Cabinet Decorated with an Allegory of Peace Surrounded by Mythological Subjects

...; collection Maria Elizabeth van den Brink (1824-1905), Velp; by whom bequeathed to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst (inv. 11906), 1906; transferred to the museum, 1927

ObjectNumber: BK-NM-11906-1

Credit line: M.E. van den Brink Bequest, Velp

The scene on the central door (approx. 22.5 x 15.4 cm) depicts a personification of Peace, seated and about to be crowned by a winged Victory as children playing at her lap take fruit from a cornucopia held by a personification of Abundance; Peace is embraced by a personification of Concord (?),¹¹¹¹Concord would be an accepted accompaniment to Peace, and is present in Wolfvoet’s other versions of the composition, see below; there the personification is shown holding a bundle of rods as the standard iconographic handbook specified, see C. Ripa, Iconologia, Rome 1603 (reprint Hildesheim/New York 1970), p. 81. But here unaccountably and according to Elizabeth McGrath (private communication) mistakenly, an axe has been added to the bundle making it an attribute of the Roman lictors, who carried out judicial sentences, but also perhaps making the figure a personification of Justice herself, see Ripa 1603, p. 187. as a personification of Justice, with the scales, sits at her side. This is a reduced variant, omitting two putti, of the central motif of a painting indistinctly signed by Victor Wolfvoet II in the Museo Nacional de San Carlos, Mexico, which was published by Díaz Padrón in 1999;¹²¹²On copper, 69 x 88 cm, see M. Díaz Padrón, ‘Dos cobres de Victor Wolfvoet en el museo de San Carlos de Méjico’, Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología 65 (1999), pp. 323-28, esp. pp. 323, 325; G. Martin and B. Schepers, ‘Two Antwerp Cabinets Decorated by Victor Wolfvoet II’, The Burlington Magazine 158 (2016), pp. 793-99, esp. pp. 794-97, fig. 27. Other versions listed by Ibid., pp. 794-95, notes 23-25 are: A) paintings: 1) Helmond Gemeentemuseum, oil on canvas, 113 x 162 cm, as Van Thulden; 2) Musée Crozatier, Le-Puy-en-Velay, see Guide Catalogue des collections du Musée Crozatier, Le-Puy-en-Velay 1982, p. 67, no. 73, as Van Avond (sic); 3) Stadtmusem, Münster, as Erasmus Quellinus, see K. Bussmann and H. Schilling (eds.), 1648: War and Peace in Europe, 2 vols., exh. cat. Münster (Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte) 1998, II, p. 23, fig. 1, ex-anonymous sale, London (Sotheby’s), 30 November 1983, no. 133, oil on copper, 84.4 x 118.5; 4) recorded in the collection of Gottfried Winkler, Leipzig, 1768, as by Thedoor van Thulden, on copper, approx. 60 x 80 cm, see H. Kreuschauf, Historische Erklaerungen der Gemaelde welche Herr Gottfried Winkler in Leipzig gesammlet, Leipzig 1768, no. 556, illustrated in a watercolour, 350 x 680 mm, by C.F. Wiegand, Cabinet de Peintures de Carl Gottfried Winckler, of c. 1800, Leipzig, Stadtsgeschichtliches Museum, reproduced by A. Alzaga Ruiz, ‘Vienne, Saxe et Mannheim’, Revue de l’art 181 (2013), no. 3, pp. 25-33, esp. p. 31, fig. 8; B) drawings: 1) black and red chalk, grey wash, brown ink framing lines, with inscription on the verso ‘P.P.Rubens’, 214 x 317 mm; offered as attributed to Theodoor van Thulden, anonymous sale, Amsterdam (Christie’s), 10 November 1997, no. 30; 2) Stadtmuseum, Münster, reference from Christie’s sale catalogue of 2002, cited above; for the inventory number, 2E-0967-2, see H.-U. Beck, ‘Netherlandish Drawings in the Städtisches Kunstsammlungen, Augsburg‘, Master Drawings 39 (2001), no. 4, pp. 395-408, esp. pp. 402-03 under no. 6; 3) Augsburg, Städtisches Kunstsammlungen, inv. no. G.22260, black chalk, 236 x 357 mm, as Rubens School. Circle of Erasmus Quellinus, see Beck 2001, pp. 402-03, no. 6; the entry refers to several of the painted versions including that at Le-Puy-en-Velay, see above; C) engraving: by Rombout Eynhouts (active Antwerp 1636-1679/81), see C.G. Voorhelm Schneevoogt, Catalogue des estampes gravées après P.P. Rubens avec l’indication des collections où se trouvent les tableaux et les gravures, Haarlem 1873, p. 156, no. 155; an attribution to Rubens was already rejected by M. Rooses, L’oeuvre de P.P. Rubens. Histoire et description de ses tableaux et dessins, 5 vols., Antwerp 1886-92, III, p. 45. it was presumably executed specifically for inclusion as the centrepiece of the cabinet, or cut down from a rectangle to act as such.

