Beschreibung:

Details
JAN BRUEGHEL LE JEUNE (BRUXELLES 1601-1678 ANVERS)
Allégorie de la vue : Vénus et Cupidon dans une galerie de tableaux, une vue sur Anvers à l'arrière-plan
huile sur panneau
58,4 x 89,3 cm. (22 7/8 x 35 in.)
Provenance
Collection particulière, depuis la moitié du XIXe siècle jusque 2002.
Vente anonyme, Sotheby's, Londres, 10 juillet 2002, lot 48.
Galerie d'Art Saint Honoré, Paris, en 2002.
Collection particulière de la région Grand Est, France.
Post lot text
JAN BRUEGHEL THE YOUNGER, ALLEGORY OF SIGHT: VENUS AND CUPID IN A GALLERY OF PAINTINGS, A VIEW OF ANTWERP IN THE BACKGROUND, OIL ON PANEL
At first glance this painting by Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) appears to depict a cabinet of curiosities, a pictorial genre popular in Antwerp – the harbour of which can be seen through the double arches to the right of the composition – in the first half of the 17th century. The diversity of the collection of paintings, sculptures, artefacts and scientific instruments is tantalizing, whose collection might it portray?
However, a second reading of the painting, one which focuses on the conjunction of symbolic elements, suggests another interpretation of the image: it is an allegory of touch and sight, inspired by the series an Allegory of the Five Senses by the artist’s father, Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625), and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Painted between 1617 and 1618, these paintings personify the five senses in the form of female figures surrounded by works of art, musical instruments, weapons or scientific tools (Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. nos. 1394-1398).
In our painting, Venus and Cupid are standing in a richly decorated room surrounded by works of art, some of which have been identified. These include The Rape of the Sabine women by Giambologna (1529-1608) (Loggia di Lanzi, Florence) on the central draped table, towards which a small golden monkey is about to jump. Other gilt statues by the sculptor can be seen on the upper shelf of the central wall, including from left to right: A lion attacking a horse (Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome), Hercules wrestling with the centaur Nessos (Loggia de Lanzi, Florence), Nessos and Dejanira (Victoria & Albert Museum, London) and A Lion attacking a bull. The shelf below features a series of busts of Roman emperors, and the statue of Thusnelda (Loggia di Lanzi, Florence), a Roman work from the 2nd century can be seen to the far right.
The wealth of details in this composition also makes it possible to identify certain paintings. Three of them are attributed to Rubens: the Portrait of the Cardinal-infante Ferdinand of Austria (Alte Pinakothek, Munich, no. inv. 335), The Boar Hunt (Musée des beaux-arts, Marseille, no. inv. 103), and the Double Portrait of Philip IV and Isabella of Spain, painted after Rubens (hanging from left to right). Also recognizable is Rudolf II as Mars with Venus and Cupid by Veronese behind the chandelier. Painted for Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), Jan Brueghel the Elder would have seen the painting in Rome in the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) and would have passed his knowledge of it on to his son. At some point between 1805 and 1951 the painting was cut into pieces, most of which have been lost, but interestingly the part showing Cupid holding the horse's reins will be sold at Christie's, London on 6 July 2023.
Another version of the present painting is held in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (inv. no. 656), though it does not include Rubens' Portrait of Cardinal-infante Ferdinand of Austria or The Boar Hunt on the central wall. Painted on copper, and of similar dimensions (58.5 x 89 cm.), it is signed by Jan Brueghel the Younger and was once in the collection of John G. Johnson (1841-1917) (see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel the Younger. The paintings with oeuvre catalogue, Freren, 1984, I, p.349, under no. 183).
As for the Philadelphia version, our painting is most likely a collaborative work. The still life and landscape and animal elements are the work of Jan Brueghel the Younger himself, while the female figure, as suggested by Dr. Klaus Ertz in a written communication dated 17 April 2023, is by a follower of Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632). In the same communication, Ertz suggests that the present painting dates from the 1630s.