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1
jacob jordaens
(1593 – Antwerp – 1678)
The Serenade or The Ambulant Musicians
Painted c.1640–5
Oil on canvas
45¼ × 62 in. (115 × 157.5 cm)
provenance
Jacques Clemens; his sale, Ghent, 23
September 1777, lot 41: ‘Un Concert devant
une fenêtre, où il y a une femme qui rit &
caresse un petit chien: cette composition est de
six figures, & très-vigoureusement peinte. Sur
toile, H. 41 pouces, L. 61 pouces’.
Pierre-Marie-Gaspard Grimod (1748–
1809), Count d’Orsay; his sale, Paris
(Boileau), 14 April 1790, lot 29: ‘Une
composition de six figures de grosseur naturelle,
représentant un concert rustique donné par des
musiciens ambulans à la porte d’une maison, où
l’on voit une dame à la fenêtre tenant un petit
chien, et paroissant prêter une oreille attentive à
cette musique. On y distingue un homme jouant
de la cornemuse, et un enfant d’une flûte à bec.
Ce tableau, fait du meilleur tems de ce maître,
est peint à pleine couleur, et est d’un ton très
vigoureux’ (where acquired by Jean-Baptiste
Pierre Lebrun).
Anon. sale, Paris (Lejeune), 15 January
1794, lot 27: ‘Les Musiciens ambulans,
composition de six figures. Une jeune femme
dans l’expression de la gaité, tenant un chien
dans ses bras, est à une croisée, devant elle est un
petit garçon tenant un papier de musique;
derriere sont trois musiciens, dont un joue de la
musette, une vieille femme écoute en regardant
celle qui est à la croisée. La vigueur, l’expression
& la vérité qui regnent dans ce très-beau
tableau, l’ont toujours placé dans les premiers
cabinets. Sur toile, Haut. 42 pouc. larg. 58’.
this newly discovered late masterpiece by jacob
Jordaens has been unknown to scholars for over one hundred years,
and is now revealed in public for the first time since 1911.
In a half-length composition of six figures, street musicians
entertain a young woman in a window with a stone moulding. Wearing
a gold satin jacket with slashed sleeves over a white blouse and blue
embroidered bodice, she holds a small white dog and smiles cheerfully.
The musicians include a stout gentleman with moustache, goatee
and bulging cheeks playing a bagpipe accompanied by two younger
men with recorders. The bagpipe player wears a dark green cape with
gold buttons, full sleeves and ruffled cuffs as well as a red beret with a
feather. His instrument’s chanter, or melody pipe, is decorated with a
lion’s-head finial and there are two drone pipes at the back of the bag.
A small boy in blue and gold in the foreground sings from scrolled
sheet music and an old woman leans in to listen from the back of the
ensemble. A brown and white hound completes the composition at the
bottom left.
A portraitist, history and genre painter, Jacob Jordaens was also a
draftsman, printmaker and tapestry designer, who, together with Peter
Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), was one
of the greatest Flemish painters of the seventeenth century. The robust
naturalism, painterly execution, saturated palette and slightly smoky
atmosphere of this remarkable and virtually unknown picture are
characteristic of his mature style and probably point to a date around
1640–5. It is a measure of how highly regarded Jordaens was in these
years that, upon the death of Rubens and Van Dyck, Balthazar Gerbier

provenance contd
Anon. sale, Paris (Lejeune), 21 November
1794, lot 126: ‘Les Musiciens ambulans,
composition de six figures. Une jeune femme
dans l’expression de la gaité, tenant un chien
dans ses bras, est à une croisée; devant elle est
un petit garçon tenant un papier de musique ;
derrière sont trois musiciens dont un joue de la
musette, une vieille femme écoute en regardant
celle qui est à la croisée. La vigueur, l’expression
& la vérité qui régnent dans ce très-beau
tableau, l’ont toujours placé dans les premiers
cabinets. Sur toile, Haut. 42 pouc. larg. 58’.
Roëttiers de Montaleau; sale, Paris,(
Langeac et Senet), 19 or 29 July 1802,
lot 77: ‘Un Tableau de caractère et de la
plus riche couleur, gravé sous le titre des
Musiciens ambulans; composition de six
figures grandeur de nature, et vues à mi-corps.
L’artiste a représenté le moment où ce groupe
de musiciens grotesques est arrêté devant une
fenêtre à laquelle est une dame flamande dans
l’expression du rire à la vue de ces personnages.
Un pinceau large et hardi, joint à une couleur
forte et brillante, nous présente un des ouvrages
distingués et de bon choix de ce fameux disciple
de Rubens. Sur toile, haut de 115, lar. de 156 c.’
(acquired by Henry [Bon-Thomas Henry]
for 4,000 francs).
Anon. sale, (Meunier?), Paris (Masson), 4
May 1808, lot 62: ‘Des Musiciens ambulans.
A gauche on voit une Femme à sa fenêtre qui
paraît prendre plaisir à cette musique; elle tient
un petit Chien dans ses bras. Ce Tableau,
quoique librement fait, offre des beautés. Sur
toile, Haut. 3 pi. 8 po. Larg. 5 pi. 6 po.’
The Empress Joséphine Bonaparte, née
Joséphine de Beauharnais, Château de
Malmaison: Inventaire des oeuvres et objets
d’art conservés au château de la Malmaison
après le décès de l’impératrice Joséphine, 1814,
no. 1013 ‘Item un tableau représentant des
Musiciens ambulans, prisé huits cents francs ci
800’.
And by inheritance to Eugène de
Beauharnais, Prince of Leuchtenberg,
where described in an inventory dated 8
June 1814 (Grandjean 1964, op. cit.) as
‘Tableau d’une grande réputation et justement
méritée / une parfaite conservation’ (valued at
4,000 francs).
With William Buchanan and Anon. sale,
John David, London, 1 June 1816, lot
4: ‘The Travelling Musicians: lately in the
celebrated collection formed by the Empress
Josephine, at Malmaison, where it was
esteemed the chef d’oeuvre of this master’.
Louisa Lady Ashburton, Melchet
Court, near Romsey, Hampshire; her
sale, London, Phillips, Son & Neale, 24
September (= seventh and final day) 1911,
lot 1373: ‘Jacob Jordaens, The Musicians
playing numerous instruments to a Lady in a
box, with dog (large)’ (260gns to Madame
Portier) [Lugt 70220].
Camille Blanc, Paris.
Private Collection, France, from c.1920
until today.
literature
Catalogue des tableaux de Sa Majesté
l’Impératrice Joséphine. Dans la Galerie et
Appartemens de son Palais de Malmaison,
Paris, 1811, p. 9, under Dans la Grande
Galerie dont il a été ci-devant parlé, no. 69
(entitled Musiciens ambulans).
M. de Lescure, Malmaison, 1867, pp.
270–85, no. 69.
G. Mourey, ‘La Sérénade’ de Jordaens, Les
Arts, March 1912, no. 123, p. 10, illustrated.
S. Grandjean, Inventaire après décès de
l`Impératrice Joséphine à Malmaison, 1964,
p. 145.
A. Pougetoux, La collection de peintures de
l’Impératrice Joséphine, Paris, 2003, p. 91,
no. 69.
engraved
According to the description of the picture
in the 1802 sale catalogue, op. cit.
(1592–1663), the Anglo-Dutch courtier, designer and art advisor to the
Duke of Buckingham and Prince Charles (the future King Charles I),
wrote repeatedly to his clients at this moment that Jordaens was now
the most important artist in the Southern Netherlands.
The subject of street musicians was of long standing and images
of bagpipe and recorder players can be traced to at least the Middle
Ages. The Bruegel dynasty painted them regularly in the sixteenth
century (see, for example, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Wedding
Dance, c.1566, Detroit Institute of Art) and the tradition of small-scale
images of amateur musicians continued into the early seventeenth
in the art of painters like David Vinckboons (1576–1632). From the
second decade of the seventeenth century onwards the Caravaggisti
also painted life-size, half-length images of bagpipers (for example,
Hendrick Terbrugghen, Bagpipe Player, 1624, National Gallery of
Art, Washington) and other musicians as well as bravi and street
entertainers in fanciful costumes. In the Southern Netherlands artists
like Theodoor Rombouts (1597–1637) took up the musical subjects
soon thereafter. Following Jordaens the subject of street entertainers
became very popular among Dutch artists, notably Jan Steen (1626–
1679), Nicolaes Maes (1634–1693) and Jacob Ochtervelt (1634–1682).
This convivial gathering of ambulant musicians entertaining an
elegant lady with their ballads probably was a feature of everyday life
in seventeenth-century Flanders but other aspects of street life were
also part of the personal experience of the Jordaens family: the painter’s
wife, Catharina van Noort (1589–1659), reported being ‘reviled’ in the
Hofstraat and later threatened with a knife by a wife of a silversmith
named Van Mael in 1642, almost precisely when the present painting
was executed. 1
Within Jordaens’s own oeuvre, this work may be compared to other
genre scenes from these years that often illustrated popular sayings

