DOI issue:
Nr. 3-4
DOI article:Slatkes, Leonard J.: Bringing Ter Brugghen and Baburen up-to-date
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18945#0217
4. Dirckvan ßoburen,
Offering to Ceres, canvas,
138,.5 x 196.5 cm, private
collection, France
of the canvas, the composition of this striking picture must be essentially
intact. This fact, along with other stylistic details, suggests a relatively early
date, probably not much later than 1624, the year of Baburen’s death, despite
its relationship with ter Brugghen’s late masterpiece, the 1629 Diest
Annunciation,42 which it should now be seen as anticipating. Clearly both
Annunciation pictures are in their own ways products of the artistic interacion
between ter Brugghen and a lost Baburen of the same subject. Although the
prime version of Baburen’s Annunciation has disappeared, it has been
preserved in a copy by Jan Janssens (Fig. 7), in Ghent.43 Janssens seems to have
made a career out of copying Baburen and Honthorst compositions that he
frequently and fraudulently signed as “inventor.”44 Although Janssens has
simplified the forms, the Baburen-like character is immediately apparent. For
example, the shadowed face of Gabriel and his gesture is typical of Baburen,
as is the rendering of the drapery and the brighter color; these elements are
echoed in ter Brugghen’s picture, although his treatment of the composition is
infinitely more complex and his handling of the paint surfaces and the color
studied and subtle.
42 Utrecht/Braunschweig exh. 1986/87, cat. no. 32.
43 Canvas, 258 x 222 cm, Museum voor Schone Künsten, Ghent. The composition is the only one
by Baburen that may have served as an altarpiece.
44 The best known example of Janssens taking over a Baburen composition is his copy of the York
Roman Charity in the Academia de S. Fernando, Madrid. Significantly, the Madrid canvas is
signed in the same manner, including the fraudulent use of the word “invenit”. See Slatkes, Dirck
van Baburen, op. cit., cat. A22, pp. 125-127.
207
Offering to Ceres, canvas,
138,.5 x 196.5 cm, private
collection, France
of the canvas, the composition of this striking picture must be essentially
intact. This fact, along with other stylistic details, suggests a relatively early
date, probably not much later than 1624, the year of Baburen’s death, despite
its relationship with ter Brugghen’s late masterpiece, the 1629 Diest
Annunciation,42 which it should now be seen as anticipating. Clearly both
Annunciation pictures are in their own ways products of the artistic interacion
between ter Brugghen and a lost Baburen of the same subject. Although the
prime version of Baburen’s Annunciation has disappeared, it has been
preserved in a copy by Jan Janssens (Fig. 7), in Ghent.43 Janssens seems to have
made a career out of copying Baburen and Honthorst compositions that he
frequently and fraudulently signed as “inventor.”44 Although Janssens has
simplified the forms, the Baburen-like character is immediately apparent. For
example, the shadowed face of Gabriel and his gesture is typical of Baburen,
as is the rendering of the drapery and the brighter color; these elements are
echoed in ter Brugghen’s picture, although his treatment of the composition is
infinitely more complex and his handling of the paint surfaces and the color
studied and subtle.
42 Utrecht/Braunschweig exh. 1986/87, cat. no. 32.
43 Canvas, 258 x 222 cm, Museum voor Schone Künsten, Ghent. The composition is the only one
by Baburen that may have served as an altarpiece.
44 The best known example of Janssens taking over a Baburen composition is his copy of the York
Roman Charity in the Academia de S. Fernando, Madrid. Significantly, the Madrid canvas is
signed in the same manner, including the fraudulent use of the word “invenit”. See Slatkes, Dirck
van Baburen, op. cit., cat. A22, pp. 125-127.
207