Lot 1074 Dα

Cornelis de Wael came from a large Antwerp family of painters. He moved to Genoa with his brother Lucas, where he became the leader of a group of Netherlandish artists, as recorded by the famous double portrait of the brothers by Anthony van Dyck. Alongside narrative and genre scenes, Cornelis de Wael also painted military motifs, as Arnold Houbraken emphasises in his biography of the artist. Scenes of battles between Christian and Ottoman forces such as the present work were particularly popular.