On the left side of the inside of the lid is Venus Disarming Mars (approx. 24.5 x 19.5 cm), the prototype of which was probably the painting in the Galleria Colonna recently attributed to Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (1613/14-1654)¹³¹³A. Heinrich, Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (1613/14-1654): Ein Flämische Nachfolger Van Dycks, 2 vols., Turnhout 2003, no. B1, pp. 311-12 for the painting in the Galleria Colonna, Rome; G. Martin and B. Schepers, ‘Two Antwerp Cabinets Decorated by Victor Wolfvoet II’, The Burlington Magazine 158 (2016), pp. 793-99, esp. p. 796, and note 34. and previously associated with Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641),¹⁴¹⁴See S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, no. III.A.12; see also M. Díaz Padrón, ‘Tres cobres restituidos a Víctor Wolfvoet, el más fiel seguidor de Rubens’, Archivo Español de Arte 79 (2006), pp. 403-12, esp. pp. 404-06. which was in turn a simplification also in reverse of a composition by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) at present in Russia having been looted in 1945 from Schloss Königsberg, Berlin.¹⁵¹⁵See N. Büttner, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XII: Allegories and Subjects from Literature, 2 vols., London 2018, I, no. 18, and II, fig. 101. Heinrich dates the Colonna picture before 1645.

On the right side of the inside of the lid is Meleager and Atalanta (approx. 24.5 x 19.6 cm) after the painting by Rubens in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.¹⁶¹⁶M. Neumeister (ed.), Alten Pinakothek. Katalog der ausgestellten Gemälde, 3: Flämische Malerei, Ostfildern 2009, p. 358. The subject is from Ovid, Metamorphoses (VIII: 425-444). Meleager presents the head of the wild boar he had killed to Atalanta, the virgin huntress, whose arrow had first wounded it, see below. Cupid assists, thus indicating Meleager’s love for her. Above the personification of Envy alludes to the jealousy of Meleager’s uncles, whom he was to kill. The Rubens is usually dated circa 1630-35.

On the inside of the left wing, The Judgement of Midas (approx. 47 x 37.5 cm), in which King Tmolus crowns Apollo as King Midas consoles Pan. The contest between the pipe-playing Pan and the lyrist Apollo was told by Ovid, Metamorphoses (XI: 146-179). King Midas disagreed with the judgement of Tmolus, the eponymous god of the mountain on which the contest took place, who declared Apollo the victor, and so was awarded ass’s ears by the winner. Here Midas is shown already with ass’s ears as Tmolus crowns Apollo. No prototype has as yet been identified; the composition could have been devised by the artist specifically for inclusion in a cabinet such as this.¹⁷¹⁷Another version is recorded in the collection Marquesa de Perinat, Madrid, before 1953, as on panel. Casa Moreno photograph, Segretario de Estado de Cultura, Madrid, information kindly provided by Bert Schepers.

On the inside of the right wing is Diana and her Nymphs Returning from the Hunt Accosted by Satyrs (approx. 47.5 x 37.5 cm); this derives not from Rubens’s oblong painting at Darmstadt,¹⁸¹⁸Martin in E. McGrath, G. Martin, F. Healy, B. Schepers, C. Van de Velde and K. De Clippel, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XI (1): Mythological Subjects: Achilles to the Graces, 2 vols., London/Turnhout 2016, I, no. 28, and II, figs. 250 and 261. but from the modello, also oblong, for it in a private, English collection,¹⁹¹⁹Martin in E. McGrath, G. Martin, F. Healy, B. Schepers, C. Van de Velde and K. De Clippel, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XI (1): Mythological Subjects: Achilles to the Graces, 2 vols., London/Turnhout 2016, I, no. 28a, and II, fig. 265. where the distinct arrangement of the fruit held by the foremost satyr is followed. Omitted is the peasant couple to the left and the nymphs at the rear have been re-arranged. The date of the modello has recently been brought forward to circa 1622.

