Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 47: 

Technical notes: The painting’s support consists of
a copper plate with a thickness of ±1.0 mm; the top edge
is slightly irregularly cut. The verso of the plate shows
evidence of its manufacture in the form of misshapen,
oval, hammer marks as well as a series of parallel undulations
running vertically at the upper right and lower left,
indicating that rolling has taken place after hammering.
Striations from the polishing with a fine steel brush are
also visible on the verso. The corners of the plate are
slightly dented.

Paint is applied thinly and fluidly, with subtly controlled
brushwork, in opaque and semi-transparent layers that
completely cover the very thin white (lead white in oil?)
ground. The latter was apparently applied using a brush as
well as the fingers, as fingerprints are visible, for example,
in the centre foreground. Low impastos occur in the white
clouds and in the yellow highlights on the ‘stippled’ green
foliage of the trees in the middle distance. Infrared reflectography,
partially, revealed a dark underdrawing in a liquid
medium applied with a fine brush delineating the contours
of the larger foreground figures, hunting dogs and
game, which were then held in reserve when the landscape
was painted: as a result of the non-absorbency of the support
and the thinness of the ground layer, the paint has
formed ridges along the contours of the three figures in
the right foreground, the hunting dogs and the trunk and
branches of the large tree in the foreground on the right.
The smaller figures in the middle distance and two of the
hunting dogs (one about to enter the water, one in the
water) – both based on models available in the Brueghel
studio – were painted without prior drawing directly over
the landscape. Apart from slight contour adjustments in
the figures and animals during the painting stage, there are
hardly any pentimenti: the ears of the squirrel in the left
foreground were underdrawn in a more forward position
than in the final painting.

The painting is generally in very good condition. A
discoloured layer of old varnish is present. Retouching
covers losses and abrasion of the paint and ground layers
along the edges, especially at the top and bottom edges
and at the corners. Scattered small retouches are also visible
throughout the landscape and animals, but there are
very few in the figures. Much of the fine detailed painting
is preserved in the figures, animals and still life elements,
and the colours have largely retained their original
freshness. A fine craquelure occurs in the more thickly
painted sky and clouds, with a tendency towards flaking
in this area. The painting underwent conservation
treatment in 1931, 1935 and 1976.

Provenance: Drottningholm, Fataburen, 1777, no. 78
(as manner of Cornelis van Poelenburch); Gustav III
1792, no. 298; KM 1816, no. 289 (as Alexander Keirincx).

Exhibited: Stockholm 1933, no. 2 (as Hendrick van
Balen I).

Bibliography: NM Cat. 1867, p. 34 (as Alexander
Keirincx); Sander I, p. 110, and II, p. 127; Göthe 1887, p.
129; Göthe 1893, p. 13 (as Hendrick van Balen I and Jan
Brueghel I); NM Cat. 1958, p. 6 (as copy after Hendrick
van Balen I); NM Cat. 1990, p. 9 (as copy after Hendrick
van Balen I); Werche 2004, p. 166.

Diana, chaste goddess of the hunt, with her nymphs
and dogs are assembled in a glade in the woods after
hunting. Standing beneath a tree on the right, her bow
and quiver suspended from its branches, Diana is
shown emptying the day’s catch of fish out of a net
with the aid of one of her nymphs, who is kneeling on
the ground next to the goddess, while her dogs gather
impatiently nearby. The goddess is in the nude, her
tunic slung over a branch of the tree. In the left foreground
lie the spoils of the hunt – a still life comprising
small game, including hares, squirrels, song birds
and pheasants, as well as wolf, heron and deer. The
pale skin of the nymphs makes a fine contrast to the
dark green of leafy trees.

This painting is a faithful reduced-size copy after a
frequently repeated original of c. 1620/1621 by Jan
Brueghel I, in collaboration with Hendrick van Balen I,
now in Munich (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen,
Alte Pinakothek).1Although a copy of rather good quality,
probably produced not long after the original was
created, the painting clearly lacks the highly refined execution,
as well as the brilliant colours, that are typical of
autograph works by Jan Brueghel I. Hunting scenes with
Diana and her nymphs were apparently very popular at
Antwerp in the first half of the 17th century.2Of the sixty
paintings from Brueghel’s estate that were sold by his
son, Jan Brueghel II, in 1626–1627, no fewer than seven
were depictions of Diana, presumably done in part by
the hand of the late master: five hunting scenes – one of
which was described by Jan Brueghel II as a “copy after
father’s” (“copye near vaders”) – and two fishing scenes.3
The Munich Diana Hunting is one of many such examples
of a collaboration in which Brueghel supplied the
wooded landscape, the animals, as well as the smallscale
figures in the background, while his frequent coworker,
Van Balen, provided the principal figures of
Diana and her two companions on the right.4
CF
1 Oil on wood, 51.5 x 80.5 cm, Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen,
Alte Pinakothek, inv. no. 1950; see Ertz 1979, pp. 403, 406, 621
no. 375, fig. 480; and Werche 2004, cat. no. A83, illus. The verso of the
support bears the monogram of the Antwerp panel-maker Michiel
Vriendt and a branded letter “A”, which helps date the panel in the year
1620/1621.
2 For depictions of Diana by Brueghel, see Ertz 1979, nos. 356–358,
373–377.
3 See Vaes 1926–1927, pp. 207–209 (“copye near vaders”); and Denucé
1934, pp. 140–143, both cited by Van Suchtelen in Los Angeles/The
Hague 2006/2007, p. 115 n. 3 (under nos. 10–11).
4 For Brueghel’s depictions of Diana made in collaboration with Hendrick
van Balen I, see Ertz 1979, pp. 402–406, 620–621 nos. 373–377; and
Werche 2004, nos. A80–85; see also nos. E 29–34. According to Ertz catalogue
raisonné, Brueghel and Van Balen collaborated on as many as
twenty-three paintings on copper and thirty-six panel paintings with allegorical
or mythological subjects.[End]

Dianas jakt