Lot 2028 Dα

Joachim Wtewael was one of the most important proponents of Netherlandish Mannerism, which began in Haarlem and Utrecht in the last quarter of the 16th century. Artists such as Karel van Mander, Bartholomäus Spranger, Cornelis van Haarlem, and Joachim Wtewael, many of whom spent longer periods in Italy, brought their impressions of the new southern style back to the Netherlands in the form of drawings, prints, or copies of the works of Italian masters.
Wtewael himself is thought to have spent around four years in Italy. In Padua he joined Charles de Bourgneuf de Cucé, bishop of the Breton town of Saint-Malò, and travelled with him to Rome and onward to France in 1590, where he remained for two years. Although no trip to Genoa is documented, the route they used would have made a stop there highly probable. If Wtewael visited the city, he may have studied the works of its leading painter, Luca Cambiaso, who had passed away slightly before in 1585.
This small copper panel with “Venus and Adonis” reiterates a large-format composition by Luca Cambiaso that has been housed in the Louvre in Paris since 2008 (188 x 105.5 cm, inv. no. R.F. 2008-49). The subject derives from Ovid's metamorphoses. Here we read the story of Adonis, who ignored the protests of his lover Venus telling him not to go out hunting, and was killed by a boar. The motif offered artists a welcome opportunity to depict nudes. This copper panel follows the famous Genoese Mannerist's composition almost exactly, save for some minor amendments. For example the putto at the feet of the lovers turns his head upwards, unlike in Cambiaso's composition, which further accentuates the figural contortion favoured in Mannerism. Wtewael also approaches the landscape background with a great degree of freedom, using finely nuanced green and blue tones that testify to his Netherlandish origins.
The present work is listed with the RKD in The Hague under the no. 242878 as an original work by Joachim Wtewael. This attribution has been confirmed by both Dr. Ursula Härting and Prof. Dr. Marcel G. Roethlisberger. Dr. Anne W. Lowenthal has approached the previous owner with a request to include the work in the upcoming addition to her catalogue raisonné.