On the left-hand range of drawers, at the top, The Discovery of Erichthonius (approx. 10.5 x 28.8 cm) derives chiefly from Rubens’s modello in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm.²⁰²⁰Healy in E. McGrath, G. Martin, F. Healy, B. Schepers, C. Van de Velde and K. De Clippel, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XI (1): Mythological Subjects: Achilles to the Graces, 2 vols., London/Turnhout 2016, no. 42a, and II, figs. 370, 373. Ovid, Metamorphoses (II: 552-561), tells how the three daughters of Cecrops opened a basket – against the orders of Minerva – containing the snake-child Erichthonius. The modello has recently been dated 1631-32. Omitted in the present copy is the fountain, while an extensive landscape has been added.

Below, second from the top, is Diana and Actaeon (approx. 10.5 x 28.2 cm), which most likely is a copy after Rubens’s lost painting after Titian (c. 1488-1576).²¹²¹J. Wood, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XXVI (2.1): Copies and Adaptations from Renaissance and Later Artists. Italian Masters, II: Titian and North Italian Art, 2 vols., London/Turnhout 2010, I, App. Titian, I, pp. 278-80, for a full discussion. The subject is from Metamporphoses (III: 143-185), where Ovid relates how the hunter Actaeon chanced upon the naked Diana and her nymphs bathing. The goddess punished Actaeon by changing him into a stag so that he was set upon by his own hounds. Rubens made his copy during his stay in Madrid in 1628/29 and it remained in his possession until his death, when it was listed as no. 44 in the Specification of works for sale after the artist’s death^. Before 1645 it was acquired from the artist’s estate by Don Francesco de Royas for King Philip IV of Spain, but was last recorded on 31 May 1651 when acquired by Jan Baptist Gaspars in the Commonwealth sale of the deceased British King Charles I’s possessions. Rubens’s copy would have been fairly faithful to the original, so the present copy is no doubt a greatly simplified, oblong rendering, in which the tree trunks behind Diana and her dog may have been omitted. The decoration of the stone basin has been much reduced and Diana’s handmaiden’s dress is cast in a plain yellow.

In the same range of drawers, third from the top (as presently arranged),²²²²The reproduction shows the painting in this position exchanged with that in the right-hand range in the 1976 museum catalogue. is Nymphs Hunting Deer (approx. 10.1 x 28 cm), a simplified and abbreviated copy²³²³A. Balis, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XVIII: Landscapes and Hunting Scenes, 2: Hunting Scenes, Oxford 1986, p. 239, Copy (6), under no. 21. of a painting executed by Rubens as part of a commission of eighteen to decorate Philip IV’s palace of the Alcázar in Madrid.²⁴²⁴For an account of the commission, see A. Balis, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XVIII: Landscapes and Hunting Scenes, 2: Hunting Scenes, Oxford 1986, pp. 218-19. The order for these paintings is first mentioned in a letter of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand acting on behalf of his brother the king, of 22 June 1639. Much had been completed in collaboration with Frans Snijders (1579-1657) by the time of Rubens’s death in May 1640; the last consignment was despatched to Madrid in March 1641. The painting was probably destroyed in the Alcázar fire of 1734, but is known by a copy in Nîmes²⁵²⁵A. Balis, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XVIII: Landscapes and Hunting Scenes, 2: Hunting Scenes, Oxford 1986, pp. 239-41, no. 21 and Ibid., Copy (1) for the painting at Nîmes. and by Rubens’s modello²⁶²⁶Private collection; ex-anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 13 December 1985, no. 53. For a full description, see A. Balis, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XVIII: Landscapes and Hunting Scenes, 2: Hunting Scenes, Oxford 1986, pp. 241-42, no. 21a. for it. In the present copy, the figure of Diana to the right is omitted as is the nymph with a spear by the tree; furthermore only three hounds and two deer are shown.

