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Lot Essay
Ovid relates the myth of Echo, a nymph with a harmonious voice, who was condemned by the goddess Juno to repeat only the last words spoken to her (Metamorphoses 3:339-510). After encountering the hunter Narcissus, Echo falls deeply in love, only to have him reject her advances. Narcissus' hubris did not go unpunished. He was fated to fall in love with his own image after catching a glimpse of his reflection in a pool of water. He spent so long transfixed by his own appearance that he was transformed into the white flower that bears his name.
This recently rediscovered painting perfectly conveys Schalcken's unrivalled depiction of nocturnal light effects and what his biographer Arnold Houbraken enthusiastically described as Schalcken's 'artful blending of colors, depiction of nudes, and natural imitation of velvet and other fabrics' (see A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, III, The Hague, 1721, p. 177). Schalcken turned to the theme of one or more semi-nude male figures bathing, or seated at the water's edge, in at least three further paintings traditionally dated to the 1670s and 1680s (see T. Beherman, Godfried Schalcken, Paris, 1988, pp. 125, 232, 275, nos. 36, 139, 178). Fully signed and dated 1676, this painting was probably executed shortly after the two depictions of men bathing at the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, and a few years before a further depiction of Narcissus in the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts. As with the Harvard version, here Schalcken alludes to Narcissus' coming transformation through the vegetation at lower center and the white drapery around his waist.
This recently rediscovered painting perfectly conveys Schalcken's unrivalled depiction of nocturnal light effects and what his biographer Arnold Houbraken enthusiastically described as Schalcken's 'artful blending of colors, depiction of nudes, and natural imitation of velvet and other fabrics' (see A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, III, The Hague, 1721, p. 177). Schalcken turned to the theme of one or more semi-nude male figures bathing, or seated at the water's edge, in at least three further paintings traditionally dated to the 1670s and 1680s (see T. Beherman, Godfried Schalcken, Paris, 1988, pp. 125, 232, 275, nos. 36, 139, 178). Fully signed and dated 1676, this painting was probably executed shortly after the two depictions of men bathing at the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, and a few years before a further depiction of Narcissus in the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts. As with the Harvard version, here Schalcken alludes to Narcissus' coming transformation through the vegetation at lower center and the white drapery around his waist.