fig. 1
Jacob Jordaens
Bagpipe Player, c.1640–5
Oil on canvas, 80 × 61 cm
Private Collection
(spreekwoorden) such as ‘Zo de ouden zongen, zo pijpen de jongen’ (‘As
the old ones sing, so the young ones pipe’), which had pedagogical
meanings but also wider moral and political associations. 2 As a genre
painter Jordaens also made a specialty of depicting the Feast of the
Epiphany (Driekoningenfeest) in representations of ‘The King Drinks’,
sometimes called the Bean King, because the ‘King’ was chosen among
the celebrants by whomever received a bean that had been baked into a
cake. 3 Jordaens painted several family portraits, especially in the early
part of his career. He often employed family members (including his
father-in-law and teacher, Adam van Noort) as ready models in his
anonymous genre scenes. This is also the case in the present picture;
the bagpipe player is a self-portrait of the artist and recurs in a painting
in a private collection (fig. 1). 4 All three of the musicians reappear
together (but without the other characters) in a painting that was
formerly in the collection of the Earl of Yarborough, London. 5 The
recorder player on the right and the old woman appear again in As the
Old Sing, So the Young Pipe in Ottawa. 6 While the identification is not
certain, the smiling blond woman in the window may be Jordaens’s
eldest daughter, Elizabeth Jordaens (1617–1678); she seems to reappear
in a Portrait of a Young Woman in the Akademie der bildenden Künste,
Vienna, inv. no. 640, in The King Drinks in the Musée du Louvre, Paris,
and in the Unequal Lovers in the Princely Collections of Liechtenstein,
Vienna. 7 Just as he used family members as models, Jordaens probably
had a repertoire of props that he recycled regularly or at least had
recorded in drawings. The bagpipe with the lion’s-head finial reappears
in many of his paintings of As the Old Ones Sing … (see, as examples,
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp; Louvre, Paris;
Schloss Charlottenberg, Berlin; and a French private collection
[reference below]) and is played by a younger piper in a drawing in the
Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, inv. V21. 8

fig. 2
Jacob Jordaens
Boy Singing, c.1640
Chalk on paper, 238 × 205 cm
Private Collection, Paris
Jordaens frequently worked from preparatory drawings; for example,
there is a drawing for a painting of As the Old Ones Sing, So the Young
Ones Pipe (Private Collection, France) in the National Gallery of
Scotland, Edinburgh. 9 A preparatory drawing for the small boy who
sings in the foreground exists in a private collection in Paris (fig. 2). 10
While the musical notes that appear on the boy’s scrolled sheet seem
to be fanciful and do not form a coherent melody, the inscription
in French is partially legible; it seems to read: ‘AMOVR T [or P]
pardonne moy que nous’. 11 There are a number of spiritual songs in
Dutch with the refrain in French, ‘On the melody of Amour pardon
me’. A variation of the phrase, for example, figures in the ballads of
Charles Tessier (c.1550–after 1604). 12 Jordaens is known to have quoted
from songs in his paintings of As the Old Ones Sing …. Max Rooses
long ago noted that the inscription on the Duc d’Arenberg’s painting
of this subject then in the museum in Würzburg reads ‘Een nieu liedeken
van Calloo. Die Geusen’ (‘A New Song of Calloo. The Beggars’), which
refers to the victory of the forces of Cardinal Infante Ferdinand of
Spain over the rebel forces of Frederick Hendrick of Orange at Kallo,
near Antwerp – the worst defeat the Dutch suffered in the entire
Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648). 13 More recently Michel Ceuterick has
shown that there were in fact two versions of the song, one written as
a victory celebration in the Southern Netherlands, dated 1638, and a
second rejoinder ballad composed in the North in 1644. 14 Remarkably,
Jordaens included both versions in his various renderings of As the Old
Ones Sing …, which enables us to date these paintings more precisely
and reminds us that he became a Protestant convert later in his career
undertaking major commissions for patrons in the North.
The provenance for the work can be traced to the eighteenth century
(see Provenance). It was part of the famous collection of Joséphine de
Beauharnais, wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, which was housed at the