On the lowest drawer of the left-hand range is Cephalus and Procris (approx. 10 x 28 cm) after Rubens’s design for a painting for King Philip IV’s Torre de la Parada, which was executed by Pieter Symons (active Antwerp 162/30-1636/37);²⁷²⁷S. Alpers, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, IX: The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, Brussels/London/New York 1971, pp. 190-91, no. 10; Alpers wrongly states that Wolfvoet’s copy is after the Prado painting. the modello²⁸²⁸S. Alpers, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, IX: The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, Brussels/London/New York 1971, pp. 191-92, no. 10a. for which, like the finished painting of similar near square format, is in the Museo Nacional del Prado. Rubens had received the commission by 20 November 1636; the paintings – some by Rubens, others by artists working after his designs, and yet more by Snyders – had left Antwerp by 11 March 1638.²⁹²⁹S. Alpers, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, IX: The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, Brussels/London/New York 1971, pp. 29-31. The early provenance of Rubens’s modelli, many of which were in the collection of the Duque del Infantado in Madrid by 1800, is not known.³⁰³⁰S. Alpers, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, IX: The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, Brussels/London/New York 1971, pp. 67-69. The story of how Cephalus mistakenly killed his wife, Procris, who was hiding to spy on her husband, with the spear she had given him, is told by Ovid, Metamorphoses (VII: 825-40). Apart from the format, the present copy differs chiefly in the wooded background; the finished painting may have suggested the fall of Procris’s veil, but the spear grasped by Cephalus in the modello is depicted rather than the arrow incorrectly substituted by Symons.

On the top drawer of the right-hand range is A Shepherd and Shepherdess (approx. 10 x 28 cm) after Rubens’s painting in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich,³¹³¹M. Neumeister (ed.), Alten Pinakothek. Katalog der ausgestellten Gemälde, 3: Flämische Malerei, Ostfildern 2009, p. 366. which is followed but for the landscape added to fit the oblong format. The prototype, usually dated circa 1638, and in the artist’s possession at his death when listed as no. 94 of the Specification of works for sale after the artist's death, was sold in 1645 to Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange (1584-1647).

Below this, second from the top is a Bath of Diana (?, approx. 10 x 28 cm). The goddess is probably intended as the near naked female figure seated in the centre of the foreground group, although she does not wear the emblematic crescent moon on her forehead and the shaded grotto where Ovid, Metamorphoses (III: 155-162), describes her as bathing is replaced by an estuary view. No prototype has been identified. The nymphs in the distance are spied on by two satyrs so the subject of Diana and Actaeon, see above, was not intended; it may be that the scene was specifically devised for inclusion in a cabinet such as this. The poses of two of the nymphs derive from Rubens, most obviously the nymph removing her shift (inspired by a classical Venus Callipigia) stems from that of the nymph to the left in the lost, late Diana and Actaeon³²³²Martin in E. McGrath, G. Martin, F. Healy, B. Schepers, C. Van de Velde and K. De Clippel, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XI (1): Mythological Subjects: Achilles to the Graces, 2 vols., London/Turnhout 2016, under no. 32, and II, fig. 291. by Rubens, while the formulation of the seated maiden, right, is in reverse and close to that created by Rubens for Pomona in the Vertumnus and Pomona for the Torre de la Parada,³³³³S. Alpers, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, IX: The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, Brussels/London/New York 1971, nos. 59, 59a figs. 189, 190. for which see above.

Below this, third from the top, is the Calydonian Boar Hunt (approx. 10.5 x 28 cm), probably after Rubens’s modello of 1630-35,³⁴³⁴Private collection; sale at the direction of Brenda Lady Cook, London (Christie’s), 8 December 2005, no. 20. For a full discussion, see A. Balis, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XVIII: Landscapes and Hunting Scenes, 2: Hunting Scenes, Oxford 1986, no. 20a. which was later used as preparatory for one of a set of hunting scenes, of which the prototype of Nymphs Hunting Deer was also part, to decorate the Alcázar, a commission received by Rubens from the Cardinal-Infante on behalf of his brother, Philip IV, by 22 June 1639.³⁵³⁵The present copy is listed as after the destroyed finished picture by A. Balis, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XVIII: Landscapes and Hunting Scenes, 2: Hunting Scenes, Oxford 1986, p. 235 under no. 20, as Copy (6). Much had been completed by Rubens and Snijders, before the former’s death in May 1640;³⁶³⁶See A. Balis, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XVIII: Landscapes and Hunting Scenes, 2: Hunting Scenes, Oxford 1986, pp. 218-19. the painting was probably destroyed in the Alcázar fire of 1734. The present copy differs from the modello in the inclusion of an open landscape, the omission of the head of a hound, at bottom centre, and of the hound to the left of Atalanta, while the body of the hound beneath the boar is more prominent. But most notably Meleager is absent. The story of how the virgin huntress, Atalanta, came to the aid of Meleager and his companions in slaying the boar sent by Diana to ravage Calydon by being the first to wound the animal, is told by Ovid, Metamorphoses (VIII: 270-385).

