Feeding the Hungry

Artist/Maker

DatesMade: Made c. 1620 - 1625

Material / Technique

Dimensionsh x w x d: Mått 19,5 x 15 x 0,1 cm h x w x d: Ram 36 x 31 x 5 cm

Inventory numberNM 2032

AcqusitionBequest 1917 C. A. och Maria Redin

Other titlesTitle (sv): Givmildheten Title (en): Feeding the Hungry Previous: Allegory of Generosity

DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 78:   Technical notes: The painting’s support consists of a small, smoothly finished copper plate, with a thickness of less than ±0.5 mm; the bottom and right edges of the plate are jagged from the cutting with shears. There are no marks of manufacture or personal coppersmith’s mark on the verso. Paint is applied quite thickly in opaque and semitransparent layers that completely cover the brushapplied, thin white ground layer. Gold powder [mussel gold] was used as a pigment to model Charity’s “golden” robe, applied with a fine brush over a moss green underpaint and glazed with translucent brown. The brushwork is characterized by great delicacy, but also freedom and ease on this small scale. See, for example, the agitated line used to delineate the folds of Charity’s fluttering robe, or the few rapid strokes of the brush employed for the heads of the children on the left-hand side. As a result of the non-absorbency of the copper plate and the thinness of the ground layer ridges of excess paint have formed along the contours of the figures, the folds of drapery and the plants at the lower right. A discoloured layer of old varnish is present. Abrasion is moderate overall. Retouching covers very slight losses and abrasion of the paint and ground layers along the edges, especially the top and right edges and a V-shaped scratch through the paint layers at the lower left. Scattered small retouches are also visible in the area of the artist’s signature at the lower right, in the wall behind the figure of Charity, in her robe and the sky at the upper left. Provenance: Coll. Meinander; Carl August Redin, Stockholm, by 1886. Bequeathed by Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Redin in 1917. Exhibited: Stockholm, 1977, no. 76 (as Frans Francken II); Stockholm 2010, no. 62. Bibliography: Granberg 1886, p. 248 no. 425 (as Frans Francken II); Granberg, 1911–1913, I, p. 112 no. 496, pl. 25; NM Cat. 1941, p. 85; NM Cat. 1958, p. 74 (Frans Francken II); Härting 1989, p. 306 no. 266 (as Frans Francken II); NM Cat. 1990, p. 136 (as Frans Francken II). This small painting depicts a richly dressed female figure feeding the hungry near a Flemish town square. The half-starved eagerness of the group of beggars in tattered clothing who receive bread, including children and a bearded elderly pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela, leaves no doubt as to their need for it. The painting probably belonged to a series illustrating the traditional “Seven Works of Mercy”, inspired by the Gospel of St. Matthew – tending the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner (Matthew 25:35–37).1 This was a popular subject in the Francken workshop from 1608 until the late 1630s and beyond.2 As in the well-known engraving of Caritas after Pieter Bruegel I, from the series of the Seven Virtues first issued in 1559 by the Antwerp printmaker and publisher Hieronymus Cock , the good works of charity were usually depicted as being carried out by groups of ordinary men and women in a town square, more rarely as individual acts of charity.3 However, another small-scale painting on copper by Frans II from a similar series, now at Quimper (Musée des Beaux-Arts), depicts a woman giving drink to the thirsty.4 Bruegel’s allegorical figure of Charity is depicted holding the hand of a small child, and a child also figures prominently in the present picture. This exemplifies the message of Christ: “Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me” (Luke 9:48) The freedom of execution and the mastery of this painting confirm the attribution of this small painting to Frans II himself. Indeed, the picture bears the artist’s characteristic signature “D[en] o[uden] ffranck”, meaning “the old Frans Francken”, which occurs for the first time in a painting dated 16175 – a year after the death of the artist’s father, Frans Francken I – perhaps as a way to differentiate his work from that of his son, Frans III. This signature was then used with some frequency by the artist after 1621. Härting (1989) dated the present painting in the period of the artist’s stylistic maturity, c. 1620–1625. The gracefully Mannerist, slightly elongated female figure displays the stereotypical doll-like Francken head,6 and her golden robe is painted with his characteristic glazing technique – in this instance a liquid gold pigment glazed with brown on top of a moss green underpaint (see Technical Notes) – developed by the artist in the 1620s.7 The bearded pilgrim in the present picture is quite close to a figure in the Quimper painting mentioned above. The miniature format of the painting, and the choice of a copper support, suggests that it was intended for foreign export, presumably as part of the pictorial decoration of a typical 17th century ebony display cabinet, like one at Avignon (Musée Calvet) decorated by Frans II with the Story of Daniel, produced in great numbers at Antwerp.8 It is generally believed that paintings on copper were primarily produced for export, as they were easy to pack and were less prone to damage by humidity or during travelling by wagon over long distances. Documents show that, between 1624 and 1635, Frans II supplied the Antwerp art dealer Christian van Immerzeel with at least 22 original paintings and eight copies for export to Spain via Calais.9 The export of Antwerp paintings to Spain was then largely in the hands of Van Immerzeel, a resident of Seville. CF 1 See Härting 1989, p. 306 no. 266, and cf. Tableaux flamands et hollandais du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper, exh. Paris, Institut Néerlandais, 1987, pp. 23–24 no. 21, illus. 2 See Härting 1989, pp. 306–310 nos. 267–275, illus. 3 For the Bruegel print, Caritas, engr., inscribed “BREVGEL 1559” and “H. Cock excude”, see Bastelaer 1910, p. 47 no. 134, illus. 4 Oil on copper, 20.5 x 16.5 cm, Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. 873-1-30; for which see Paris 1987 (as in n. 1), pp. 23–24 no. 21, illus.; and Härting 1989, no. 267, illus. 5 Frans Francken II, A Collector’s Cabinet, oil on wood, 89 x 120.5 cm, signed “Do. ffranck. et in 1617”, Brentfort, Middlesex, Syon House, Coll. Duke of Northumberland; for which see Härting 1989, p. 369 no. 445, illus. 6 Cf. for example the figures by Frans II in a collaborative painting executed together with Abraham Govaert, the Europa and the Bull of 1621 in Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor de Schone Kunsten; for which see Härting 1989, fig. 115. 7 On Francken’s painting technique see idem, pp. 60–61. 8 For this display cabinet with autograph scenes by Frans II from the Story of Daniel of c. 1620/1623 in Avignon, Musée Calvet, see Härting 1991. Cf. also the cabinet with scenes from the Life of Christ of the 1630s at Appeldorn, Rijksmuseum Palais Het Loo, inv. no. L428; for which see Härting 1989, p. 376 no. 475, illus. For the 17th-century Antwerp production of display cabinets generally, see Brussels 1989 [R. Fabri]. 9. See Denucé 1934, pp. 13, 79, 95, 147; and Härting 1983, p. 11 and n. 22. [End]

Exhibited

Collection

MaterialCopper (Metal), Oil paint

TechniquePainting

Object category

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