notes
1 F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der
Antwerpsche Shilderschool, Antwerp,
1883, p. 833 (document dated 28 July
1642), pp. 833–5 (document dated 26
July 1642).
2 As examples, see Koninklijk Museum
voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp,
inv. 677; Musée des Beaux-Arts,
Valenciennes, on loan from the
Louvre, inv. 2407-MR794; Schloss
Charlottenberg, Berlin, no. G.K.1.
3842; National Gallery of Canada,
Ottawa, no. NGC 15790; the Princely
Collections, Liechtenstein, Vaduz-
Vienna, inv. GE2504. On the subject,
see A.B. de Mirimonde, ‘Les subjets
de musique chez Jacob Jordaens’,
Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum voor Schone
Kunsten Antwerpen, 1969, pp. 201– 46;
I. Németh, ‘Het Spreekwoord “zo de
ouden songen, so pijpen de jongen”
in schilderijen van Jacob Jordaens en
Jan Steen. Motieven en associaties’,
Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum voor Schone
Kunsten Antwerpen, 1990, pp. 271–86;
P.C. Sutton, in Boston Museum of
Fine Arts and Toledo Museum of
Art, The Age of Rubens, 1993, exh.
cat., pp. 252–5; R.A. d’Hulst et al.,
in Koninklijk Museum voor Schone
Kunsten, Antwerp, Jacob Jordaens
(1593–1678), 1993, exh. cat.,
pp. 178–9, 204–5.
3 See as examples Staatliche Museen,
Kassel, Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna, and Musée des Beaux Arts,
Brussels, inv. 3545. On the subject, see
d’Hulst et al., in Antwerp 1993, exh.
Château de Malmaison (purchased 1799), west of Paris. Malmaison
was famous for its gardens, rare plants, and many varieties of roses and
lilies, documented by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840), as well as its
exotic animals. The present work appeared in the inventory that was
drawn up after Joséphine’s death in 1814, no. 1013 (‘Item un tableau
représentant des Musiciens ambulans, prisé huits cents francs ci 800’).
This painting and others from Malmaison found their way to London
where they were offered in the Pall Mall gallery of William Buchanan.
Buchanan explained in his catalogue that he did not own these works
but that they were consigned to him from ‘several private collections’.
The pictures from Malmaison included two portraits by Rembrandt
(1606–1699), two by Van Dyck, the Jordaens depicting musicians, a
Holy Family by Titian (1490–1576) and a Sea Engagement by Ludolf
Backhuysen (1630–1708). All of these works are listed in the 1814
inventory of Malmaison. Although Buchanan admitted in his memoirs
that he coveted pictures from the collection, he apparently was unable
to acquire any for himself. 15 He does not inform us of who owned the
present group but the two Rembrandts reappeared in a sale in London
at Christie’s on 17 July 1819, no. 1839, where they were reportedly the
property of a ‘Mr David’, described as a ‘Merchant of Respectability
in the City of London’. This was probably John David, a businessman
listed in London directories in Threadneedle Street in 1819 and in
Wanford Court, Bank, in 1820. David, therefore, was probably the
person who consigned the paintings to Buchanan. The present work
was sold at auction again in 1816 and 1911 but then was lost from public
view for nearly a century. During that period two copies preserving the
composition were often regarded as autograph or studio works. 16
We are grateful to Peter C. Sutton for the above catalogue entry.
cat., pp. 196–7; A van Wagenbergter
Hoeven, Het Driekoningenfeest,
Amsterdam, 1997, pp. 107–19; M.
Westermann, The Amusements of Jan
Steen. Comic Painting in the Seventeenth
Century, Zwolle, 1997, pp. 160–3; I.
Schaudies, ‘Le Roi Boit!’, in A. Merle
du Bourg, I. Schaudies and J. Vander
Auwera, Jordaens 1593–1678, Petit
Palais, Paris, 2013, exh. cat., pp. 242–3.
4 See Antwerp 1993, exh. cat., cat. A63;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 9 December
2009, lot 9. Compare the Self Portrait
of c.1640 in a private collection
(Antwerp 1993, exh. cat., cat. A 58, ill.)
and somewhat later self-images in the
Alte Pinakothek, Munich, inv. 12876
(Antwerp 1993. exh. cat., cat. A78, ill.)
and Musée des Beaux Arts, Angers
(Antwerp 1993, exh. cat., cat. A78a,
ill.). See also the drawn self-portrait
of c.1640, in the Kupferstichkabinett,
Berlin, inv. 5553 (Antwerp 1993, exh.
cat., cat. B45, ill.).
5 Antwerp 1993, exh. cat., fig. A63a.
Sale, Christie’s, London, 12 July 1929,
lot 45.
6 Boston and Toledo 1993, exh. cat.,
cat. 46, ill. The old woman appears
repeatedly in various paintings of this
saying as well as ‘The King Drinks’.
7 See Antwerp 1993, exh. cat., cat. A54
and figs A54a and A54b.
8 See Antwerp 1993, exh. cat.B36, ill.
9 Antwerp 1993, exh. cat., cat. A64 and
fig. A64a.
10 R.A. d’Hulst, Jordaens Drawings:
Supplement 1, in Master Drawings, vol.
XVIII, 1980, p. 366, under no. A193a,
pl. 25.
11 I am indebted to Jacques Boogaert
for his assistance in deciphering and
proposing an identification for this
verse.
12 See F. Dobbins (ed.), Charles Tessier:
Oeuvres completes / Complete Works,
2006, no. I-26: ‘Amour pardonne moy
sy je me plains à toy de ton injure.’
13 Max Rooses, Jacob Jordaens. His Life
and Work, London, 1908, p. 79.
14 Michel Ceuterick, ‘Jacob Jordaens en
Een Nieu Liedeken van Callo. Een
onverwacht dubbelzinnig gebruik
van een zeventiende-eeuws Zuid-
Nederlandszegelied’, De Zeventiende
Eeuw, vol. 30, no. 2, 2014, pp. 214–42.
15 Memoirs, London, 1824, vol. 2,
pp. 296–7.
16 The Serenade, oil on canvas, 113.7 ×
165.8 cm., sale, Christie’s, London, 25
April, lot 49, as ‘Studio of Jordaens’;
formerly Leon de Blon Collection,
Antwerp, Brussels 1928, exh. cat., no.
24; formerly Huybrechts sale, May
1902; Rooses 1908, pp. 81– 2, 86,
109, 187, 264, ill. p. 89; R.A. d’Hulst,
Jordaens Drawings: Supplement 1, in
Master Drawings, vol. XVIII, 1980, p.
366, fig. 6; Antwerp 1993, exh. cat.,
under cat. A63, note 3. And a second
copy, also called The Serenade, canvas,
50 × 60 in., with the recorder player
on the left raising a glass above the
musicians’ heads, with Pulitzer Gallery,
London, 1957, from the Baron Gunther
and Martin Boynton collections.

