St John the Baptist Preaching

Artist/Maker

Material / Technique

Dimensionsh x w: Mått 51 x 71 cm h x w x d: Ram 60 x 80 x 5 cm

Inventory numberNM 382

Other titlesTitle (sv): Johannes Döparen predikar Title (en): St John the Baptist Preaching

DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 81: Technical notes: The painting’s support is a slightly convex oak panel constructed of two horizontal, buttjoined, radial boards with horizontal grain. The butt join has been repaired and is reinforced with butterfly keys on the verso. Bevelling occurs along the left and right edges on the verso. A horizontal check, ca 20.0 cm long, extends from the lower right edge. Splintered wood is visible along the top edge at the upper right. Dendrochronological examination and analysis has determined a felling date for the tree between c. 1595 and 1605. The wood originates 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 1603 or later. An old label on the verso reads: “Nár Christú hölt sin bergs predick-/an i öcknen. Matthei. C.5” (brown ink). The painting underwent conservation treatment in 1935 and 1966. Provenance: Possibly Prague War booty; Königsmarck 1648, no. 476; possibly Queen Christina; Karl XIII, Rosersberg before 1809; KM 1816, no. 284 (as Flemish School). Bibliography: NM 1867, p. 26 (as by Hendrik de Clerck); Sander IV, p. 86; Göthe 1887, pp. 52–53 (as Hendrik de Clerck); Granberg 1896, p. 78 no. 476(?); Granberg 1902, pp. 56, 112 no. 115 (as Hendrik de Clerck); Göthe 1910, p. 71; Nordenfalk 1958, no. 382 (as anonymous 17th-century Flemish Master); NM Cat. 1990, p. 70 (as attributed to Pauwel Casteels); Slaví􀀀ek 2000, p. 148 under no. 128 (as copy after Frans Francken II). This painting illustrates the New Testament account of St. John preaching to the multitude about the coming of Christ (Matt. 3:2–10; Lk. 3:3–14). The saint, identified by his halo and tattered clothing, a “rough coat of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist” (Mark 1:6), stands in the middle of a throng of listeners, including Herodes Antipas and his retinue on horseback at the centre of the composition. The artist has taken the opportunity to represent the crowd as a mixed group of peasants and richly dressed Pharisees in oriental garb. The rustic peasant types, as well as the turbaned Orientals and Gypsy women in their flat, broad-brimmed straw hats with attendant children, may be traced back to the work of Lucas van Leyden, Pieter Aertsen, Pieter Bruegel I and the 16thcentury Netherlandish tradition of low-life genre painting. The rich oriental clothing stands in sharp contrast to the lush vegetation of the background, a Northern European landscape far removed from the aridity of Palestine. Previously attributed to Hendrik de Clerck and, more recently, to Pauwel Casteels, the present picture is one of eight known identical copies of an original composition (present whereabouts unknown) that probably originated in the workshop of the Antwerp history painter Frans Francken II,1 the best of which may be that now in Sacramento (The Crocker Art Museum).2 Frans II treated the subject several times between the 1610s and the early 1620s, in paintings now in Vaduz (The Collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein), Munich (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek) and Madrid (Museo Nacional del Prado).3 The composition and the figure groupings of this painting seem like a primitive version of Francken’s more accomplished treatment of the subject in the Madrid picture of 1623.4 The setting in a forest glade, with a framing tree on one side and a fallen log in the foreground, also relates to that of Francken’s earlier version of c. 1610 in Munich.5 The presumed Francken prototype for the present picture may perhaps be dated to the late teens. Although not identical, characteristic Francken figure types such as the turbaned Oriental dignitaries on horseback and men in Phrygian caps, occur in all three Francken versions. The Gypsy woman on the left, a repoussoir figure, may be compared to a similar figure in Vaduz,6 Herodes Antipas and his companion on horseback occur similarly in the Munich version, and the barebreasted young woman with a child at the centre of the composition recalls a figure in the same position in Madrid. This painting, which has all the hallmarks of a copy – the stiff, wooden figures, the fuzzy, pedantic rendering of details and the flat, undifferentiated colours – can perhaps be attributed to the Flemish history painter Peeter Sion, a rather inept follower of Francken II, as suggested by some of the head types and the stiff, formal idiom.7 CF 1 An attribution to the Francken studio was proposed by Jan Kosten of the RKD, The Hague, in a letter, dated 3 May 2000, in the curatorial files of the Nationalmuseum. Kosten tentatively put forward the name of the Francken-follower Peeter Sion (ca.1620–1695) as a possible candidate for the authorship of NM 382. But cf. Härting 1983, under no. B50: “Es bleibt offen, ob es sich hier [Prague] und bei den folgenden Darstellungen dieser Komposition [Burgos; Tournai] um Variationen eines verschollenen Werkes von Frans II. handelt. Keines dieser Bilder steht Frans II. nahe genug, dass man dies folgern könnte”. 2 Oil on wood, 41.0 x 54.8 cm, Sacramento, California, The Crocker Art Museum, inv. no. 1872.129; for which see The Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento: Handbook of Paintings, Sacramento 1979, no. 12, illus., p. 99, as Frans Francken II. The other known copies of the same prototype are: 2) Oil on wood, 70.5 x 106 cm, Prague, National Gallery, inv. no. O 10557; see L. Slavícek, The National Gallery, Prague. Flemish Paintings of the 17th and 18th Centuries: Illustrated Summary Catalogue, I, Prague 2000, no. 128, illus.; 3) Oil on wood, 54 x 74 cm, sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 13–15 September 1956, lot 44; 4) Burgos, Museo Historico y Artistico, see Härting 1983, no. B50a; 5) Tournai, Musée des Beaux-Arts, see Härting 1983, no. B50b; 6) Coll. J. Sachs, Warsaw 1933, see photo on file at the RKD, The Hague; 7) Oil on wood, 73 x 104.5 cm, sale, Bukowski’s, Stockholm, 24 April 1974, lot 156, as Frans Francken II. 3 For other paintings of the same subject in the work of Frans Francken II, see Härting 1989, pp. 257–258, cat.nos. 88–90, illus. 4 See Díaz Padrón 1995, p. 540, repr. in colour on p. 541. 5 See Härting 1989, no. 89, illus. 6 See Härting 1989, no. 88, illus. 7 See n.1; and cf. Sion’s Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife, signed, sale, Zurich, Galerie Koller, 18 September 1996, lot 56, see photograph on file at the RKD, The Hague.[End]

Motif categoryReligion/Mythology

Collection

MaterialOil paint, Wood

TechniquePainting

Object category

Keyword