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Simon de Vos (Antwerp 1603-1676)

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 EUR
Simon de Vos (Antwerp 1603-1676)
Simon de Vos (Antwerp 1603-1676) The Triumph of Bacchus in India, oil on canvas, 120 x 254 cm, w/ frame, (Wo).€ 20.000 - 30.000 US $ 19.800 - 29.700 The painting used to be considered a work by the student, collaborator, and friend of Rubens, the Antwerp painter Deodat (Dieudonne), Delmont, or Deodatus van der Mont and has only recently been identified as an autograph work of Simon de Vos by the Rubens expert Univ. Prof. Dr. Justus Müller Hofstede. Provenance: private collection, Brussels. Expert's Report: Prof. Dr. Justus Müller Hofstede,12. April 2002: "In my considered opinion this painting, which I had the opportunity to inspect in the original, is an early work by the hand of the Flemish history-, genre-, and portrait painter Simon de Vos. Simon de Vos studied under the portrait- and history painter Cornelis de Vos (1584-85 - 1651, no relation), and went on to influence the works of Peter Paul Rubens created in the period between ca. 1615 and 1620... As Hans Vlieghe's recent appraisal of the development of Simon de Vos ("Flemish Art and Architecture 1585 - 1700", New Haven - London 1998, p. 112-114) points out, this master's artistic stages during the period before 1640 are most evident in his genre scenes. H. Vlieghe refers to Simon de Vos as a "painter of small-scale works", distinguishing him from the masters of Antwerp monumental painting (P. P. Rubens; A. van Dyck; Jakob Jordaens; Cornelis de Vos). The painting represents a young artist's fascinating and convincing synthesis based on a variety of famous models. The central inspiration derives from a ca. 1536-1537 painting by Maerten van Heemskerck (1498 - 1574) "The Triumphal Procession of Bacchus", painted on oak 56,3 x 106,5 cm, currently at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (Inv. No.990). During the 17th cent. this painting had left the Netherlands where Maerten van Heemskerck was working at the time and belonged to the famous collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels, as a part of which it arrived in Vienna (cf. Rainald Grosshans, "Maerten van Heemskerck", Berlin 1980, p 126, cat. No. 24, w/ ill.); The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.("Verzeichnis der Gemälde", Vienna 1991, cat. p. 66 w/ ill. plate 300), Heemskerck's painting is in turn based on an engraving by Giovanni Battista Ghisi (Mantua 1498-1563) after Giulio Romano, depicting the same theme). However, Simon de Vos also appears to have been inspired by well-known works of Peter Paul Rubens. The foreground's central motif, for instance, a hoofed female satyr, derives from Rubens' "Drunk Silenus" of 1618 (Munich, Alte Pinakothek, cf. R. Oldenburg, "Klassiker der Kunst Rubens'", Munich 1921, ill. p.177), while the maenad playing the tambourine and embraced by a Negro comes from a composition of the Rubens school (cf. Adolf Rosenberg,"Klassiker der Kunst-Rubens"I. ed, Stuttgart-Leipzig 1905, ill. p.211, still as a Rubens) where the maenad and her companion appear in the foreground; painting missing since 1945). The same composition has contributed the peeing boy in the foreground. The painting shows the typical traits of an early work in its synthesis of different models, thereby avoiding the dependence on a single guiding image and gaining a certain degree of independence. After 1630, Simon de Vos continued his mythological scenes in the signed & dated painting "Sine Cerere et Baccho Venus friget" (without Ceres and Bacchus Venus cools) of 1635 (formerly Prague, Galerie Nostitz) (on the subject of the Bacchus triumph motif in the art and literature of the Renaissance cf. Andreas Emmerling-Skala, "Bacchus in der Renaissance", Hildesheim Zurich-New York 1984, vol. I, pp.43 ("Der Indien-Eroberer Bacchus in der Mythographie"), also p.97 ("Der Triumph des Bacchus") and pp. 148ff. ("Bacchus in der Kunst der Renaissance: Der Feldherr und Triumphator"). The painting before me is also distinguished by numerous "pentimenti" and is in excellent condition. The quality of it colour scheme and the narrative vivaciousness of the different motifs foreshadow the artist's future fame as one of the most important Flemish cabinet painters." The numerous spontaneous alterations introduced during the creation of this painting are the mark of a highly creative artist. Simon de Vos for instance raised the orig. position of the stilt-walker on the left of the painting by 3 cm, as well as altering the size of the wagon wheels, the mule's feet, and many other minor details.
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