On the bottom drawer of the right-hand range is Vertumnus and Pomona (approx. 10 x 28 cm) in which the arrangement of the figures closely relates to Van Dyck’s painting in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa.³⁷³⁷S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, no. II.22. The Van Dyck is in the opposite direction and the draperies and landscape differ. Quite how the connection between the two works can be explained remains obscure, for the Van Dyck was executed in Genoa and, it has been inferred without any proof, stayed there. But it could have been taken to Antwerp or a variant could have been in Antwerp and served as the prototype for the present painting.³⁸³⁸An unspecified connection with Van Dyck was put forward by F. Baudouin, ‘L’Influence de P.P. Rubens sur les Cabinets décorés de tableautins’, in R. Fabri, Meubles d’apparat des Pays-Bas méridionaux, XVIe -XVIIIe siècle, exh. cat. Brussels (La Genérale de Banque) 1989, pp. 9-13, esp. p. 13; for him the source for the Vertumnus and Pomona was an unknown painting by Rubens mediated by a work by Van Dyck. Depicted is the moment when Vertumnus in his prolonged courtship of Pomona adopts the disguise of an old woman in which to press his suit. The nymph was only to return his love when he revealed his true self as recounted by Ovid, Metamorphoses (XIV: 653-660). Rubens’s treatment of the story for the Torre de la Parada, which the artist may well have known, see above, had shown the happy denouement.³⁹³⁹S. Alpers, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, IX: The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, Brussels/London/New York 1971, nos. 59, 59a, figs. 189, 190.

On the drawer beneath the door, centre, is Narcissus (approx. 8.5 x 20 cm), who gazes with fatal self-love at his reflection in a pool, as told by Ovid, Metamorphoses (III: 406-473). Again Rubens’s treatment for the Torre de la Parada has not been followed,⁴⁰⁴⁰S. Alpers, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, IX: The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, Brussels/London/New York 1971, nos. 43, 43a. and no prototype has been identified. It may be the artist’s own invention for inclusion in such a cabinet, perhaps inspired by Antonio Tempesta’s (1555-1630) engraving of the subject.⁴¹⁴¹W.L. Strauss (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, New York 1978-, XXXVI, p. 23, no. 665.

Baarsen dates the cabinet, qua furniture, circa 1640 or circa 1650,⁴²⁴²R. Baarsen, 17th-Century Cabinets, translated by J. Rudge, Amsterdam/Zwolle 2000, caption to fig. 32 and under no. 7, p. 63. while Fabri dates the ensemble after 1639-before 1670.⁴³⁴³R. Fabri, De 17de-eeuwse Antwerpse Kunstkast: kunsthistorische aspecten. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Schone Kunsten van België 57, Brussels 1993, caption to fig. 31. It is reasonable to assume that the decorative scheme is as originally intended, that all the paintings were made at about the same time. The identified prototypes by Rubens are to be dated from circa 1622 until the last calendar year of his activity, although copies could have been made from second studio versions. It is reasonable to accept Baarsen's general dating as applicable also to Wolfvoet's contribution. It has to be borne in mind that he only registered as a master in the guild in 1644/45, although he could have been active producing decorations for kunstkastjes earlier. In the central allegory, Wolfvoet showed a familiarity with the language of allegory and personification which would have been garnered from his education in Rubens’s studio.⁴⁴⁴⁴For Rubens’s treatment of allegory, see N. Buettner, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XII: Allegories and Subjects from History, London/Turnhout 2018, I, Introduction, and for allegories of peace, nos. 27 and 28. It is possible that the design was made in celebration of the Peace of Münster of 1648, which brought peace to the Netherlands.

