1029 - Flämischer Meister um 1700

Flämischer Meister um 1700 Flemish School c. 1700 Hommage to Ceres (Allegory of Earth) Oil on panel (parquetted). 48 x 76.5 cm. Provenance Schäffer Collection, Berlin and London, c.1930–1934. (als Jan Brueghel und Hendrick van Balen). – Private Collection, Belgium. Exhibitions La Dinastia Brueghel, Villa Olmo/Museum of Art, Como/Tel Aviv 2012, no. 78 (as Jan van Kessel the Younger). Literature Exh. cat. Como/Tel Aviv 2012: La Dinastia Brueghel, eds.: S. Gaddi, D. J. Lurie and J. de Maere, Milan 2012, no. 78 (as Jan van Kessel the Younger), p. 230, ill. In the middle of the forest sits Ceres, goddess of agriculture, grain, and the fertility of the earth. A bountiful cornucopia in her arm, she gazes out at us from the picture as the calm center of the composition, dressed red and blue robes, while she is busily surrounded on all sides. Two putti and a satyr bring wreaths and fruits. On the ground reclines what is probably Triptolemus, a young prince to whom Ceres entrusted grains of wheat, charging him to spread both agriculture and her cult across the entire earth (cf. K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568–1625). Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, vol. 3, Lingen 2008–10, p. 1038). Countless fruits and vegetables on the forest floor in the foreground are presented not only to Ceres but equally to the eyes of the viewer. Various animals also frolic there, and exquisite flowers spring up, all of which underscore the idea of fertility and growth. The highly elegant composition is, with some deviations, directly modeled on Jan Brueghel the Elder's famous 'Allegories of Earth', like the versions in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon (inv.-no. A-74) and the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome (inv.-no. 322). Formerly attributed to both Brueghel himself and Jan van Kessel the Younger, the painting was probably executed around 1700 by a still-unidentified Flemish master, while an attribution to Balthasar or Jacob Andries Beschey might be considered. We are grateful to Dr Fred G. Meijer, Amsterdam, for his help in cataloguing the present painting.