.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
This exquisite panel counts amongst the most refined of van Balen’s multi-figural cabinet pictures for which he is best known. The date is thought to be slightly earlier than scholars had previously supposed. Ingrid Jost dated it to circa 1605-8 and Bettina Werche even later, circa 1610 or slightly after (op. cit.). However, the copper support which bears the distinctive mark of its maker Pieter Stas, provides evidence of an earlier dating. The exact configuration of Stas’s stamps seem to have changed each year until 1610 and since many of them also bear the date of manufacture it has been possible to chart their evolution fairly accurately. On this basis, the present panel is thought to have been made as early as 1603/4. This tallies with the picture on stylistic grounds, the elaborate composition and polished handling speaking of the five years van Balen spent in Italy between 1595 and 1600 before his return to Antwerp. Although there is no record of his travels, he is thought to have visited Venice before settling in Rome, where he will no doubt have fallen under the spell of Renaissance art and the classical tradition. He was also strongly influenced by his compatriots on Italian soil, such as Johann Rottenhammer (to whom this picture was once attributed), and Jan Breughel the Elder, with whom he formed a close friendship and collaborative working practice. Indeed, the landscape setting in the present work, also indicative of the early dating, Klaus Ertz has tentatively suggested could be by Jan Breughel the Elder (op. cit., on the basis of photographs).
Scholars have frequently emphasised the quasi-political nature of this subject, since the suppression of Protestantism by the Spanish Catholic Regents of the Netherlands resulted in Calvinist hagepreken (hedge-preaching) to large crowds in the fields outside Antwerp, Breda and ’s-Hertogenbosch, before rapidly spreading into the Northern Netherlands. While, unlike Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous 1566 treatment of the subject (Budapest, Szépművészeti Múzeum, inv. no 1.2829), van Balen’s painting may not have been designed to overtly engage with these issues, the subject itself became highly popular with Protestant patrons, promoting as it did a Protestant way of worshipping – preaching in the vernacular, surrounded by a large congregation (W.A. Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven and London, 2007, I, pp. 97-98).
The picture is in particularly good condition partly because it has spent the majority of its life – about 250 years - in the celebrated Swedish collection of Gustaf Adolph Sparre (1746-1794) and his descendants before its sale in 2007. A subsequent cleaning of the paint surface has returned the picture to its original glory allowing for a vivid appreciation of the rich colouring and meticulous attention to detail so characteristic of van Balen’s best work.
A note on the provenance:
Educated in Sweden, Count Gustaf Adolf Sparre (fig. 1) undertook a European-wide Grand Tour between 1768 and 1771, visiting France, Germany, the Netherlands and England. While the influence of French culture was felt strongly in Sweden during the eighteenth century, it was in Holland that Sparre truly began to discover his enthusiasm for pictures. His many letters and diary entries record the great impression that the monumental works of painters like Rubens and van Dyck made on the young collector in Flanders. Sparre also made extensive notes on great European collections, including that of William V of Orange at The Hague (now part of the Mauritshuis), as well as the stocklists of a number of dealers. He spent an extended period in Paris, where he purchased Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s The Laundress in 1770 (Los Angeles, J.P. Getty Museum, inv. no. 83.PA.387). During this time, Sparre also bought Rembrandt’s A Young Man Seated at a Table now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inv. no. 1937.1.77)
and various other works by Chardin, Isaac van Ostade, David Teniers the Younger and Guido Reni. Having begun his collection, Sparre returned to Sweden in 1772 following the death of his grandmother, from whom he inherited Gothenburg Palace jointly with his cousin. Sparre redecorated his apartments, modelling his plans closely on the newly-redesigned Royal Palace at Stockholm, and even possibly employing the same architect and decorators. It was here that Sparre initially housed the majority of his collection, even framing his paintings in distinctive Neo-Classical carved and gilded frames to suit the new interiors. Sparre continued to expand his collection after his return to Sweden, purchasing masterpieces, including Gerard ter Borch’s Horse Stable in 1780 (Los Angeles, J.P. Getty Museum, inv. no. 86.PB.631).
