Diana Offered Wine and Fruit by the Young Bacchus and his Retinue

…; ? recorded in the collection Pieter Smissaert and the children of Jan Augustin Semino [Sernino], Antwerp estate inventory (‘Een Schilderycken van Bachus door den Ouden Van Baelen gemaeckt’), 31 December 1660;¹¹E. 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, VIII, p. 117. ? collection Hendrik van Heteren (1672-1749), The Hague;²²See E.W. Moes and E. van Biema, De Nationale Konst-Gallery en Het Koninklijk Museum, Amsterdam 1909, p. 192; T.L.J. Verroen, ‘‘Een verstandig ryk Man’: de achttiende-eeuwse verzamelaar Adriaan Leonard Van Heteren’, in C. Scheffer (ed.) et al., Achttiende-eeuwse kunst in de Nederlanden, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 4 (1985), pp. 17-61, esp. p. 31. his son, Adriaan Leonard van Heteren (1724-1800), The Hague, (‘De ontmoeting van Diana en Bacchus, zeer vol gewoel in een Landschap, door denzelve [‘Fluweele Bruegel’ and ‘Hendrik van Balen’] h. 15 d., br. 20 d. [39.2 x 52.3 cm] P.’);³³‘Catalogus van Schilderyen, In’t Kabinet van den Heer Bewindhebber, Adriaen Leonard van Heteren in’s Hage’, in G. Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver Pryzen Zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere Plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt. Benevens een Verzamelingvan Lysten van Verscheyden nog in wezen zynde Cabinetten, 3 vols., The Hague 1752-70, II, p. 452; Verroen gives a different reading, see T.L.J. Verroen, ‘‘Een verstandig ryk Man’: de achttiende-eeuwse verzamelaar Adriaan Leonard Van Heteren’, in C. Scheffer (ed.) et al., Achttiende-eeuwse kunst in de Nederlanden, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 4 (1985), pp. 17-61, esp. p. 32, no. 3. his third cousin and godson, Adriaan Leonard van Heteren Gevers (1794-1866), Rotterdam, (‘Henry van Balen. Ce tableau représente une entrevue de Bachus et de Diane avec plusieurs autres figures. Le paysage est peint par Jean Bruegel, surnommé le Velours, peint sur bois, haut 15 large 20 pouces [40.5 x 54.6 cm]’);⁴⁴‘Catalogue Raisonné d’une Collection de Tableaux appartenant à Monsieur A.L. Gevers, Page de Leurs Majestés le Roi et la Reine de Hollande’, s.l. 1808, transcribed in E.W. Moes and E. van Biema, De Nationale Konst-Gallery en Het Koninklijk Museum, Amsterdam 1909, pp. 145-51, esp. p. 145, no. 1. from whom, fl. 100,000, with 136 other paintings en bloc (known as the ‘Kabinet van Heteren Gevers’), to the museum, by decree of Lodewijk Napoleon King of Holland, through the mediation of his father Dirk Cornelis Gevers (1763-1839), 8 June 1809;⁵⁵T.L.J. Verroen, ‘‘Een verstandig ryk Man’: de achttiende-eeuwse verzamelaar Adriaan Leonard Van Heteren’, in C. Scheffer (ed.) et al., Achttiende-eeuwse kunst in de Nederlanden, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 4 (1985), pp. 17-61, esp. p. 17, notes 2-3. on loan to the Rijksmuseum Muiderslot, Muiden, from 1949; from where stolen in July 1980 and recovered in September of the same year; on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 2002-11 and from 2017

ObjectNumber: SK-A-17

The initials on the reverse are those of the panel maker Michiel Vriendt, who became a master in the Antwerp guild in the accounting year September 1615 to September 1616. He died on 11 August 1637.¹⁰¹⁰P. 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 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), I, pp. 513-14; for his date of death see E. 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, IV, p. 217; see also J. van Damme, ‘De Antwerpse tafereelmakers en hun merken. Identificatie en betekenis’, Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (1990), pp. 193-236, esp. pp. 223-26 and fig. 12. He is known to have supplied supports to Hendrik van Balen I.¹¹¹¹B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632). Ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, 2 vols., Turnhout 2004, I, p. 42. For Vriendt’s monogram, see J. Wadum, ‘The Antwerp Brand on Paintings on Panel’, E. Hermens (ed.), Looking Through Paintings. The Study of Painting Techniques and Materials in Support of Art Historical Research, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 11 (1998), pp. 179-198, esp. p. 198.

