DOI issue:
Nr. 3-4
DOI article:Monkiewicz, Maciej: Ter Brugghen and Honthorst in Poland
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18945#0244
composition of the thematically identical design by Rubens for one of the
tapestries of the Eucharist Series for the Convent of Descalsas Reales in
Madrid. Kobayashi-Sato maintains that ter Brugghen met Rubens in Utrecht
while the Flemish artist was busy working on this project. In any case, she is
certainly right in concluding that the adoption of Rubens’s model, in which
David adores the Eucharist in heaven and the Psalmist is lead to earth into the
study-like interior, probably reflects the example of contemporary Dutch
pictures representing David playing the harp, as works by Pieter Lastman,
Willem van Nieulandt, and Roeloff van Zijl testify.22
Kobayashi-Sato also set forth the hypothesis that the Warsaw painting, in
accordance with widespread notions about David as a patron of Music, could
have been commissioned for the decoration of the seat of the Utrecht
Collegium Musicum, an association which, as in other Dutch cities, regularly
gathered upper-class music lovers for musical performances. Although the
Collegium was not officially established until 1631, its meetings must have
been held even earlier, since a resolution of the Utrecht town council of
September 8th, 1628 (the very year that ter Brugghen’s David was painted)
refers to a room granted to this association.2'
Let us have another look at the figure of David. There is something deeply
moving in this grey-headed human shape, so frail under its voluminous,
magnificent, and heavy vestments, but straining every nerve in order to play
praise to the Lord once more, sounding an instrument as fragile as himself.
Here we are facing the courageous warrior who felled Goliath, a prophet
who spoke in the name of the Almighty, and the most powerful king of Israel.
But now he is ending his days after a stormy life, in well-earned tranquility,
under the tender care of envoys from God, angels. This picture could be
a great metaphor for the weakness of a human being who, even if he might
seem as strong as possible, must in any case shelter himself under God’s wings.
This is a recurrent motif in the Psalms. It appears that the painting of ter
Brugghen, in conformity with tradition going back as early as depictions of
David in Middle Age psaltery illustrations in England, widespread on the
European Continent since the thirteenth century, can be interpreted in closer
connection than previously to the text of particular Psalms.24 Our painting
Countries Fifteenth-Nineteenth Centuries, Hartford 1978, p.195-196; Gods, Saints and Heroes:
Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt, exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington 1980-81,
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1981, cat. no. 12; Caravaggio: ‘Zlozenie
do grobu’ etc., op. cit. [note 1], cat. no. 7.
22 Y. Kobayashi-Sato, “Hendrick ter Brugghen’s ‘King David Harping surrounded by four angels’”,
Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie, XXIX (1988) no. 1 (based on the paper by the same author
in Philosophy, Journal of the Mita Philosophical Society, Keito University, Tokio, no. 82 (May 1986),
pp.101-129), pp.1-20, esp. pp.11-14; cf. N. De Poorter, The Eucharist Series, 1-2 (Corpus
Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part II), Brussels 1978, pp.280-281.
25 Y.Kobayashi-Sato, op. cit., pp. 19-20.
24 Cf. Robert T. Wyss, “David”, in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, III, Stuttgart
1954, col. 1092-1093.
234
tapestries of the Eucharist Series for the Convent of Descalsas Reales in
Madrid. Kobayashi-Sato maintains that ter Brugghen met Rubens in Utrecht
while the Flemish artist was busy working on this project. In any case, she is
certainly right in concluding that the adoption of Rubens’s model, in which
David adores the Eucharist in heaven and the Psalmist is lead to earth into the
study-like interior, probably reflects the example of contemporary Dutch
pictures representing David playing the harp, as works by Pieter Lastman,
Willem van Nieulandt, and Roeloff van Zijl testify.22
Kobayashi-Sato also set forth the hypothesis that the Warsaw painting, in
accordance with widespread notions about David as a patron of Music, could
have been commissioned for the decoration of the seat of the Utrecht
Collegium Musicum, an association which, as in other Dutch cities, regularly
gathered upper-class music lovers for musical performances. Although the
Collegium was not officially established until 1631, its meetings must have
been held even earlier, since a resolution of the Utrecht town council of
September 8th, 1628 (the very year that ter Brugghen’s David was painted)
refers to a room granted to this association.2'
Let us have another look at the figure of David. There is something deeply
moving in this grey-headed human shape, so frail under its voluminous,
magnificent, and heavy vestments, but straining every nerve in order to play
praise to the Lord once more, sounding an instrument as fragile as himself.
Here we are facing the courageous warrior who felled Goliath, a prophet
who spoke in the name of the Almighty, and the most powerful king of Israel.
But now he is ending his days after a stormy life, in well-earned tranquility,
under the tender care of envoys from God, angels. This picture could be
a great metaphor for the weakness of a human being who, even if he might
seem as strong as possible, must in any case shelter himself under God’s wings.
This is a recurrent motif in the Psalms. It appears that the painting of ter
Brugghen, in conformity with tradition going back as early as depictions of
David in Middle Age psaltery illustrations in England, widespread on the
European Continent since the thirteenth century, can be interpreted in closer
connection than previously to the text of particular Psalms.24 Our painting
Countries Fifteenth-Nineteenth Centuries, Hartford 1978, p.195-196; Gods, Saints and Heroes:
Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt, exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington 1980-81,
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1981, cat. no. 12; Caravaggio: ‘Zlozenie
do grobu’ etc., op. cit. [note 1], cat. no. 7.
22 Y. Kobayashi-Sato, “Hendrick ter Brugghen’s ‘King David Harping surrounded by four angels’”,
Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie, XXIX (1988) no. 1 (based on the paper by the same author
in Philosophy, Journal of the Mita Philosophical Society, Keito University, Tokio, no. 82 (May 1986),
pp.101-129), pp.1-20, esp. pp.11-14; cf. N. De Poorter, The Eucharist Series, 1-2 (Corpus
Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part II), Brussels 1978, pp.280-281.
25 Y.Kobayashi-Sato, op. cit., pp. 19-20.
24 Cf. Robert T. Wyss, “David”, in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, III, Stuttgart
1954, col. 1092-1093.
234