Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue 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]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2009

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