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Adriaen van Stalbemt (Antwerp, 1580- 1662) Allegory...

Price Tax incl.:
17500 EUR

Adriaen van Stalbemt (Antwerp, 1580- 1662) Allegory of Peace and War, ca. 1620-1630 Antwerp school, first third of the 17th century Oil on oak panel: h. 49.5 cm, l. 73.2 cm Louis XIII period gilded wood frame with laurel leaves Framed dimensions: h. 64, l. 92 cm Our painting was examined by Dr. Klaus Ertz, author of the catalog raisonné of the painter (Adriaen van Stalbemt (1580 - 1662) Oeuvrekatalog der Gemalde und Zeichnungen. Klaus Ertz, Christa Nitze-Ertz. Published by Luca Verlag Lingen 2018). The certificate of expertise by Dr Ertz will be given to the buyer. Setting up a complex composition, Adrien Van Stalbemt fuses in our work mythological figures such as Venus and Cupid, puttis with allegorical symbols associated with war and peace as well as a pastoral tragi-comedy contemporary to the time of the painting "The Faithful Shepherd", composed by Giovani Battista Guarini (published in 1602) So our cryptically conceived painting was destined for initiated, erudite and cultured customers, flattered to recognize the symbolism and decipher the interwoven subjects. The presence of Venus and Cupid at the center of the painting and in the middle of the verdant landscape leads us at first to approach the subject as purely mythological. However, the putti on either side seem to be enjoying themselves, and carry an allegorical message. The putto wearing many snakes, in the manner of Medusa's head, the mask of death, the flaming torch, the sword and the handcuffs evoke "war", while the putto holding a white dove announces "peace". On the right, the putti are having fun blowing soap bubbles, personifying the allegory of Vanity (the vanity of earthly things, but also the transience of human life). Finally, characters from the tragi-comedy "Faithful Shepherd" also populate this lush landscape. The couple next to the goddess are the shepherd Myrthilla and the nymph Amaryllis, Myrthilla holding the flaming heart, symbolizing their love and imminent marriage (their marriage serves to lift a spell cast by the Arcadian gods in the poem). A few scenes in the background, some of them barely sketched in, in the style of a comic strip, recount episodes in the story of the "Faithful Shepherd". The landscape revolves around the figures and serves as their background, but the artist's great skill with his brush and his palette of all shades of green embellish our work with intense foliage. Our work, with its admirable landscape and finely executed figures, is a fine example of Adrien Van Stalbemt's art. True to his reputation as one of the most accomplished Flemish landscape painters of his time, and one of the best followers of Jan Brueghel the Elder, the painter impresses with his figurative virtuosity and the subtlety of his imagination. Adriaen van Stalbemt Adriaen van Stalbemt spent his youth in Middelbourg before returning to his native Antwerp, where he became Master of the Saint Luke's Guild around 1609-1610. His meticulous landscape art owes much to that of Jan Brueghel the Elder, with whom he regularly collaborated, creating figures within the master's landscapes. Adriaen Van Stalbemt was both a landscape painter and a figure painter, being one of the few painters of his time to master several painting genres. Like Jan Brueghel, Stalbemt's output consists mainly of landscapes, plains or undergrowth, depicting religious or mythological episodes.

Galerie Nicolas Lenté
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