theodoor rombouts
(1597 – Antwerp – 1637)
2
Card players in an interior
Signed lower right: T. ROMBOVTS
Oil on canvas
57 5 /8 × 73 1 /4 in. (147 × 186 cm)
provenance
Baron Corneille Osy de Zegwart
(1757 – 1831)
And by descent to Jean Osy de Zegwart
(1792 – 1866)
And by decent to Baron Edouard
Osy de Zegwart (1832 – 1900),
governor of Antwerp
And by descent to Baroness Osy de
Zegwart and by descent in her family
until 2014
theodoor rombouts was the primary e x pone n t
of Flemish Caravaggism, a brief but important artistic phenomenon
that peaked in the 1620s. Born in Antwerp in 1597, the history and
genre painter is best known for his large-scale secular works depicting
merry companies, music scenes and card-playing characters in compact
compositions. His half-length figures, firmly modelled and always
lively, wear theatrical costumes and are set in chiaroscuro lighting
typical of the Flemish Caravaggisti, also known as the Antwerp
Tenebrosi. The artist began as a pupil of François van Lanckvelt in
1608 and then studied under Abraham Janssens (c.1575–1632), whose
influence is evident throughout his career. Sometime after drafting
his last will and testament in 1616 Rombouts left for Rome where he
quickly embraced the style of Caravaggio (1571–1610) and Bartolomeo
Manfredi (1582–1622). There is little known about his time in Italy
but the documentation that does exist places the artist in the Roman
parish of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte in 1620, which means that Dirck van
Baburen (c.1592/93–1624), David de Haen (1585–1622) and Manfredi
were living nearby. Enticed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Rombouts
also probably worked in Florence.
Rombouts returned to his native city in 1625; he became a master in
the painters’ guild and a dean of the guild from 1629 to 1630. In 1627
he married Anna van Thielen, the sister of one of his pupils, flower
painter Jan Philip van Thielen (1618–1667). The couple welcomed the
birth of their daughter, Anna Maria, the following year. The successful
artist painted mostly for private clients and for the open market but
he also executed some altarpieces, with most commissions coming
from Ghent. Though best known for his work in the Caravaggesque

idiom, Rombouts’s artistic development after returning to Antwerp
followed popular taste. As the fashionable interest in Caravaggism
began to wane after 1630, the savvy artist moved in the direction of
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641),
towards greater refinement in his palette and surfaces. According to
Leonard J. Slatkes, Rombouts’s works were always only superficially
Caravaggesque and were more profoundly shaped by the influences
of his many Flemish baroque contemporaries. 1 Little is known of his
Antwerp workshop but his pupils included Nicolaas van Eyck (1617–
1679), Jan Philip van Thielen and Paulus Robyns. Near the end of his
life he attempted to replicate a house and studio in imitation of Rubens.
The costly endeavour apparently incurred heavy debts, which he never
had the opportunity to resolve due to his untimely death in 1637.
The present work, Card Players in an Interior, belongs among the
finest and most representative works of Rombouts’s Caravaggesque
genre scenes. Recalling Manfredi’s merry company pictures, there is
a marked sense of monumentality to the five figures that are arranged
around a carpeted table, engaged in a game of cards. The individuals
are realistic and expressive; the scene appears convincingly spontaneous
and natural. Rombouts introduces repoussoir figures that confront the
viewer and direct attention to the central bearded figure who stares
down at his hand of cards, presumably a self-portrait. Rombouts also
included a portrait of his wife, Anna, in the hatted figure seated beside
him. The inclusion of self-portraits and portraits of family members
was not unusual in Dutch and Flemish genre painting, despite the
potentially negative associations of moralising subjects. Card playing
was perceived as a time-waster at best and, at worst, was associated with
any number of disreputable behaviours. Though no alcohol is depicted,
coins are strewn about the table: a reference to the ‘unwholesome’
activity of gambling. Portraits of Rombouts, his wife and even his

fig. 1
Theodore Rombouts
The Backgammon Players
Signed and dated on the edge of
backgammon board: T Rombouts f 1634
Oil on canvas, 61 1 /4 × 92 7 /16 in.
North Carolina Museum of Art,
Raleigh
young daughter can be seen in another of his works, The Backgammon
Players, at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh (fig. 1), in which
the lavishly dressed soldier bears the artist’s likeness. This comparison
not only confirms the identities of the Theodoor and Anna in our
picture but also helps to date it. The Backgammon Players, painted in
1634, demonstrates Rombouts’s move away from Caravaggism towards
the prevailing baroque style as it evolved in Antwerp. Unlike our
picture, the Raleigh composition is set in a deeper space with vaguely
classicising figures. The palette is brighter, the lighting more diffuse
and the costumes more sophisticated. The luxurious shimmering
fabrics speak of the direct influence of Rubens and Van Dyck. Our
Card Players was certainly produced earlier when Rombouts was still
painting under the influence of Roman Caravaggism, adeptly applying
chiaroscuro and local colour to his rustically expressive scenes.
note
1 Bauman, Guy C., and Walter A. Liedtke,
Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of
Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings
in Public Collections of North America,
Antwerp, 1992, p. 240.

johannes cornelisz verspronck
(1600–03 – Haarlem – 1662)
3
Portrait of Johan de Waal (1594–1678),
seated half-length wearing black and holding a hat
Signed, inscribed with the age of the sitter, and dated: Aetatis 59. 1653/Johan vSpronck
Oil on panel
35 × 27 in. (88.9 × 69 cm)
provenance
Sale; Van der Schley D. du Bre, Amsterdam
22 December 1817, lot 107.
Sale; Amsterdam 14 May 1832, lot 89
(to Anderson).
Van den Benden, Brussels; sold, Drouot,
Paris, 9 February 1928, lot 103.
Comtesse de la Beraudiere, her sale,
New York, 11–13 December 1930, lot 169
(as a self-portrait).
Joseph J. Bodell, Providence, RI, USA.
literature
R.E.O. Ekkart, Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck:
Leven en werken van een Haarlems portretschilder
uit de 17-de eeue, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem,
1979, 54 & 118, no. 91, illustrated on p. 196.
johannes cornelisz verspronck depicts this
fifty-nine-year-old sitter directly and honestly in the artist’s perfected
mature style. This easily recognised ‘Haarlem portrait’ owes a large
debt to Frans Hals (1582/3–1666); after Hals, Verspronck was the most
important portrait painter in Haarlem, receiving numerous prestigious
commissions. Here he depicts the sitter’s somewhat wistful and wise
face in a glowing halo created with thin wisps of paint over a light
ground. The importance of the sitter and of this commission is evident
in the inclusion of the akimbo arm and reverse-palm hand positioned
in a bravura display of painting to extremely convincing effect. The
artist laboured over the position of the chair making at least one major
change to the composition. The pentiment reveals the improvement
of the illusion, positioning the sitter rigidly upright, off-centre and
slightly off-balance as if in the moment of landing on the chair’s surface
or about to rise. The casualness of the positioning of the arms and the
hat ‘at the ready’ effectively communicates that this important man has
paused in mid-motion to have a master paint his portrait.
In 1653 the year of this painting, the Dutch East India
Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) was embarking on
the most ambitious and dangerous commercial, colonial projects
in the company’s, and the Dutch Republic’s, history, including the
establishment of a trading post in southernmost Africa. This selfassured
sitter is Johan de Waal, twice Burgemeester of Haarlem (in
1627 and 1633), Kolonel and prominent, along with many other male
relatives, officer of the St Jorisdoelen Guild (see fig. 1), and one of
the scions of the De Waal family. The family played a major role in
the domestic politics of the Dutch Republic and a critical role in the