The attribution of the figures to Van Balen is traditional and is rightly accepted by Werche. Although Jan Brueghel I’s (1568-1625) collaboration was recognized in the eighteenth century and the painting was acquired as a joint work by the two artists, Brueghel’s participation has not been acknowledged in the museum’s catalogues since 1872, when the distant view is simply described as ‘in his style’. Brueghel’s hand, however, is evident in the fruit, dead birds, dog, goat, implements of the chase, enamel urn and wine cup. In fact, it is possible that the trees, landscape and sky are not by Brueghel but by a third hand working in his studio. Werche has reviewed the two artists’ long collaboration.¹²¹²Werche in K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz (eds.), Pieter Breughel the Younger – Jan Brueghel the Elder: Flämische Malerei um 1600: Tradition und Fortschritt, exh. cat. Essen (Villa Hügel)/Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum)/Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) 1997-98, pp. 67-74.

The Rijksmuseum picture has been dated by Werche to Van Balen’s activity between 1616 and 1625.¹³¹³B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632). Ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, 2 vols., Turnhout 2004, I, under no. A62. The earlier date is derived from Vriendt’s entry as a free master in the Antwerp guild of St Luke. Further support for this view is derived from Klein’s dendrochronological dating of the use of the support. In fact the terminus post quem should be advanced to 1617 as the Antwerp brand on the reverse is that which was in use from then until 1637.¹⁴¹⁴As observed by I. Verslype, RMA; J. Wadum, ‘The Antwerp Brand on Paintings on Panel’, E. Hermens (ed.), Looking Through Paintings. The Study of Painting Techniques and Materials in Support of Art Historical Research, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 11 (1998), pp. 179-198, esp. p. 189, fig. 6, no. 2 for the dating of the brand. Jan Brueghel I’s death on 13 January 1625 provides the terminus ante quem for the picture’s completion. It may be that the work was executed in the early 1620s rather than in the second half of the second decade.

The reason for this lies in the unusual subject matter, for there is apparently no classical, literary source for the meeting of Bacchus and his retinue with Diana returning from or resting after the chase. Bacchus was the god of wine, and is depicted here youthful and drunk with companion satyrs, infant Bacchants and Bacchantes, and his emblematic goat. The goddess Diana, identified by the crescent moon on her forehead, was the virgin huntress. It may be that Van Balen and Brueghel were inspired by or reacting to Peter Paul Rubens’s Diana Returning from the Chase of circa 1622-23,¹⁵¹⁵Martin 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, pp. 330-38. in which the goddess is accosted by satyrs bearing fruit, of which the half-length version at Dresden¹⁶¹⁶Martin 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. 29, pp. 346-52. was engraved by Schelte Adamsz Bolswert (1585/1588-1659). Even if the engraving dates from after Rubens’s death in 1640, the rubric may still have relevance to the meaning earlier attached to the encounter: ‘Thus may you have the reward of maidenly efforts: fruit and game are fine companions [go well together] at a feast.’¹⁷¹⁷See Martin 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, p. 348 under Print (1) and p. 351 under note 7; the original Latin reads: ‘Sic vobis lassae sint proemia fausta puellae:/Conveniunt epulis poma feraeque bene’. In the Rijksmuseum picture, wine, personified by Bacchus and brought in the barrel, has been added to the feast.

