A Nymph Surprised at her Bath by a Satyr

The support consists of two vertically grained, horizontal planks and is bevelled on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1606. The panel could have been ready for use by 1617, but a date in or after 1626 is more likely. The ground layer is of a light colour and the paint has been applied smoothly and with considerable detail. The entire composition was first set out in an underdrawing, which was, however, not rigidly followed. The nymph’s hair, for example, falls over her shoulder in the underdrawing, but not in the painting.

Fair. The two planks are on different levels. There are some small losses and abraded areas. The varnish is discoloured except in the areas of the figures, which have been cleaned separately.

...; sale, J. Hollender (†), Brussels (Galerie Saint-Luc), 12 April 1888, no. 153, as Michel van Woreven, fl. 195, to the museum

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1462

The subject of this painting has most often been identified in the literature as Pan and Syrinx from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (I:686-715). In Ovid’s tale, Mercury relates how Pan mistook the chaste naiad Syrinx for the goddess Diana and chased her to Ladon’s stream. There she begged the water nymphs to transform her into tall marsh reeds. In 17th-century representations of this subject, such as a collaborative work by Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder,⁴⁴Sale, British Rail Pension Fund, London (Sotheby’s), 5 July 1995, no. 42; also illustrated in Boston-Toledo 1993, p. 261. Pan is shown in hot pursuit of Syrinx, who has just reached the river Ladon. A different painting by Wtenbrouck includes a personification of the river, with Syrinx in the process of changing into the reeds.⁵⁵Sale, New York (Christie’s), 10 June 1983, no. 172. It is unlikely that the Rijksmuseum painting depicts the same subject, as the female figure is not shown fleeing from the satyr, but rather reclines on a riverbank facing him. Moreover, in the background, another satyr is seen playing the pipes Pan fashioned from the reeds Syrinx had turned herself into.

Weisner’s suggestion that the subject might be taken from Act 2, Scene 6 of Guarini’s Il Pastor Fido, which involves the nymph Corysca and a satyr, is equally unlikely.⁶⁶Weisner 1963, II, p. 4, no. 4; Weisner 1964, p. 219, note 122. This theme was treated very rarely in the 17th century, and only once in northern art, in an etching by Bartholomeus Breenbergh.⁷⁷TIB V, 1979, p. 179, no. 19; Van den Brink 1993, p. 21; Utrecht-Frankfurt 1993, pp. 308, 310. While the satyr does pursue Corysca in Guarini’s play, Breenbergh and others⁸⁸For example, Artemesia Gentileschi, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in Bissel 1999, pl. XVII. preferred to depict the satyr pulling Corysca’s hair (actually a wig) once he had caught her. The Rijksmuseum painting appears to show simply a satyr surprising a nymph at her bath, and as such is related to an etching etching by Wtenbrouck of a Woman Surprised at her Bath by a Shepherd (fig. a).

Weisner placed the present painting among what he called Wtenbrouck’s ‘arcadian Dutch’ landscapes of the 1630s.⁹⁹Weisner 1963, I, p. 138; Weisner 1964, p. 206, note 91. Characteristic features of the works from this period include the painting’s vertical format and the spotlight illumination of the figures. The figures themselves no longer possess the Lastmanian robustness present in Wtenbrouck’s production from the mid to late-1620s, but are smaller in scale and less sharply defined. Wtenbrouck’s new figural style has been related by some scholars to the influence of Cornelis van Poelenburch.¹⁰¹⁰See, for example, Chong in Amsterdam etc. 1987, pp. 536-37. Also characteristic of Wtenbrouck’s landscapes in this period, but already present in some of his works from the 1620s, are the massive, gnarled tree-trunk on the left of the Rijksmuseum composition and the twisted, dead branches of the tree in the centre. As Chong has pointed out, Van Coninxloo and his followers would have been important examples for Wtenbrouck in this regard.¹¹¹¹Chong in Amsterdam etc. 1987, p. 536. Another feature of the present painting, and of the artist’s ‘arcadian Dutch’ landscapes as a whole, is the muted, glowing tonality, which differs dramatically from his use of primary colours in the 1620s.

Jonathan Bikker, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 350.

Weisner 1963, I, p. 138, II, p. 4 (as Pan and Corysca?); Weisner 1964, p. 206, note 91, p. 219, no. 4, with earlier literature (as Pan and Corysca?)

1903, p. 305, no. 2721 (as Pan and Syrinx); 1934, p. 325, no. 2721 (as Pan and Syrinx); 1960, p. 348, no. 2721 (as Pan and Syrinx); 1976, p. 551, no. A 1462 (as Pan Waylaying the Nymph Corysca?); 2007, no. 350

J. Bikker, 2007, 'Moyses van Wtenbrouck, A Nymph Surprised at her Bath by a Satyr, c. 1630 - c. 1635', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5619