Lot 8
  • 8

* Gerbrand van den Eeckhout Amsterdam 1621 - 1674

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Description

  • Gerbrand van den Eeckhout
  • Volumnia Pleading with her Son Coriolanus to Spare Rome
  • signed and dated bottom center G. vanden Eeckhout fecit/Ao 1674
  • oil on canvas

Provenance

Rev. Heneage Finch, 1826;
Sale, London, Sotheby's, July 4, 1956, lot 144, for £150 to Klein;
With Central Picture Galleries, New York;
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1978;
By whom given to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 1989.

Literature

R. Roy, Studien zu Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, diss., University of Vienna, 1972, pp. 116, 224, no. 92;
Trésors des musées du Nord de la France I: Peinture Hollandaise, exhibition catalogue, Lille/Arras/Dunkirk 1972-73, p. 49, under no. 23;
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Landau/Pfalz, 1983, vol. II, p. 744, no. 488.

Catalogue Note

The present painting will be included in Dr. Volker Manuth’s forthcoming monograph on van den Eeckhout

According to Livy (Ab Urbe Condita, 2:40) and Plutarch (Lives 12:34-6), Coriolanus was a Roman general who was banished from that city in 491B.C.  He joined the Volsci, neighboring enemies of Rome, and was given command of their forces.  When Coriolanus attacked Rome his mother, wife and children met him and pleaded with him to spare their city.  Feeling strong familial ties, Coriolanus called off the attack and returned to Volsci.  Upon his return, he was charged as a traitor and put to death.