Lot 2035 Dα

Frans Francken the Younger, who came from a wide-branched Antwerp family of artists, specialised early on in figure painting, which he executed with particular elegance and refinement. The present painting shows an imposing, almost overwhelming abundance of figures ascending to Mount Golgotha, although the main motif of St Veronica and Christ fallen under the cross still clearly forms the centre of the composition. On the left and right edges of the picture, we see several figures brought closer to the foreground, including two seated men with wide-brimmed hats on the left as well as two striding men with a child and several gesticulating figures on the right. They are attentively observing the dramatic scene of Christ falling under the cross as if it were presented on a stage, onto which the observer of the work is ultimately also looking and thus joins the crowd of spectators.
Francken's "special delight in multi-figured scenes" (Härting 1989, op. cit., p. 125) is evident in our excellently preserved painting. Ursula Härting dates the work between 1618 and 1621. It once belonged to the Hamburg architect Martin Haller, who was instrumental in the construction of the Hamburg City Hall as well as the Laeiszhalle and designed numerous other public buildings and representative villas for his home town.