Denijs van Alsloot. He was probably born in Brussels around 1568, the son of a tapestry worker of the same name. He is first recorded as a master in the Brussels painters' guild in 1599, the year in which he took on his first apprentice. It was also around this time that he entered the service of the archducal couple. Van Alsloot probably initially made designs and cartoons for tapestry weavers. His activities as a painter probably only began around 1606, with dated examples of his work known until 1621. While the majority of van Alsloot’s works are cabinet-sized paintings executed on panel, he occasionally produced large-format (dobbeldoeken) canvases like the present example. In recognition of his official title as court painter, he often added ‘Serenissorum Archiducum Pictor’ to his signature. On account of his short career, paintings by Alsloot are rare: in her 2014 catalogue raisonné, Sabine van Sprang catalogued only forty-four signed or fully autograph works (S. van Sprang, Denijs van Alsloot (vers 1568?- 1625⁄26). Peintre paysagiste au service de la cour des archiducs Albert et Isabelle, I, Turnhout, 2014, pp. 89-137, nos. B2.1.1-B2.1.44), to which only a few more, the present example among them, have been added in recent years.
Van Alsloot specialised in forest landscapes. While some are purely fanciful, others represent identifiable places like the Priory of Groenendael and the royal estates at Mariemont and Tervuren in the Forêt de Soignes near Brussels. The scene here is located not far from the ancient Priory of Groenendael, seen in the central clearing, outside Brussels. The priory and the bodies of water act as a well of light, intensifying the dark character of the dense and mysterious forest. This dense foliage is characteristic of van Alsloot and can easily be compared stylistically to the Forest Landscape with Abraham and Isaac Leaving for Sacrifice, dated 1613 in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Van Alsloot frequently turned to specialist figure painters like Sebastiaen Vrancx, Otto van Veen and Hendrik de Clerck for the staffage in his paintings. De Clerck, alongside artists in his studio, was van Alsloot’s principal collaborator from about 1606 to 1614.
The subject of Diana discovering the pregnancy of Callisto features in a number of van Alsloot’s forest landscapes. The earliest of these is the example in the Musée du Louvre, in Paris (fig. 1), which dates from around 1609-10, and shows a very different arrangement of figures. The present painting is most comparable to the somewhat smaller variant in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe (fig. 2), dating from around 1610-11. The principal figural groups in that painting are by de Clerck and are echoed in ours; however, numerous details of the forest setting and subsidiary figures have been rethought. Various groups of figures can also be found in other versions, including an example last sold as the work of David Vinckboons and Hans Rottenhammer at Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 23 October 1973, lot 50 (op. cit., no. 20). The present painting is the culmination of van Alsloot’s summertime forest scenes: those that post-date 1614 are entirely winter landscapes.
In addition to the patronage of the archducal couple, van Alsloot enjoyed the favour of foreign princes and diplomats. Two of his paintings are listed in the 1632 inventory of works belonging to the Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange, and his wife Amalia van Solms. A further two were in the esteemed collection of the Marqués de Leganés, an ambassador of the Spanish court in Brussels. In short, van Alsloot was an artist who enjoyed a truly international reputation.
We are grateful to Dr. Sabine van Sprang for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.