Lot 1222 Dα

This work depicting a monumental grotto landscape is a collaborative effort between the two Antwerp based painters Joos de Momper, who was responsible for the varied yet clearly structured rock formations, and Jan Brueghel the Elder, who painted the numerous figures.
The grotto motif first appears in Momper's oeuvre in around 1598 and he was to continue to paint this subject throughout several decades. During this time, the percentage of the image made up by the rock and grotto motif gradually increased until the caves and rocky arches expanded across the entirety of his panels, allowing only small glimpses out onto the panoramic landscape in the distance. In few works is this motif carried out so masterfully as in the present work, but other comparable examples include a landscape in the Aschaffenburg Staatsgalerie (Ertz, no. 491, illus. p. 176) and a work in German private ownership (Ertz, no. 489, illus. p. 177).
The majority of the figures in Joos de Momper's landscapes were painted by a different artist. Although many of them tend to be of mediocre quality, the figures in the present work were painted by an artist who was his equal. Jan Brueghel the Elder has peopled Momper's landscape with numerous figures going about various daily tasks, from washing clothes, to cutting firewood, to cooking.
Klaus Ertz dates this work to around 1616, about the same time as the two other works by Momper mentioned above, as well as his “Banquet of Odysseus with Calypso” (Vienna, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, inv. no. 583, Ertz, no. 489, illus. p. 177), the only known example in which Momper combines a grotto landscape with a mythological scene.