fig. 1
Pieter de Grebber
Maaltijd van officieren van de
St Jorisdoelen, 1624
Johan de Waal appears in this
St Jorisdoelen Guild portrait:
fourth from the left, standing
formation and success of the Republic’s commercial ventures in
South Africa.
In J.C. de Waal and H.D. van Louw’s thorough genealogical
account, Die De Waal familie se geskiedenis oor 350 jaar in Suid-Afrika, 1
explores the importance of the family and especially the eponymous
grandson of the present sitter, Johannes (Jan) de Waal, who travelled
to the colony on the ship Tournai and became the Quartermaster
and Sexton of Cape Church, a political leader of the colony and an
extremely wealthy man. The name De Waal appears on public parks
and buildings, numerous streets and multiple businesses, including a
winery ranking among the top ten in South Africa. The history of the
South African nation and the fate of this Dutch family of adventurers,
politicians and businessmen are intimately interwoven over the next
350 years, from the moment of the exploratory mission to the Cape in
the same year as Verspronck’s sensitive portrait.
Like the celebrated portrait of Michiel de Waal emptying his roemer
by Hals (fig. 2), Verspronck portrays De Waal with similar irreverence,
with his jaunty hand and balanced hat. The artist employs a comparable
illusion and bravura technique in his, equally successful, Portrait of
Eduard Wallis (fig. 3). De Waal may have been aware of the Wallis
portraits of a decade earlier and asked for a similar reverse palm in his
fig. 2
Frans Hals
The Banquet of the Officers of the St
George Militia Company (detail), 1627
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem
fig. 3
Johan Verspronck
Portrait of Eduard Wallis, 1652
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
fig. 4
Johan Verspronck
Portrait of Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater
(1597–1678), 1653
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
note
1 J.C. de Waal and H.D. van Louw,
Die nageslag van Johannes (Jan) De Waal
1692-1768 : die de Waal familie se geskiedenis
oor 350 jaar in Suid-Afrika
portrait, or perhaps the artist remembered the particular effect achieved
and re-employed the device.
This portrait of the Bergemeester and the pendant depicting his
wife, Aeltje van der Horst (1597–1678) (fig. 4), whom he married in
1620 (see Ekkart, no. 92, under Literature above), demonstrate the level
of commissions that Verspronck was executing at this time. With the
De Waal family’s ongoing involvement with the guilds (most notably
the St Jorisdoelen), ensuring a family album by some of the greatest
artists of the day (most remarkably, Michiel de Waal by Hals, but also
including Pieter de Grebber (c.1600–1652/3) and others), Johan de
Waal here continues the tradition of bold family portraiture, after his
appearance, some twenty years previously, in the St Jorisdoelen Guild
portrait by De Grebber (fig. 1). As the captain of the company he is
wearing a sash and is standing gesturing elegantly, revealing not only
the casual, confident ease of the sitter, but also the masterful brushwork
of the next generation of Haarlem artists.

4
matthias stomer
(c.1600 – after 1652)
The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew
Painted circa 1630–35
Oil on canvas
44 × 62 in. (111.8 × 157.5 cm)
provenance
Gargallo Collection, Syracuse, Sicily.
Private Collection, Sicily.
Anon. sale, Christie’s, New York,
28 January 2015, lot 26.
literature
S. Bottari, ‘Aggiunte al Manfredi, al
Renieri e allo Stomer’, Arte Antica e
Moderna, nos 29–32, 1965, pp. 57–60,
ill. p. 59, plate 23b.
B. Nicolson, The International Caravaggesque
Movement: Lists of Pictures by
Caravaggio and His Followers throughout
Europe from 1590 to 1650, Oxford, 1979,
p. 95.
B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, 2nd
edition revised and enlarged by Luisa
Vertova, Turin, 1989, vol. 1, p. 184.
matthias stomer ranks among the most important
and prolific Netherlandish masters of the seventeenth century who were
active in Italy. This talented painter, among the last of the famed Dutch
Caravaggisti, is also, unjustly, one of the most under-studied artists
of that entire era. 1 Indeed, the sheer paucity of scholarly publications
on Stomer stands in sharp relief to the quality and significance of his
ample oeuvre. Compounding our difficulties in assessing Stomer is the
sheer lack of geographical documentation and firmly dated pictures,
despite his high output.
Stomer’s birthplace cannot be documented with any certainty.
G.J. Hoogewerff, writing in 1942, declared that the artist was born
in Amersfoort, near the city of Utrecht; unfortunately, Hoogewerff’s
documentary source for this information has long since disappeared. 2
In preparing his biography on the artist for the critically acclaimed
exhibition, Nieuw Licht op de Gouden Eeuw: Hendrick ter Brugghen en
tijdgenoten (1986–1987), Marten Jan Bok was unable to locate any
information about Stomer in the municipal archives in Amersfoort. 3
Bok also pointed out that the name, Stom – the actual name by which
our painter was known during his lifetime even though he is generally
called Stomer in modern art historical literature – is of Southern
Netherlandish (Flemish) derivation and that many people bearing the
name in the Dutch Republic had emigrated from that region of the
Low Countries. 4 So it is entirely conceivable that Stomer himself was
a Flemish émigré to the North or, perhaps, spent most of his early life
and career in the Southern Netherlands. 5
If, in fact, Stomer, did emigrate, like so many of his countrymen,
to the Dutch Republic, he might have received his artistic training

in Utrecht or possibly Amersfoort because the influence of Dutch
painters from both those towns in terms of style and subject matter
is readily detectable in his earliest work. In this regard, he was once
said to have studied with the prominent Utrecht painter, Gerrit
van Honthorst (1592–1656). 6 However, since Stomer was probably
born around 1600 (see below) and since Honthorst himself did not
return to his native city after his extended Italian sojourn until the
summer of 1620, it seems very unlikely that he would have embarked
upon an apprenticeship with the famed painter as a twenty-year-old.
Nevertheless, given the ample stylistic and thematic connections
between these two artists, Stomer could have received supplemental
instruction with Honthorst after having undergone preliminary
training elsewhere.
If that earlier training did take place in the studio of a major artist in
Utrecht, the only plausible candidates would be Hendrick ter Brugghen
(1588–1629), who returned home in 1614 after his own protracted
stay in Italy or, much more likely, Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638),
Paulus Moreelse (1571–1638) or the venerable Abraham Bloemaert
(1566–1651), who all schooled many members of the younger artistic
generation. 7 There are certain stylistic parallels between Stomer’s early
work and their own, among them the use of metallic colours and figures
whose plasticity is enhanced by the silvery daylight that envelops them.
Be that as it may, there exists no documentary evidence that Stomer
studied with any of these masters. Moreover, we presently cannot
exclude the possibility that Stomer was initially trained in the Southern
Netherlands, perhaps by Abraham Janssens (c.1575–1632) in Antwerp,
because his pictures exhibit some connections with early seventeenthcentury
Flemish painting. 8
At some point before 1630, Stomer travelled to Rome. The earliest
known archival document concerning our artist is dated to that year:

Stomer is recorded as sharing a house on the Strada dell’Orso in the
eternal city with the now-obscure French painter Nicolas Provost in the
Stato delle Anime (annual Easter census) for the parish of San Nicolà in
Arcione, as ‘Mattheo Stom, fiamengo pittore, di anni 30.’ 9 (The stating of
his age in this census, thirty, enables us to posit a birth date of c.1600.)
Curiously, Stomer was living in the very same house occupied several
years earlier by the Amersfoort painter, Paulus Bor (c.1601–1669). 10 Bor,
who had returned to Amersfoort in 1626 after several years in Rome,
might have recommended this lodging possibility to Stomer before the
latter departed on his own trip there. Stati delle Anime for 1631 and 1632
again place Stomer at the same location, though his name was garbled
by the notary as, respectively, ‘Sthem’ and ‘Schem’.
Stomer’s Roman period encompasses the years 1630 (if not slightly
earlier) to 1635 – he is already documented in Naples by the latter date. 11
Our picture, the Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, was painted during
Stomer’s Roman period. Additional documentation for Stomer’s
presence in Italy does not appear again until 1641, the year that he
signed and dated his altarpiece of The Miracle of S. Isidorus Argicola,
for the high altar of the Chiesa degli Agostiniani in Caccamo, near
Palermo in Sicily. By 1641, Stomer was certainly living in Sicily. He
entered into a period of intense activity there, executing many pictures
for churches in such towns as Messina, Monreale, Palermo and the
aforementioned Caccamo. In between his time in Rome and Sicily,
Stomer spent a number of years in Naples; he probably arrived there in
early 1635 and remained in that vital artistic centre until roughly 1640.
Although there is no firm documentation for Stomer’s stay in Naples,
several late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Italian authors
mention specific pictures that Stomer made for the Capuchin Church
of Sant’Efemo Nuovo, now unfortunately lost, presumably dispersed
around 1865, after this church and its convent were converted into a
prison. 12 Other paintings by the artist are known to have come from
various Neapolitan palaces. Moreover, the influence of Stomer’s work
on the Neapolitan painters – Domenico Viola (d.1696) and, especially,
Domenico Gargiulo, known as Micco Spadaro (c. 1609/10–1685) –
suggests the Netherlander’s presence in that city. 13
Several pictures by Stomer also have Maltese provenances,
suggesting that Stomer had clients on Malta, though it is not known
whether he actually travelled to that island. Stomer also worked for the
important Neapolitan connoisseur and collector, the Duke of Messina,
Antonio Ruffo, who is best known among specialists today as a patron
of Rembrandt (1606–1669). Ruffo owned at least three pictures by
Stomer, acquired from our painter between 1646 and 1649. 14 The latter
year, 1649, is the last for which we have documentation for Stomer’s
activities in Sicily. Thereafter, in 1652, we find a reference to a large
altarpiece of the Assumption of the Virgin with Three Saints for the church
of Santa Maria de Lorino, in the town of Chiuduno near Bergamo
in Lombardy. 15 Stomer might have shipped this altarpiece from Sicily
but it is more likely that he was active in northern Italy in the last years
of his life – 1652 is the final year for which we have documentation
for the artist. In connection with Stomer and northern Italy, perhaps
some significance should be attached to the presence in that region of a
certain Mathäus Stom, a member of a late seventeenth-century family
of battle-scene painters, who may, in fact, be our artist’s son. 16
The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew is not a well-known work
by Matthias Stomer, but it is nevertheless an important picture
within his overall oeuvre. St Bartholomew is traditionally identified
as one of Christ’s original twelve apostles. After the Resurrection,
Bartholomew is believed to have preached the gospel in India and
Armenia. In the latter region, he was flayed alive and then hung upside
down for refusing to worship idols. In Stomer’s dramatic canvas, the

fig. 1
Dirck van Baburen
Granida and Daifolo, 1623
Private Collection
fig. 2
Matthias Stomer
Christ and the Woman taken
in Adultery, c.1630–5
Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal
doomed saint is posed frontally in half-length. He is stripped to his
loincloth and one of the executioners has already begun his grisly
task. Stomer has added the remarkable motif of a figure in a striking
terracotta-coloured robe at the far left – perhaps a pagan priest – who
holds a golden statuette of Minerva before the elderly saint, thereby
contextualising the immediate cause of his martyrdom.
If Stomer’s initial training did take place in the studio of a major
artist in Utrecht (see above), the most plausible candidate would be
Hendrick ter Brugghen, who returned home in 1614 after a protracted
stay in Italy. In fact, Ter Brugghen himself provided an interesting
prototype for Stomer’s painting. The older painter’s lost Martyrdom of
Saint Bartholomew, known today only from a copy (Private Collection,
Germany), likewise portrays the story on a rectangular canvas with
physically assertive, half-length figures positioned before a neutral
background. 18 A further Utrecht connection is the wonderful Prussian
blue robe with yellow trim worn by the soldier standing beside the
priestly figure holding the statuette of Minerva. Attire consisting of
this combination of colours appears repeatedly in paintings by Gerrit
van Honthorst and Dirck van Baburen (c.1592/93–1624) dated 1623
onwards (fig. 1). 19 Despite its Utrecht-based precedents for composition
and colour, Stomer’s Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew dates to his
Roman period, specifically, c.1630–5.
Our canvas compares favourably with a number of religious
paintings in daylight that Stomer executed during his years in Rome,
including Christ among the Doctors (Private Collection, Bergamo), 21
Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (Museum of Fine Arts,
Montreal) (fig. 2), 22 and Christ Driving the Money Changers from the
Temple (Sale, Christies, London, 5 July 1985, lot 23). A particularly
noteworthy comparison is with Stomer’s Salome receives the Head of
John the Baptist (The National Gallery, London) (fig. 3). Although it
is a night scene, it is approximately the same size as our picture and
likewise displays similar seams at the top and bottom of the canvas. 23
All of the paintings listed above share the same compositional
arrangement of animated figures pressed close to the picture plane
before an unarticulated background with an additional head or two
looming in the interstices behind the main protagonists. As for the
subject of our canvas, the Spaniard Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652) made
the most pictures by far of the Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, but
all of these were executed in Naples during the 1620s and beyond. 24
Nevertheless, Stomer was probably familiar with a picture of the saint’s
martyrdom painted in Rome by the French Caravaggist Valentin de

