Attributed to Hendrick van Balen the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Younger Persephone: An Allegory of Spring Oil on panel 25 1/4 x 41 1/4 inches (64.1 x 104.8 cm) In the intellectual atmosphere of Antwerp in the 16th and 17th centuries, allegories were a favorite subject for painting. Some of these were intended to moralize, like the Banquet Scene by Hieronymus Francken the Elder offered in this sale as . Others were essentially decorative, but with an underlay of humanistic learning that would give a well educated patron particular pleasure. Favorite subjects were the Arts, the Elements, the Months, and the Seasons, all of which offered a wide range of opportunity for invention. An example of this type is Persephone: An Allegory of Spring. Here Persephone, the Greek goddess of spring, newly returned from her winter home in the Underworld, and wearing a pearl diadem as its Queen, is seated next to her mother, Demeter, goddess of agriculture and plant life, who holds a cornucopia overflowing with flowers and a bouquet. Their two attendants carry an armillary sphere, to signify the turn of the seasons, and a torch, an emblem of Demeter's search for her daughter after her abduction by Hades. Around these four figures the earth teems with a profusion of living creatures-fish, birds, and small land animals of every sort-as if bursting with joy at Persephone's return. In the distance in an estuary at the left, a procession of sea gods makes it way to celebrate the goddess's coming, while in a mountainside at right we can make out a group of blacksmiths at a forge, a reminder of the Underworld from which their ores come, and to which Persephone must return at summer's end. This painting is a collaboration between two artists, one a specialist in landscape, the other a figure-painter. Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) has been proposed as the landscape painter, and Hendrick van Balen the Younger (1623-1661) as the figure painter, although these attributions are by no means certain. This is, however, a classic example of an Antwerp allegorical landscape of the 17th century. C
The panel is cradled. There is a 1/4 x 1/2 inch paint loss in the leaves in the upper right. A small abrasion just to the right of this. A few horizontal splits to panel addressed with inpainting.
Attributed to Hendrick van Balen the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Younger Persephone: An Allegory of Spring Oil on panel 25 1/4 x 41 1/4 inches (64.1 x 104.8 cm) In the intellectual atmosphere of Antwerp in the 16th and 17th centuries, allegories were a favorite subject for painting. Some of these were intended to moralize, like the Banquet Scene by Hieronymus Francken the Elder offered in this sale as . Others were essentially decorative, but with an underlay of humanistic learning that would give a well educated patron particular pleasure. Favorite subjects were the Arts, the Elements, the Months, and the Seasons, all of which offered a wide range of opportunity for invention. An example of this type is Persephone: An Allegory of Spring. Here Persephone, the Greek goddess of spring, newly returned from her winter home in the Underworld, and wearing a pearl diadem as its Queen, is seated next to her mother, Demeter, goddess of agriculture and plant life, who holds a cornucopia overflowing with flowers and a bouquet. Their two attendants carry an armillary sphere, to signify the turn of the seasons, and a torch, an emblem of Demeter's search for her daughter after her abduction by Hades. Around these four figures the earth teems with a profusion of living creatures-fish, birds, and small land animals of every sort-as if bursting with joy at Persephone's return. In the distance in an estuary at the left, a procession of sea gods makes it way to celebrate the goddess's coming, while in a mountainside at right we can make out a group of blacksmiths at a forge, a reminder of the Underworld from which their ores come, and to which Persephone must return at summer's end. This painting is a collaboration between two artists, one a specialist in landscape, the other a figure-painter. Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) has been proposed as the landscape painter, and Hendrick van Balen the Younger (1623-1661) as the figure painter, although these attributions are by no means certain. This is, however, a classic example of an Antwerp allegorical landscape of the 17th century. C
The panel is cradled. There is a 1/4 x 1/2 inch paint loss in the leaves in the upper right. A small abrasion just to the right of this. A few horizontal splits to panel addressed with inpainting.
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
