The Siege of Magdeburg (1631)
Artist/Maker
DatesSigned: Signed 1650
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 40 x 72 cm h x w x d: Ram 63 x 91 x 6 cm
Inventory numberNM 280
AcqusitionBequest 1863 hofmarschall Martin von Wahrendorff
Other titlesTitle (sv): Magdeburgs belägring (1631) Title (en): The Siege of Magdeburg (1631)
DescriptionDescription: Millions of people lost their lives during the Thirty Years’ War. Magdeburg suffered particularly hard. Catholic troops burned the city in 1631, and out of 36,000 inhabitants only 6,000 survived. In the painting, cannons aimed at the city can be seen, and the imperial troops with raised lances are moving towards the city walls. The commanders are on the right side of the painting. They are more detailed, and the light is concentrated on them. Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 135: Technical notes: The support consists of a panel of oak made of three boards joined together. Dendro - chronological examination and analysis has determined a felling date for the tree between c. 1634 and 1644. The wood originated from the Baltic region. Under the assumption of a median of 15 sapwood rings and a minimum of 2 years for seasoning of the wood, the most plausible date for use of the panel would be 1642 or later. On the verso there is non-original opaque grey oil paint layer unevenly applied. The preparation probably consists of a white ground that has been applied thickly and evenly to cover the structure of the support completely. The ground is covered by a thin, grey, ”streaky” imprimatura. No underdrawing has been found. A thin paint layer covers the preparation of the support entirely. The paint layer is opaque in parts and semi-transparent in execution. All the figures and architectural details have been painted over the foreground and background. There are small impasto areas in highlights and in details of the figures. The palette consists mainly of earth colours and traces of red (probably cinnabar), yellow, white and blue pigments. The faces are rendered simply with few brushstrokes and their shapes only implied. The figures in the background have been painted thinly and become transparent through the years. The painting is in poor condition. It underwent conservation treatment in 1948, 1956 and 1979. Provenance: Coll. Holterman-Wahrendorff; bequeathed by Martin von Wahrendorff in 1863; KM 1861, no. 1219. Exhibited: Munich 1980, no. 646; Stockholm 2010, no. 78. Bibliography: Sander IV, p. 119, no. 19; Göthe 1887, p. 152; Göthe 1893, p. 190; Granberg 1911, p. 32, no. 131; NM Cat. 1958, p. 123; Legrand 1963, p. 211; NM Cat. 1990, p. 218. During the Thirty Years War Magdeburg had been occupied by Albrecht von Wallenstein in 1626 and in 1629 he again set siege to the city for 28 weeks before being succeeded by Gottfried Heinrich von Pappenheim, who was joined by Johann Tserclaes Tilly in 1631. At that time the commander of the city was an officer dispatched by Gustaf II Adolf named Dietrich von Falkenberg. Under Tilly’s leadership the city was stormed in May 1631 and as a result the city was set on fire and 30,000 of the total population of 36,000 killed. Only the cathedral, the Church of Our Lady, and about 130 buildings could be saved. Only a year later, in 1632, Magdeburg was reoccupied by the Swedes after a long siege, and the city’s defences reinforced. In 1636 the city was ceded by the Swedes to the Imperial forces and the Saxons and as a result of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 the city, which had been an archbishopric, became a secular duchy and eventually part of Brandenburg on the death of its last administrator in 1680. Pieter Meulener’s painting, signed and dated in 1650, depicts the Siege of Magdeburg in 1631 after the siege. Several of the city’s most important historical buildings are visible in the background. In the foreground to the right we can see the Imperial artillery next to the river Elbe under a banner with the two-headed Imperial eagle and the light picks out Tilly and Pappenheim, the commanders, rendered in greater detail and on a larger scale. To the extreme right soldiers are portrayed next to cannons whose barrels are aimed at the city, there are cannonballs on the ground, a number of cavalrymen with raised lances are riding across the river to the other bank to join battle, while in the middle ground foot soldiers are crossing one of Magdeburg’s central bridges to storm its powerful defensive walls. In reality Pappenheim’s attack on the city took place at dawn and not in moonlight as depicted here. It is possible that the artist has chosen a night scene to intensify the dramatic effect of moonlight and flames against the dark sky. The buildings, some of them on fire, are not all accurately positioned but depict nevertheless several of the very important features of the city such as its defensive wall, the Cathedral and the church of St. John. There are works by Meulener, who only painted battle scenes, that are dated between 1642 and 1654. In some of them, among them a battle scene in the collections in Brun - swick, the influence of Jan Baptiste van der Meieren can be seen, while others show greater resemblances to Peter Snayers’ battle scenes. The palette used by the latter, however, is usually lighter and brighter than Meulener’s. Unlike Snayers, Meulener did not paint panoramic battle scenes. Instead, his battles and fighting soldiers are placed in the foreground, as in this painting of the Siege of Magdeburg in 1631 in the Nationalmuseum’s collections. In connection with the work on this catalogue, the three paintings of the Battle of Nördlingen previously ascribed to both Meulener and to Peter Snayers have now been attributed to the latter on compositional, technical and stylistic grounds (see nos. 178, 179 and 180). The few works that have been signed by Meulener include, in addition to the Nationalmuseum’s painting of the Siege of Magdeburg, two battle scenes in the Prado in Madrid dated 1644 (inv. no. 1448 and 1449), one in the Brunswick museum of art from 1646 (inv. no. 545) and also one work in the collections of Galerie Nostitz in Prague from 1650 (inv. no. 291). Legrand’s account of Meulener’s oeuvre also lists a number of works that belonged to Swedish collections in 1963, three of them in private ownership1 and one in the art collection of Stockholm University.2 KS 1 The three works in private ownership belonged in 1963 to Allan Petterson in Uppsala, Count von Rosen in Stockholm and Baron W. Schwerin in Skarhult. Legrand also mentions two works that were sold at Christie’s in London on 29 June 1951 with a provenance from Harewood House. See Legrand, p. 211. 2 See Karling 1978, no. 110, p. 228 (as Peter Snayers but possibly by Meulener). [End]
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