Here the arrangement of Bacchus and his entourage more or less repeats that devised by Hans Rottenhammer (1564-1625) for his Feast of the Gods with the Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne of 1602, in which Jan Brueghel I added the accessories of tableware, edibles, landscape, etc.¹⁸¹⁸Anonymous sale, Paris (Christie’s), 21 June 2012, no. 15; on copper, 31.2 x 40.5 cm, signed ‘Gio. Rottenhammer in Venetia 1602 F’. A Feast of the Gods at Leipzig by Van Balen,¹⁹¹⁹B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632). Ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, 2 vols., Turnhout 2004, I, p. 182, no. A116, where following Froitzheim-Hegger in H. Guratzsch (ed.), Maximilian Speck von Sternburg: Ein Europäer der Goethezeit als Kunstsammler, exh. cat. Leipzig (Museum der Bildenden Künste)/Munich (Haus der Kunst) 1998-2000, pp. 115-16, the connection with the present painting is noted. follows the configuration, which has been slightly altered however in the Amsterdam painting, notably in the inclination of Bacchus’s head and the vomiting infant satyr and companion. Although some of the accessories, the landscape, background, and figures in the Leipzig painting differ from those in the Rottenhammer Feast, Brueghel’s role is not acknowledged by Werche. These elements and the placement of the goat (plus the introduction of the hound and dead birds, etc.) differ markedly in the present painting with its different subject, and there seems no reason to doubt that here they are the work of Brueghel, as is proposed above with a caveat concerning the landscape. Werche dates the Leipzig painting circa 1605-06.²⁰²⁰B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632). Ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, 2 vols., Turnhout 2004, I, p. 182, no. A116. Van Balen probably made a copy of the Rottenhammer when it was in Brueghel’s studio, which he would have used first for the Leipzig painting and then partially altered the god and his entourage when devising the present meeting of Diana and Bacchus.

The theme of Bacchus being carried by satyrs and the god’s bloated physiognomy may have been prompted by Agostino Veneziano’s (1490-1540) print, said to be after the antique, of Bacchus Carried by Satyrs of 1528.²¹²¹W.L. Strauss (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, New York 1978-, XXVI, p. 214, no. 215; for a closely connected image which shows the goat near the head of the procession, see Martin 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, p. 266, note 17, and II, fig. 180; Rottenhammer would have referred to the Veneziano print, however, as the publication there referred to was of 1605. For a commentary on contemporary depictions of Bacchus, based on the print published in 1605, by Scriverius writing in 1616, see De Clippel in E. McGrath et al. 2016, I, p. 256. The motif of the vomiting infant satyr is unusual; Van Balen also used it in his Allegory of Autumn of circa 1616 in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.²²²²B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632). Ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, 2 vols., Turnhout 2004, pp. 204-05, I, no. A175. Also unusual is Van Balen’s witty idea of showing the nymph carrying a barrel of wine; the wine was for the feast but the barrel was also for Bacchus to sit on, as in, for instance, Jacques Jonghelinck’s (1530-1606) famous sculpture.²³²³See De Clippel 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, pp. 255-56 under no.16, and II, fig. 176.

Gregory Martin, 2022

B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632): Ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, 2 vols., Turnhout 2004, I, no. A.64

1809, p. 5, no. 14 (as ‘Hendrik van Balen In een Landschap ziet men Diana en Bacchus, met eene menigte andere figuren; zijnde het Landschap geschildert door Fluweelen Breughel’); 1841, p. 5, no. 12; 1843, p. 6, no. 12; 1853, p. 4, no. 10 (fl. 600); 1858, p. 5, no. 11; 1864, p. 7, no. 12 (the landscape in the style of Brueghel); 1872, p. 7, no. 12 (as Van Balen and in the style of J. Brueghel); 1880, p. 388, no. 450 (as Van Balen); 1891, p. 7, no. 53; 1903, p. 39, no. 424; 1934, p. 38, no. 424; 1976, p. 99, no. A 17

G. Martin, 2022, 'Hendrik van (I) Balen, Diana Offered Wine and Fruit by the Young Bacchus and his Retinue, c. 1617 - 1625', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5909