Lot 2024 Dα

This painting depicts elegantly dressed figures in idle repose within the opulent Renaissance interior of a city palace. We see ladies and gentlemen playing at a table on the left in the background, and three elegant ladies in the foreground on the right with a monkey, a mastiff and a griffon, all within a magnificent hall with gold embossed leather wallpaper, a richly decorated cabinet and chairs upholstered in red. A maid enters the room from the left with a wine jug. We glimpse a view of a fireplace and bed alcove through a portal in the background.

With the precise rendering of the architectural and decorative details of the doors flanked by pillars and elaborate cornices, Paul Vredeman de Vries continues the application of mathematical perspective that was developed to perfection by his father, Hans Vredeman de Vries. As a painter, architect and art theorist, Hans was his son's teacher and supporter. He involved Paul in important commissions, such as the interior decoration of the Gdańsk City Hall (1592-96) or decorations for Emperor Rudolf II in the Prague Castle (1566-1599). Several comparable interiors by Paul Vredeman de Vries have survived, such as an interior dated 1616 in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (inv. no. 17479) and another interior dated 1610-1620 in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin (inv. no. 205). While the figures in these two paintings were painted by Frans Francken the Younger, Sebastian Vrancx is assumed to have painted the figures in this work.