DOI article:
Tomalak, Mirosław: Two Unknown Paintings by Lodewijk Toeput and Joos de Momper the Younger
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.72800#0147
Mirosław positions, resemble the figures in the Warsaw painting, and can thus support
Tomalak our earlier suggestion that Momper did paint staffage scenes in his landscapes.
The general idea of this series is a combination of a vast landscape with
Fig. 8. Joos de Momper, The month of January, after 1583?, before 1590?, drawing,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, repr. public domain
labours of the months, an allegorical figure associated with each month (e.g.,
a falconer standing for May, the month ofhunting) and a zodiac sign in the sky.
In the other works on the same subject Joos de Momper gave up all the symboli-
cal and allegorical elements in favour of a mere depiction of landscape. The most
famous example of this can be found in four paintings from the Herzog Anton
Ulrich Museum in Brunswick. Dated shortly after 1615 and painted in cooperation
with Jan Brueghel the Elder, they can be recognized as a season series only on the
basis of landscape characteristics: even the labours of the months are almost
absent here or already transformed into a staffage which is usually identified
with 17th-century Flemish and Dutch landscapes, such as bleaching of linen.
The works of the months are simply no longer necessary to identify each season,
as it is enough to have a look at the plants, their growth and species in order
to do it. The characterization of each season is further stressed by a colour
unity of canvases, which creates their atmosphere, just as it did in the famous
cycle by Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted in 1565 for Nicolaes Jonghelinck. The
same idea of rendering the subject can be found in other, independent paint-
ings by Joos de Momper: several summer landscapes with hay making and corn
146
Tomalak our earlier suggestion that Momper did paint staffage scenes in his landscapes.
The general idea of this series is a combination of a vast landscape with
Fig. 8. Joos de Momper, The month of January, after 1583?, before 1590?, drawing,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, repr. public domain
labours of the months, an allegorical figure associated with each month (e.g.,
a falconer standing for May, the month ofhunting) and a zodiac sign in the sky.
In the other works on the same subject Joos de Momper gave up all the symboli-
cal and allegorical elements in favour of a mere depiction of landscape. The most
famous example of this can be found in four paintings from the Herzog Anton
Ulrich Museum in Brunswick. Dated shortly after 1615 and painted in cooperation
with Jan Brueghel the Elder, they can be recognized as a season series only on the
basis of landscape characteristics: even the labours of the months are almost
absent here or already transformed into a staffage which is usually identified
with 17th-century Flemish and Dutch landscapes, such as bleaching of linen.
The works of the months are simply no longer necessary to identify each season,
as it is enough to have a look at the plants, their growth and species in order
to do it. The characterization of each season is further stressed by a colour
unity of canvases, which creates their atmosphere, just as it did in the famous
cycle by Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted in 1565 for Nicolaes Jonghelinck. The
same idea of rendering the subject can be found in other, independent paint-
ings by Joos de Momper: several summer landscapes with hay making and corn
146