Lot 1038 Nα

In the past, this painting was attributed both to Jan Brueghel the Elder and his son Jan Brueghel the Younger. In their catalogue raisonné, published last year, Klaus Ertz and Christa Nitze-Ertz have now been able to assign it to the oeuvre of the Antwerp painter Adriaen van Stalbemt and incorporate it into a group of works connected by the theme of women bathing which they date to the period after 1620. "Our assessment of cat. 229 as a later work by Jan Brueghel the Younger must be corrected. In connection with cat. 221-228 it becomes apparent that this picture is also a work by AvS himself from the time after 1620" (from the German: Ertz, loc. cit., p. 351.)

Adriaen van Stalbemt was born in Antwerp, but since he came from a Protestant family, he spent his youth in Middelburg, which was also Protestant at the time, and it was here that he probably received his education. It was not until 1609 that he returned to Antwerp and was accepted as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke. His appointment to the English court by King Charles I in 1633 testifies to his reputation.

Adriaen van Stalbemt was not only one of the most experienced Flemish landscape painters of his time, but also a virtuoso figure painter who executed figural staffage for the works of numerous fellow Antwerp painters. This quality can also be seen in the present work, especially in the seductive female nudes, which are arranged as if on stage in the foremost plane of the picture, demonstrating the painter's artistic mastery through their complicated postures. It remains uncertain whether the figures represent nymphs or goddesses of Greco-Roman mythology. However, the peacock in the centre of the work could be the attribute of Juno, whilst the sculptures on the balustrade and in the niche at the left edge of the picture suggest Venus, Cupid, and Minerva. The "Venus and Cupid motif" also corresponds to the group comprising a reclining woman with a putto in the lower left corner of the picture. A monkey placed conspicuously in the central axis at the lower edge of the image gazes out towards the viewer. The background for this stage-like presentation is formed by a water feature surrounded by balustrades and a panoramic park landscape with symmetrically arranged topiaries.