…; collection of Reinhard Baron van Lynden (1827-1891), The Hague and Huize Leyndensteyn, Beetsterzwaag, near Heerenveen; by whom bequeathed to the museum, with SK-A-1838, 1899¹¹Note RMA.

Object number: SK-A-1839

Credit line: R., Baron van Lynden Bequest, The Hague

The attribution of the present landscape and SK-A-1838, whose supports are unlined and on their original ‘pegged strainers’, to Abraham Genoels stems from the inscribed label on the reverse of the latter and dates from at least the time when they were in the Van Lynden collection, from which they were bequeathed to the Rijksmuseum. It has, for instance, been accepted by Salerno and Bodart without demur.¹⁰¹⁰D. Bodart, Les peintres des Pays-Bas Méridionaux et de la Principauté de Liège à Rome au XVIIème siècle, 2 vols., Brussels/Rome 1970, I, p. 337; L. Salerno, Pittori di paesaggio del Seicento a Roma/Landscape painters of the Seventeenth Century in Rome, 3 vols., Rome 1980, III, p. 1030, under note 2 However, an attribution to Genoels is problematic, for although his engraved and graphic work is reasonably well known as is the fact that he was active as a painter,¹¹¹¹His painted oeuvre is reviewed by D. Bodart, Les peintres des Pays-Bas méridionaux et de la principauté de Liège à Rome au XVIIème siècle, 2 vols., Brussels/Rome 1970, I, pp. 335-37. his extant painted oeuvre, which may never have been extensive, is now exiguous.¹²¹²Diego Duarte (1612-1691) is one of three Antwerp seventeenth-century owners of paintings by Genoels whose estate inventories have been published by Duverger, 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, XI, p. 164, no. 184); only two lots of paintings by him are listed by Hoet, see 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. Horn opined that Genoels was well-off, see H.J. Horn, The Golden Age Revisted Arnold Houbraken’s Great Theatre of Netherlandish Painters and Paintresses, 2 vols., Doornspijk 2000, I, p. 235; this remark is probably inspired by Houbraken’s comment on the size of Genoels’s Bentveughel feast in Rome (see P.T.A. Swillens (ed.), De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen door Arnold Houbraken, 3 vols., Maastricht 1943-53, III, p. 81); Horn’s suggestion in so far as it concerns Genoels’s financial status in Rome is corroborated by Descamps in his account of the artist’s activity: ‘Il paroît qu’il étoit plus curieux de se perfectionner que de gagner, car il ne fit que peu d’ouvrages, à Rome …’, see J.B. Descamps, La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois, avec des portraits, 4 vols., Paris 1753-64, III, p. 96). It seems to consist chiefly of two stylistically very different paintings: a Minerva and the Muses in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp,¹³¹³W. Vanbeselaere, Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts Anvers, Catalogue Descriptif, Maîtres Anciens, Antwerp 1958, p. 95, no. 175; T. van Lerius, Catalogue du Musée d’Anvers, Antwerp 1874, p. 180. and an Angelica and Medoro in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig.¹⁴¹⁴S. Jacob and R. Klessmann (eds.), Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig Verzeichnis der Gemälde vor 1800, Braunschweig 1976, no. 151, first recorded in 1776; G.J. Hoogewerff, De Bentvueghels, The Hague 1952, pl. 50. Indeed, Kämmerer in a dissertation of 1975 considered attributing the Rijksmuseum paintings to Johannes Glauber (1646-c. 1726).¹⁵¹⁵C. Kämmerer, Die klassisch-heroische Landschaft in der niederländischen Landschaftsmalerei 1675-1750, Berlin 1975 (diss. Freie Universtität), p. 95; reference noted in the museum dossier.

However, despite the poor state of the Antwerp painting¹⁶¹⁶A. Zwollo, Hollandse en Vlaamse veduteschilders te Rome, 1675-1725, Assen 1973, p. 6. and judging only from a photograph of it, there would appear to be a stylistic affinity between it and the two Rijksmuseum pictures (both unlined and on their original stretchers). Further there are connections to be made between it and some of Genoels’s engraved work.¹⁷¹⁷Cf. W.L. Strauss (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, New York 1978-, IV, p. 303, no. 12 (331), p. 317, no. 26 (339), p. 347, no. 58 (361). These factors, together with the old ascription on the label of SK-A-1838, warrant the maintenance of an attribution to him.

Compared with the Antwerp painting, thought to have been painted there in 1670, the Rijksmuseum paintings show the just perceptible influence in the treatment of the landscape of the work of Gaspar Dughet (1625-1675) which would have impacted after Genoels’s arrival in Rome in 1675.¹⁸¹⁸M.-N. Boisclair, Gaspar Dughet: Sa vie et son oeuvre (1615-1675), Paris 1986, p. 98, under note 35. But there seems no means of knowing whether they were executed during his stay in Rome or after his return to Antwerp in 1682, but the latter is suggested above.

SK-A-1839 was bequeathed as depicting Apollo and Calliope which title has been retained by the museum. Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, could well have been depicted holding a trumpet, and she did have relations with Apollo (as she is recorded as bearing his child, the obscure Linus).¹⁹¹⁹W. Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 3 vols., London 1869-70, II, pp. 1125-26. But that the seated figure holding a tambourine should be seen as the sun god seems far-fetched. And, furthermore, there seems no good reason for Calliope to be so placed; this figure, which seems more imposing than a woodland nymph, still requires identification.

Gregory Martin, 2022

D. Bodart, Les Peintres des Pays-Bas Méridionaux et de la Principauté de Liège à Rome au XVIIème siècle, 2 vols., Brussels/Rome 1970, I, p. 337; L. Salerno, Pittori di paesaggio del Seicento a Roma/Landscape painters of the Seventeenth Century in Rome, 3 vols., Rome 1980, III, p. 1030, under note 2; B. Biard, ‘Les Paysages de Francisque Millet’, L’Estampille/L’Objet d’Art 307 (1996), p. 1018

1903, p. 105, no, 979; 1976, p. 241, no. A 1839

G. Martin, 2022, 'attributed to Abraham Genoels, Nymph and Shepherd Making Music in a Landscape, c. 1685', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027923