fig. 3
Matthias Stomer
Salome receives the Head of John
the Baptist, c.1630–5
Oil on canvas, 109.2 × 155.7 cm
The National Gallery, London
fig. 4
Valentin de Boulogne
Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, c.1616
Private Collection
fig. 5
Borghese Fisherman (The Dying Seneca)
Second century ad
Black marble
Musée du Louvre, Paris
in black marble of a Greek original (fig. 5). 26 This statue belonged to
Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1576–1633) during the early seventeenth
century and was well known to many artists, most notably Peter Paul
Rubens (1577–1640), who made several carefully drawn copies of it
in black chalk. 27 At that time, it was thought to represent the suicide
of the famous Roman Stoic philosopher, Seneca. The facial features
of Stomer’s saint recall those of the statue though the latter’s hair
and beard are closely cropped. Curiously, in some humanistic circles,
Seneca was upheld as a model for Christians in that he taught strict
virtue and accepted his unjust death – he was forced to commit suicide
by the emperor Nero – with calm resignation. 28 Perhaps these potential
associations between the pagan philosopher and the condemned
Christian saint were not lost on Stomer or the original owner of our
compelling picture.
We are grateful to Professor Wayne Franits for the above catalogue entry.
Boulogne (1591–1632), datable to c.1616 (fig. 4). 25 The hoary-headed
saint’s face in Valentin’s work recalls Stomer’s, as does his leathery,
wizened body, clothed only with a loin cloth. More significantly,
both painters employ a similar facture, accentuated by rich impasto
highlights, even if the Frenchman’s tonalities are more silvery.
Stomer’s St Bartholomew also reveals his familiarity with the socalled
Borghese Fisherman, a monumental second-century Roman copy

notes
1 There have been scattered studies
of Stomer’s art over the last sixty
years. Examples of his work have also
frequently featured in exhibitions
dedicated to broader themes.
Foundational are: C.H. Pauwels,
‘De schilder Matthias Stomer’,
Gentse Bijdragen tot Kunstgeschiedenis,
vol. 14, 1953, pp. 139–92; C.H.
Pauwels, ‘Nieuwe toeschrijvingen
aan M. Stomer’, Gentse Bijdragen
tot Kunstgeschiedenis, vol. 15, 1954,
pp. 233–40. Thereafter, Benedict
Nicolson made a valiant effort to
organise the artist’s imposing oeuvre
in: ‘Stomer Brought Up-to-Date’, The
Burlington Magazine, vol. 119, 1977, pp.
230–45. See also Benedict Nicolson,
Caravaggism in Europe, revised edition,
3 vols, ed. by Luisa Vertova, Turin,
1989, vol. 1, pp. 179–88; vol. 3, figs
1460–1563. More recently, there
has been a dissertation addressing
Stomer’s Sicilian period, published
by Franziska Fischbacher, Matthias
Stomer: Die sizilianischen Nachtstücke,
Frankfurt am Main and Berlin,
1993; an exhibition at The Barber
Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham,
Richard Verdi, Matthias Stom: Isaac
Blessing Jacob, exh. cat., 1999–2000
(the exhibition was reviewed by
Leonard J. Slatkes in The Burlington
Magazine, vol. 142, 2000, pp. 181–3);
and a small collection catalogue from
Palermo: Angheli Zalapì and Stefania
Caramanna, Matthias Stom: Un
caravaggesco nella collezione Villafranca
di Palermo, 2010. Curiously, Stomer
was not included in the recent
comprehensive study of international
Caravaggism, edited by Alessandro
Zuccari, I Caravaggeschi: percorsi e
protagonisti, 2 vols, Milan, 2010.
2 G.J. Hoogewerff,
Nederlandschekunstenaarste Rome (1600–
1725): uittrekselsuit de parochialearchieven,
The Hague, 1942, p. 279, note 2.
Within eleven years of Hoogewerff’s
important book, .Pauwels 1953, p. 142,
note 15, declared that this document
was no longer accessible.
3 Marten Jan Bok, ‘Matthias Stom’, in
Albert Blankert et al., Nieuw Licht op de
Gouden Eeuw: Hendrick ter Brugghen en
tijdgenoten, exh. cat., Centraal Museum,
Utrecht and Herzog Anton Ulrich
Museum, Braunschweig, 1986–7,
p. 333.
4 Ibid., p. 333 and his notes 16 and 17.
5 The form of the signature recorded
on a now-lost picture by Stomer,
‘Flandriae Stomus …’ provides no
specific evidence concerning the
country of his birth because it makes
no distinction between the Northern
and the Southern Netherlands; see
further ibid., p. 333 and his note 15.
6 G.J. Hoogewerff, ‘Rembrandt en een
Italiaan schemae cenas’, Oud Holland,
vol. 35, 1917, p. 132. For Honthorst, see
J. Richard Judson and Rudolf E.O.
Ekkart, Gerrit van Honthorst 1592–1656,
Doornspijk, 1999.
7 For Ter Brugghen, see Leonard
J. Slatkes and Wayne Franits, The
Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen
1588–1629. Catalogue raisonné,
Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 2007;
for Wtewael, Anne W. Lowenthal,
Joachim Wtewael and Dutch Mannerism,
Doornspijk, 1986; for Moreelse, Eric
Domela Nieuwenhuis, Paulus Moreelse
(1571–1638), Proefschrift, University
of Leiden, 2001; and for Bloemaert,
Marcel G. Roethlisberger, Abraham
Bloemaert and His Sons, 2 vols.,
Doornspijk, 1993.
8 This was first proposed by Richard
Spear, writing in R. Spear, Caravaggio
and His Followers, exh. cat., Cleveland
Museum of Art, Cleveland, 1971–2,
p. 114, with no supporting evidence,
however. See also Verdi 1999–2000,
p. 34, note 13.
9 Hoogewerff 1942, p. 279. The
designation, fiamengo (Flemish), in this
Italian document, was one routinely
invoked by notaries for all inhabitants
of the Low Countries, regardless of
whether they were from the north or
south.
10 Ibid., p. 279. Bok 1986–7, p. 333,
note 7, rightly wonders whether
this document formed the basis for
Hoogewerff’s opinion that Stomer
hailed from Amersfoort.
11 Marije Osnabrugge, ‘New Documents
for Matthias Stom in Naples’, The
Burlington Magazine, vol. 156, 2014,
pp. 107–8.
12 See Nicolson 1977, p. 230, and the
literature he cites in his note 5.
13 With regard to Gargiulo, see his
David with the Head of Goliath, a
picture once attributed to Stomer and,
indeed, remarkably close to Stomer
in technique. It was auctioned at
Sotheby’s in London on 8 July 1992,
lot 27.
14 See Jeroen Giltaij, Ruffoen Rembrandt.
Over een Siciliaans ever zamelaar in de
zeventiendeeeuw die drieschilderijenbij
Rembrandt bestelde, Zutphen, 1999,
pp. 30, 98, 103–5, 117, 121–2, 127, 135–6
passim.
15 This large altarpiece is presently on
view in the church of Santa Maria
Assunta in Chiuduno. See Francesco
Rossi et al., Il Seicento a Bergamo, exh.
cat., Palazzo Ragione, Bergamo, 1987,
p. 203, cat. 52; Enrico de Pascale et
al., Dipinti caravaggeschi nelle raccolte
bergamasche, Bergamo, 2000, pp. 74-9,
cat. 12.
16 See Rodolfo Palluchini, La pittura
Veneziana del Seicento, Milan, 1981,
p. 323.
17 Hoogewerff 1917, p. 132, had posited
that Stomer studied with the
prominent Utrecht painter, Gerrit van
Honthorst (1592–1656). However,
since our painter was most likely born
around 1600 (see below) and since
Honthorst himself did not return to
his native city after his extended Italian
sojourn until the summer of 1620, it
seems very unlikely that he would have
embarked upon an apprenticeship with
the famed painter as a twenty-year-old.
18 Ter Brugghen’s lost painting was
recorded in the sale of the collection of
Abraham Perroneau in Amsterdam in
1687; see further, Slatkes and Franits,
2007, p. 266, cat. L7.
19 See, for example, Honthorst’s Merry
Company, dated 1623 (National
Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) and
Baburen’s Granida and Daifolo, likewise
dated 1623 (Private Collection) and
that master’s final painting, Achilles
before the Dead Body of Patroclus
(Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel),
signed and dated 1624. For these
two latter works, see Wayne Franits,
The Paintings of Dirck van Baburen,
ca. 1592/93–1624: Catalogue Raisonné,
Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 2013,
pp. 154–6, cat. A31, plate 31; pp. 166–8,
cat. A36, plate 36.
20 See note 11 above.
21 See De Pascale et al. 2000, pp. 66–9,
cat. 10.
22 This picture was most recently on
view at the exhibition, Corps etombres:
Caravage et le caravagisme europeen,
Musée des Augustins, Toulouse;
Musée Fabre, Montpellier, 2012–13,
pp. 322–3, cat. 86.
23 This painting, from the Sir Dennis
Mahon Collection, is dated c.1630–2
and measures 109.2 × 155.7 cm. Otto
Naumann, who pointed out the
connection to the Martyrdom of Saint
Bartholomew, wonders whether the
canvases for both pictures were cut
from the same bolt.
24 See, for example, Nicola Spinosa,
Ribera. L’operacompleta, 2nd edition,
Naples, 2006, pp. 273, 287–8, cats
A46, A71, A72.
25 See Marina Mojana, Valentin de
Boulogne, Milan, 1989, pp. 182–3, cat.
65. Although the Frenchman is only
documented in Rome for the first time
in 1620, he must have arrived years
earlier.
26 My thanks to Otto Naumann for
calling attention to this statue in
relation to Stomer’s picture.
27 For two of Rubens’s drawings of this
statue, see Anne-Marie Logan and
Michiel Plomp, Peter Paul Rubens: The
Drawings, exh. cat., The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, 2005, pp.
112–15, cats 22–23. The statue was also
the model for the artist’s painting of
the Death of Seneca of c.1612–13 (Alte
Pinakothek, Munich). Today the
so-called Borghese Fisherman is in the
collections of the Musée du Louvre,
Paris.
28 See Willibald Sauerländer, The Catholic
Rubens: Saints and Martyrs, trans. D.
Dollenmayer, Los Angeles, 2014,
pp. 28–9.

