Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue 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]

Johannes Döparen predikar