Sunday, November 21, 2021

Seventeenth-Century Dutch Paintings of Classical Myths

Reyer Jacobsz van Blommendael
Paris and Oenone
ca. 1655
oil on canvas
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

Hendrick van Steenwyck the Younger
Aeneas rescuing Anchises from burning Troy
ca. 1605-1620
oil on panel
Art Institute of Chicago

Jacob van Campen
Hercules defeating the Centaurs
ca. 1645-50
oil on panel (grisaille)
Museum Flehite, Amersfoort, Netherlands

Jacob van Campen
Hercules seizing Cerberus
ca. 1645-50
oil on panel (grisaille)
Museum Flehite, Amersfoort, Netherlands

Hendrik Goltzius
Minerva
1611
oil on canvas
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Hendrik Goltzius
Jupiter (in the guise of a Satyr) seducing Antiope 
1612
oil on canvas
National Gallery, London

Werner van den Valckert
Neptune
ca. 1619
oil on panel
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Werner van den Valckert
Aphrodite
ca. 1619
oil on panel
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Dirck van der Lisse
Mercury and Argus in a Landscape
ca. 1635
oil on copper
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Paulus Bor
Vertumnus and Pomona
(Allegory of Summer)
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull

Adriaen van de Velde
Vertumnus and Pomona
1670
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Moses van Uyttenbroeck
Bacchanal
(Silenus at center, Bacchus entering on his chariot at right,
while a crowd in the distance worships a phallic obelisk)
1627
oil on canvas
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Dirck van der Lisse
Sleeping Nymph
ca. 1640-50
oil on panel
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Roelant Savery
Orpheus set upon by Maenads
ca. 1618-20
oil on panel
Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht

Roelant Savery
Orpheus set upon by Maenads (detail)
ca. 1618-20
oil on panel
Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht

Roelant Savery chooses (directly above) to relate the finale of the Orpheus myth in an oblique fashion.  As a specialist in animal painting, Savery places a menagerie in the foreground, their presence justified by the ability of Orpheus to make music of such enchantment that it drew crowds of animals around him wherever he settled to play.  Savery and others often illustrated the same theme with Orpheus seated in the center of the composition, as its focus, but in this case the viewer at first attempts in vain to locate the music-maker.  In fact Orpheus is seated deep in the background, against the base of the ruinous tower.  The leading Maenad is rushing toward him from the left, while the birds and animals nearest to him – including a camel, a trumpeting elephant, and a unicorn – are hurtling themselves out of the frame in terror.  Certain foreground animals are just turning to look, while others have yet to notice the disturbance.