Following his marriage to Amelie Ramel in 1777, Sparre moved, with his collection, to his country house, Kulla Gunnarstorp (fig. 2), which he had purchased in 1775. The couple only had one child who survived into adulthood, Christina, who married Jacob Gustaf de la Gardie. In 1830, following Amelie Sparre’s death, the house and collection were inherited by Sparre’s grandson, Gustaf Adolf de la Gardie. His early death in 1833 saw the inheritance pass back to his father, who sold Kulla Gunnarstorp in 1837 to Count Carl de Geer, with the Sparre collection following in circa 1840. The majority of the collection was given by de Geer to his granddaughter, Elisabeth von Platen-Wachtmeister in 1855, in whose family it remained.
Scholars have frequently emphasised the quasi-political nature of this subject, since the suppression of Protestantism by the Spanish Catholic Regents of the Netherlands resulted in Calvinist hagepreken (hedge-preaching) to large crowds in the fields outside Antwerp, Breda and ’s-Hertogenbosch, before rapidly spreading into the Northern Netherlands. While, unlike Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous 1566 treatment of the subject (Budapest, Szépművészeti Múzeum, inv. no 1.2829), van Balen’s painting may not have been designed to overtly engage with these issues, the subject itself became highly popular with Protestant patrons, promoting as it did a Protestant way of worshipping – preaching in the vernacular, surrounded by a large congregation (W.A. Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven and London, 2007, I, pp. 97-98).
The picture is in particularly good condition partly because it has spent the majority of its life – about 250 years - in the celebrated Swedish collection of Gustaf Adolph Sparre (1746-1794) and his descendants before its sale in 2007. A subsequent cleaning of the paint surface has returned the picture to its original glory allowing for a vivid appreciation of the rich colouring and meticulous attention to detail so characteristic of van Balen’s best work.
A note on the provenance:
Educated in Sweden, Count Gustaf Adolf Sparre (fig. 1) undertook a European-wide Grand Tour between 1768 and 1771, visiting France, Germany, the Netherlands and England. While the influence of French culture was felt strongly in Sweden during the eighteenth century, it was in Holland that Sparre truly began to discover his enthusiasm for pictures. His many letters and diary entries record the great impression that the monumental works of painters like Rubens and van Dyck made on the young collector in Flanders. Sparre also made extensive notes on great European collections, including that of William V of Orange at The Hague (now part of the Mauritshuis), as well as the stocklists of a number of dealers. He spent an extended period in Paris, where he purchased Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s The Laundress in 1770 (Los Angeles, J.P. Getty Museum, inv. no. 83.PA.387). During this time, Sparre also bought Rembrandt’s A Young Man Seated at a Table now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inv. no. 1937.1.77)
and various other works by Chardin, Isaac van Ostade, David Teniers the Younger and Guido Reni. Having begun his collection, Sparre returned to Sweden in 1772 following the death of his grandmother, from whom he inherited Gothenburg Palace jointly with his cousin. Sparre redecorated his apartments, modelling his plans closely on the newly-redesigned Royal Palace at Stockholm, and even possibly employing the same architect and decorators. It was here that Sparre initially housed the majority of his collection, even framing his paintings in distinctive Neo-Classical carved and gilded frames to suit the new interiors. Sparre continued to expand his collection after his return to Sweden, purchasing masterpieces, including Gerard ter Borch’s Horse Stable in 1780 (Los Angeles, J.P. Getty Museum, inv. no. 86.PB.631).
Following his marriage to Amelie Ramel in 1777, Sparre moved, with his collection, to his country house, Kulla Gunnarstorp (fig. 2), which he had purchased in 1775. The couple only had one child who survived into adulthood, Christina, who married Jacob Gustaf de la Gardie. In 1830, following Amelie Sparre’s death, the house and collection were inherited by Sparre’s grandson, Gustaf Adolf de la Gardie. His early death in 1833 saw the inheritance pass back to his father, who sold Kulla Gunnarstorp in 1837 to Count Carl de Geer, with the Sparre collection following in circa 1840. The majority of the collection was given by de Geer to his granddaughter, Elisabeth von Platen-Wachtmeister in 1855, in whose family it remained.