Simon Jacobsz. de Vlieger

Dr. Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam, by whom given to his daughter shortly after he acquired it.

Voorkeuren, 1985, p. 70, reproduced p. 71.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a strong, perfectly undented, copper plate. The present varnish is quite old and fly spotted, dimming the underlying luminosity of the picture. There are a few clearly discoloured light pink old retouchings on the extreme right edge in one or two places, particularly by the lower sky, with a few minute pink touches on the right sky nearby and one or two by the ship on the left. The distant ships at centre left also have a few tiny cosmetic touches evidently from the same brush. One little more recent retouching can be seen by the masts of the distant ship on the right, and the red flag on the galleon on the left seems to have been strengthened also perhaps quite recently, with the red banner just above, although the red surrounding the deck appears strong and intact. This great ship is in extraordinarily good condition throughout down to the smallest detail, with only slight thinness near the tops of the masts. The second galleon is perhaps very slightly less perfectly preserved, and also fainter in the higher rigging near the upper masts. There is one retouching in the ship further away between them. However even the most distant ships are in unusually well preserved. The water is in especially beautiful condition, apart from the extreme right base corner where some indecipherable confusion makes it hard to tell what lies under a semi retouched little patch. The rock of Gibraltar and the temple and landscape beside are finely intact, with the soft modelling unworn. The denser highlights of the clouds and the brightest of the sails have some miniature premature craquelure, with one or two minute flakes lost in the central clouds. Across the sky the old varnish is quite uneven, and it has been slightly thickened patchily with some superficial toning in the lower sky above the horizon at centre right, now a dim grey. This sort of toning was sometimes used to mute certain areas that seemed too bright. The blues of the upper skies also seem to have a film of old hatched surface strengthening, perhaps to slightly emphasize the colour. However the paint seems to be in remarkably good condition generally, and these light accretions were apparently cosmetic. The rocks at lower right have some pentiments along their outline. Above the horizon on the right there is a little indented line, and one other little old retouching at the outer base of the Rock. The painting overall is in exceptionally intact unworn condition. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The Battle of Gibraltar took place on 25 April 1607, when the Dutch fleet, commanded by Jacob van Heemskerk, routed the Spanish in an engagement lasting four hours, during which the Spanish fleet of 21 ships was completely destroyed with the loss of about 4,000 men.  This victory led to the siege and capture of the Rock by combined British and Dutch forces on July 24th, fighting on the side of Charles, Archduke of Austria, in the War of Spanish Succession.¹  Immediately following this, Sir George Rooke, the British Admiral, caused the British flag to be hoisted, taking possession of Gibraltar as sovereign British territory, which it remains to this day.  The sea-battle of Gibraltar was however unquestionably a Dutch naval triumph - their first major sea victory against the Spanish in enemy waters.  Inevitably, it became a popular subject with the Dutch public.  The first and most famous painting of it was by Hendrick Vroom, for which the States General negotiated the huge sum of 1,800 guilders in 1610.²  In 1621, he demanded 6,000 guilders for another Battle of Gibraltar for the Amsterdam Admiralty, but the commission was given to Cornelis Claesz. van Wieringen, and his probable first draft for the commission, done circa 1622, is in the Rijksmuseum.³

Vlieger's present Battle of Gibraltar was painted only six years after Van Wieringen's large canvas, but in artistic terms it is a full generation apart.  Van Wieringen chose to depict the moment when the Spanish flagship exploded: his composition, full of clashing ships, explosions and bodies and bits of ship and rigging flying through the sky is a pure mannerist fantasy, with a high horizon line two thirds of the height of the composition and a high viewpoint.  It is hardly a marine picture at all.  De Vlieger's painting on the other hand is composed as a realistic seascape, with a low viewpoint and a horizon barely a quarter of the height of the composition.  While a naval engagement takes place in the distance, two Dutch vessels in the left foreground are bombarding a coastal fortification to the right.  Such bombardments did indeed take place in the time of the battle, and a similar fortification under bombardment may be seen to the right of Adam Willaerts' 1639 painting of the Battle of Gibraltar in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.  The scene depicted here is probably from the second day of the battle.

Clearly not feeling under an obligation to produce a copmprehensive documentary narrative, De Vlieger has boldly left a broad expanse of empty sea occupying the right hand two-thirds of the composition, so that apart from a rocky shore in the extreme right corner and a ruined temple beyond it, nothing interrupts the eye until it reaches distant vessels and the Rock of Gibraltar itself seen on the horizon. De Vlieger here eschews the mannerist tonality that characterizes the work of Vroom and Van Wieringen.  Although it by and large predates the earliest tonal works by Van Goyen and others (and is one year earlier than Jan Porcellis' famous grey marine in Munich, which is dated 1629), this picture seems to anticipate the tonal movement in Dutch painting.

Van Wieringen's final picture for the Admiralty, a vast canvas measuring 180 by 490 cm. and signed and dated 1622, is much less bombastic than his presumed first draft, but nonetheless it remains a far more archaic work than the present Battle of Gibraltar by De Vlieger.  The picture-plane is packed with vessels on which the viewer looks down from a high imaginary viewpoint, with only masts breaking the high horizon line, and the colour scheme remains resolutely mannerist, with luminous greens and blues.⁴

The copper support which makes this a most unusual picture by De Vlieger gives it a luminous quality.  It is an early work, painted almost certainly in Rotterdam one year after his marriage, and six years before he left his presumed native city for Delft.

We are grateful to Jan Kelch for his help in writing this catalogue entry.  Professor Kelch will include this picture in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings of De Vlieger.

1.  In the Netherlands the Battle of Gibraltar is rather seen as a key victory in the Eighty Year War with Spain.
2.  Though a huge sum, it was less than the 2,400 Guilders he initially demanded.  A copy of Vroom's painting, dated 1619, is in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
3.  See R. B[rand], in J. Giltaij & J. Kelch, Praise of Ships and the Sea, exhibition catalogue, Rotterdam & Berlin 1996, pp. 105-7, no. 9, reproduced in colour p. 107.
4.  Amsterdam, Scheepvaart Museum.  See R. B[rand], op. cit., pp. 110-112, no. 11, reproduced p. 111.