Artists responsible for panels decorating such cabinets as that under discussion have been categorized as ‘humble’ and anonymous.⁴⁵⁴⁵R. Baarsen, 17th-Century Cabinets, translated by J. Rudge, Amsterdam/Zwolle 2000, p. 24. Such may often have been the case, but Fabri lists a number of known artists who executed such paintings,⁴⁶⁴⁶R. Fabri, De 17de-eeuwse Antwerpse Kunstkast: kunsthistorische aspecten. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Schone Kunsten van België 57, Brussels 1993, pp. 32, 50. and one cabinet in the Rijksmuseum contains a signed painting by yet another master, Frans Francken III (BK-NM-4190). The present decorative scheme is distinctive because of the preponderance of copies after Rubens.⁴⁷⁴⁷To be mentioned, but dismissed, is the suggestion by Scarpa Sonino (A. Scarpa Sonino, Cabinet d’Amateur Le Grandi Collezioni d’Arte nei Dipinti dal XVII al XIX secolo, Milan 1992, pp. 11-12) that Rubens was responsible for the overall design of the group of paintings and for supplying the bozzetti for them. This may be thought to reflect the predilections of its creator. Such a taste also found expression in the large stock listed in the estate of Victor Wolfvoet II.⁴⁸⁴⁸G. Martin and B. Schepers, ‘Two Antwerp Cabinets Decorated by Victor Wolfvoet II’, The Burlington Magazine 158 (2016), pp. 793-99. The paintings on the drawers have a less idiosyncratic character than the larger ones on the wings, door and lid, as the figures are simplistically handled. In this respect the description of the contents of Wolfvoet’s workroom in his estate inventory may be relevant. Recorded are some sixty small paintings (‘schilderykens’) many described as bad (‘schlechte’), without frames and on panel.⁴⁹⁴⁹E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, VI, pp. 358-60, for instance nos. 496, 497. Possibly these were paintings destined to decorate the drawers of cabinets; they were unattributed in the inventory and thus could have been partly the work of an assistant or apprentice, one such having been registered by Wolfvoet in 1644/45.⁵⁰⁵⁰P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76, II, p. 163. It is possible that the landscapes were by a different hand, in this case working in the tradition perhaps of Alexander Keirincx (1600-1652). It would seem that the landscapes were executed first, with the artist working from modelli that would have indicated where reserves were to be left for the figures.

There is evidence that Wolfvoet supplied paintings for cabinets in the accounts of the dealer Forchondt for 1651. One entry (in three versions) refers to ‘een cantoor … doer Fictor [Victor Wolfvoet] de deuren af geschildert heeft’.⁵¹⁵¹J. Denucé, Na Peter Pauwel Rubens, Antwerp 1949, pp. 113, 114 (Cornelis de Baillieur executed the other paintings). For cantor being synonymous for kunstkast, see J. Verdam, Middelnederlandsch handwoordenboek, The Hague 1949, p. 282; R. Fabri, ‘Du cabinet utilitaire au meuble d’apparat’, in R. Fabri, Meubles d’apparat des Pays-Bas méridionaux, XVIe -XVIIIe siècle, exh. cat. Brussels (La Genérale de Banque) 1989, pp. 15-45, esp. p. 16 and R. Fabri, De 17de-eeuwse Antwerpse Kunstkast: typologische en historische aspecten. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Schone Kunsten van België 53, Brussels 1991, pp. 18-21. Fabri has also provided other evidence for the artist’s activity in this respect.⁵²⁵²R. Fabri, De 17de-eeuwse Antwerpse Kunstkast: kunsthistorische aspecten. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Schone Kunsten van België 57, Brussels 1993, pp. 104-05.