the master of the madonna del ponterosso
(active around Florence in the late 15th and early 16th century)
5
The Madonna and Child with Saints John the
Baptist and Anthony Abbot and Two Angels
Oil on panel, a tondo
Diameter: 35 5 /8 in. (90.5 cm)
provenance
Private Collection, Madrid, by 1989.
literature
F. Todini, La pittura umbra: Dal Duecento
al primo Cinquecento, Milan 1989, vol. I,
p. 151, reproduced vol. I, plate XLVI and
vol. II, fig. 1278.
Marco Tanzi, La pala di Viadana : tracce
di classicismo precoce lungo la valle del Po,
Viadana, Italy, Comune di Viadana,
2000, p. 56, illustrated p. 58, fig. 43 as
‘Bartolomeo Bonone (?)’.
this sublime tondo by the master of the madonna
del Ponterosso is an exquisite example of Renaissance painting at
the turn of the sixteenth century. It is immaculately preserved with
a beautiful paint surface, retaining the delicate glazes and refined
modelling that are so often lost over time in paintings of this period.
The work was published in 1989 by Filippo Todini (see Literature) who
grouped together five works ‘of elevated quality’, the present painting
included, which he considered to be by a Florentine follower of Pietro
Perugino (c.1450–1523), influenced by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–
1494) and elements of Flemish painting. Todini named the artist after
a fresco at the sanctuary of Santa Maria del Ponterosso, in the small
Florentine town of Figline Valdarno.
The design for the Virgin and Child, used for both the present
painting and the master’s eponymous fresco, relates to Perugino’s
celebrated Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist
and Sebastiano in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (fig. 2). 1 Perugino’s
Madonna was commissioned by Cornelia Martini, widow of the
Florentine merchant, Giovanni Martini, and dates to 1493. It must
be assumed that the cartoon remained in Perugino’s workshop from
that date onwards and the master himself reprised the design for the
central figures of his Madonna and Child with Saints in the church of
Sant’Agostino, Cremona. 2 The treatment of the angels in the present
painting, meanwhile, is not at all Umbrian and seems much more
northern in style, diverging from figures in the master’s corpus.
The eponymous fresco was housed in a tabernacle near the
Ponterosso, or ‘red bridge’, which traversed the local river in Figline
Valdarno. 3 Documents pertaining to the commission of the tabernacle,
Please note, all images of the painting are before cleaning

fig. 1
Pietro Perugino
Madonna and Child Enthroned between
Saint John the Baptist and Saint Sebastian
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
fig. 2
Pietro Perugino
Madonna and Child with Saints
Sant’Agostino, Cremona
notes
1 For the Perugino altarpiece see
P. Scarpellini, Perugino, Milan, 1984,
p. 87, reproduced p. 179, fig. 84.
2 Ibid., p. 88, cat. 61, reproduced p. 183,
fig. 91.
3 N. Baldini, Nella bottega fiorentina di
Pietro Perugino. Un’identità per il Maestro
della Madonna del Ponterosso: Giovanni di
Papino Calderini pittore di Figline, Figline
Valdarno 2010, p. 5.
4 Ibid., pp. 5–10.
5 Ibid., p. 8.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., p. 5.
discovered through the studies of Nicoletta Baldini, have shed light
on a possible identification of the fresco’s author. 4 According to
the documents, at some point between 14 March 1496 and 3 April
1499, the Florentine nobleman, Antonio Parigi, engaged a builder,
a blacksmith and a painter for the construction and decoration of
the tabernacle on his land at the edge of the river. 5 The local painter,
Giovanni di Papino Calderini, was charged with the tabernacle’s
decoration and Baldini proposes the artist was the author of the
Madonna and Child Enthroned (fig. 2), thus tentatively identifying him
as the elusive Master of the Madonna del Ponterosso. 6 When the
river running beside the tabernacle burst its banks in 1557, the fresco
was removed from its original position due to the resulting flooding
and placed on the high altar of the new church, built in 1570, where it
remains today. 7
We are grateful to Professor Filippo Todini for reconfirming the attribution
to the Master of the Madonna del Ponterosso on the basis of photographs.