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#0248
visible. From behind the tree an outline of a third Satyr appears, gorging
himself with grapes, a bunch of them in his left hand.
Although Honthorst produced pastoral paintings for the greater part of his
artistic career, the comparatively few works, as the one under discussion, of
bacchic subjects, were nevertheless painted almost without exception during
the mid-1620s. The first known canvases of this kind appeared in his oeuvre in
1623. A drawing of Satyrs and Nymphs (formerly in the Kupferstichkabinett in
Berlin) was dated a year earlier, the first mythological scene by Honthorst in
general, and also the earliest with the motif of grape-crushing - one of the
Satyrs squeezes the liquor through a funnel into the mouth of another.30
In 1623 a Nymph and Satyr (Fig. 13), in the Schönborn Collection in
Pommersfelden, was painted (104 x 131 cm, signed and dated)31, with the face
of the Satyr closely resembling those of the foreground figures in our painting,
and the construction and modelling of his arms and shoulders remaining in
close relationship to the respective parts of the body, especially in the younger
of them. Both canvases share not only the features of subject and dimensions,
but also the scale of figures (the difference in the kind of framing results only
front a discrepancy of formats - one vertical, the other - horizontal). Equally
convincing is the comparison of attitude and lighting of the torsos of both
Satyrs with the treatment of the body of the main characters of the Singing
Competition between Apollo and Marsyas of c. 1625, Narodrn Galerie in
Prague.32
It is also interesting to compare our painting with the famous Granida and
Daifilo Taken by Surprise by the Soldiers of Arthabanus, in the Centraal
Museum in Utrecht, dated 1625, belonging to another group of the artist’s
pastoral scenes.33 Especially worth mentioning is the representation of plants,
particularly the twigs against a background of a tree trunk, with characteristic,
glittering, fleshy leaves, pale-green in the light but much darker in the shade,
as well as the grass in a similarly cool tonality. The tree trunks are painted very
thinly in places. Similarly, the flat and concise treatment of the Artabanus
soldiers, emerging from behind the trees and the cluster of bushes, shows
a striking similarity to that of the third Satyr in the background of our painting.
It should be added that some very close analogies can be found when, the
differences in subject notwithstanding, our picture is compared with two other
works by Honthorst of 1623: The Merry Fiddler (Rijksmuseum), with its
delicate modelling of the ruddy, wrinkled male face, identical to that in Phryne
30 J. R. Judson, Gerrit van Honthorst: A Discussion of his Position in Dutch Art., The Hague 1959,
cat. no. 224, Fig. 49.
31 Ibidem, cat. no. 89, [Fig. 30]
32 1 35,7 x 193 cm; probably identical with Judson, op. cit., cat. no. 74, as: Present Whereabouts
Unknown. Cf. Musica Pietà. Hudba v evropském a ceském mah'fstvi 15.-18. stoleti. KRoku ceské
hudby, exh. cat. Sterberskÿ palâc, Praha 1984-1985, Oblastni galerie vytvarného urnënf, Olomouc,
1985, cat. no. 39. According to the files in the Rubenianum, Antwerp, the same painting was
exhibited in the Otto Vaenius House in Antwerp in 1932.
;,i J.R.Judson, op. cit., cat. no. 132, Fig. 38.
238
himself with grapes, a bunch of them in his left hand.
Although Honthorst produced pastoral paintings for the greater part of his
artistic career, the comparatively few works, as the one under discussion, of
bacchic subjects, were nevertheless painted almost without exception during
the mid-1620s. The first known canvases of this kind appeared in his oeuvre in
1623. A drawing of Satyrs and Nymphs (formerly in the Kupferstichkabinett in
Berlin) was dated a year earlier, the first mythological scene by Honthorst in
general, and also the earliest with the motif of grape-crushing - one of the
Satyrs squeezes the liquor through a funnel into the mouth of another.30
In 1623 a Nymph and Satyr (Fig. 13), in the Schönborn Collection in
Pommersfelden, was painted (104 x 131 cm, signed and dated)31, with the face
of the Satyr closely resembling those of the foreground figures in our painting,
and the construction and modelling of his arms and shoulders remaining in
close relationship to the respective parts of the body, especially in the younger
of them. Both canvases share not only the features of subject and dimensions,
but also the scale of figures (the difference in the kind of framing results only
front a discrepancy of formats - one vertical, the other - horizontal). Equally
convincing is the comparison of attitude and lighting of the torsos of both
Satyrs with the treatment of the body of the main characters of the Singing
Competition between Apollo and Marsyas of c. 1625, Narodrn Galerie in
Prague.32
It is also interesting to compare our painting with the famous Granida and
Daifilo Taken by Surprise by the Soldiers of Arthabanus, in the Centraal
Museum in Utrecht, dated 1625, belonging to another group of the artist’s
pastoral scenes.33 Especially worth mentioning is the representation of plants,
particularly the twigs against a background of a tree trunk, with characteristic,
glittering, fleshy leaves, pale-green in the light but much darker in the shade,
as well as the grass in a similarly cool tonality. The tree trunks are painted very
thinly in places. Similarly, the flat and concise treatment of the Artabanus
soldiers, emerging from behind the trees and the cluster of bushes, shows
a striking similarity to that of the third Satyr in the background of our painting.
It should be added that some very close analogies can be found when, the
differences in subject notwithstanding, our picture is compared with two other
works by Honthorst of 1623: The Merry Fiddler (Rijksmuseum), with its
delicate modelling of the ruddy, wrinkled male face, identical to that in Phryne
30 J. R. Judson, Gerrit van Honthorst: A Discussion of his Position in Dutch Art., The Hague 1959,
cat. no. 224, Fig. 49.
31 Ibidem, cat. no. 89, [Fig. 30]
32 1 35,7 x 193 cm; probably identical with Judson, op. cit., cat. no. 74, as: Present Whereabouts
Unknown. Cf. Musica Pietà. Hudba v evropském a ceském mah'fstvi 15.-18. stoleti. KRoku ceské
hudby, exh. cat. Sterberskÿ palâc, Praha 1984-1985, Oblastni galerie vytvarného urnënf, Olomouc,
1985, cat. no. 39. According to the files in the Rubenianum, Antwerp, the same painting was
exhibited in the Otto Vaenius House in Antwerp in 1932.
;,i J.R.Judson, op. cit., cat. no. 132, Fig. 38.
238