Fabri pointed out that four episodes in the present cabinet are quite closely repeated in a cabinet in the Rubenshuis: the Meleager and Atalanta and Venus Disarming Mars, on the wings, and the Narcissus and Cephalus and Procris on the drawers.⁵³⁵³R. Fabri, De 17de-eeuwse Antwerpse Kunstkast: kunsthistorische aspecten. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Schone Kunsten van België 57, Brussels 1993, p. 68, note 174; Rubenshuis, Antwerp, inv. no. M.166, also discussed by G. Martin and B. Schepers, ‘Two Antwerp Cabinets Decorated by Victor Wolfvoet II’, The Burlington Magazine 158 (2016), pp. 793-99; other copies of the Cephalus and Procris were offered in anonymous sales, London (Sotheby’s), 18 February 1981, no. 115, on metal, 21.5 x 31 cm, and Paris (Sotheby’s), 2 June 2013, no. 2, on panel, 20 x 25 cm, and occur twice in a tortoiseshell and ebony cabinet advertised in Christie’s monthly magazine February 1985. The landscape backgrounds differ in each case. The Meleager and Atalanta, Venus Disarming Venus, Vertumnus and Pomona and Shepherd and Shepherdess (as the centrepiece with an arched top) recur with different landscapes on another cabinet which was on the market in 1979.⁵⁴⁵⁴With Ghismondi Antiques (advertised in L’Oeil (1979), p. 46, fig. 7). Wegener (in U. Wegener, Niedersächisches Landesmuseum Hannover, Landesgalerie: Die holländischen und flämischen Gemälde des 17. Jahrhunderts, Hannover 2000, pp. 309-10, no. 157) published another version of the Venus Disarming Mars, on oak, 46.5 x 39 cm, as a likely decorative panel of a kunstkastje. Díaz Padrón published further versions in M. Díaz Padrón, ‘Tres cobres restituidos a Víctor Wolfvoet, el más fiel seguidor de Rubens’, Archivo Español de Arte 79 (2006), pp. 403-12, esp. p. 404, fig. 1, and p. 406: private collection, Barcelona; anonymous sale, New York (Sotheby’s), 19 May 1991, no. 205; with Finck, Brussels, 1964; collection J. Vries, Arnhem, 1937. See also N. Büttner, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XII: Allegories and Subjects from Literature, 2 vols., London 2018, I, under no. 18, pp. 191-92, as ‘variant copies in vertical format’, his nos. V6, 8-10, 12; the Rubenshuis and Rijksmuseum copies are his nos. V13 and V14.

Gregory Martin, 2022

W. Vogelsang, Holländische Möbel in niederländischen Museum zu Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1909, pp. 103-04, no. 121; F. Baudouin, 'Rubens voorstellingen op een Kunstkastje van de 17de eeuw’, in Handelingen van het XXIIe Vlaams Filologencongres. Gent 24-26 April 1957, Leuven 1957, p. 352; G. Derveaux-Van Assel, ‘Twee zeventiende-eeuwse Antwerpse kunstkasten’, Bulletin van de Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis 43-44 (1971-72), pp. 99ff., esp. p. 123, no. 43; F. Baudouin, ‘L’Influence de P.P. Rubens sur les Cabinets décorés de tableautins’, in R. Fabri, Meubles d’apparat des Pays-Bas méridionaux, XVIe -XVIIIe siècle, exh. cat. Brussels (La Genérale de Banque) 1989, pp. 9-13, figs. opp. pp. 10, 12; A. Scarpa Sonino, Cabinet d’Amateur Le Grandi Collezioni d’Arte nei Dipinti dal XVII al XIX secolo, Milan 1992, pp. 11-12 and fig. p. 18; R. Fabri, De 17de-eeuwse Antwerpse Kunstkast: kunsthistorische aspecten. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Schone Kunsten van België 57, Brussels 1993, p. 68, note 174, p. 70, note 185 and pp. 109-10; R. Baarsen, 17th-Century Cabinets, translated by J. Rudge, Amsterdam/Zwolle 2000, pp. 26-28, notes 25, 26, p. 35, figs. 32-35, and p. 63, no. 7; G. Martin and B. Schepers, ‘Two Antwerp Cabinets Decorated by Victor Wolfvoet II’, The Burlington Magazine 158 (2016), pp. 793-99

1909, no. 79, pl. XXXII; 1952 (Meubelen), p. 179, no. 136, fig. 61; 1976, pp. 484-85, no. NM 11906-1 (as School of Peter Paul Rubens)

G. Martin, 2022, 'anonymous and Victor (II) Wolfvoet, Cabinet Decorated with an Allegory of Peace Surrounded by Mythological Subjects, Antwerp, c. 1645', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.56037