Gaspar van den Hoecke

Van den Hoecke is known primarily as a history-painter but a small group of still lifes has also been attributed to him, largely on the basis of stylistic comparisons with his only signed still life, a flower piece in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (inv. PD28-1966), which is also dated 1614 (reproduced in colour in M.-L. Hairs, The Flemish Flower Painters in the XVIIth Century, Brussels 1985, p. 221, plate 74). Gaspar's date of birth is unknown but by 1595 he was training in Antwerp under David Teniers' uncle, the flower-painter Julien Teniers, and in 1603 became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. Still lifes attributed to Van den Hoecke show a direct knowledge of Jan Brueghel the Elder's flower pictures, in particular those dating from circa 1605 to 1615, but Gaspar's compositions are different in that "..the flowers are painted more robustly than those of Brueghel, with less use of glazes, and it is difficult to imagine that Van den Hoecke did not know the work of Beert" (P. Mitchell, European Flower Painters, London 1973, pp. 139-40). Van den Hoecke's viewpoint, taken slightly from above, is characteristic of Brueghel's still lifes of flowers, particularly those painted from 1605 to 1610. The over-sized bouquet in the vase, flanked by loose blooms and other objects in the foreground, also find parallels in Brueghel's works; compare, for example, the latter's paintings in a private collection, Chicago, and in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625), Cologne 1979, cat. nos. 165 and 168, reproduced figs. 350 and 352 respectively). By comparison with Van den Hoecke's only signed and dated still life of 1614 in Cambridge, it is reasonable to assume that the present panel dates from the first half of the second decade of the 17th century.

Van den Hoecke's unusual inclusion of the coin and medal in the foreground must have appealed to an erudite clientele and it is a motif that derives from Jan Brueghel the Elder: see the latter's painting, dated circa 1607, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 548; reproduced in colour in K. Ertz, op. cit., p. 257, plate 329). Their specificity suggests that the artist had access to each of them and probably studied them from life. The silver medal, with a profile portrait of Pope Pius V, is one of many produced by the papal medallist Gian Federico Bonzagni, called Parmese (active during the second half of the 16th century). This particular design was executed in 1571, possibly in memory of the Battle of Lepanto: the inscription indicates that it was cast during the sixth year of the papacy of Pius V, elected to his post in 1566. The gold coin is rarer still and is an example of a byzantine solidus cast during the time of Anastasius I (491-518 A.D.). We are grateful to Tom Eden, of Morton & Eden Ltd., for his help in identifying the coin and medal in the present painting.

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for endorsing the attribution to Van den Hoecke upon first-hand inspection. Mr. Meijer has suggested that the still life elements in the foreground - namely the butterfly, coins and tulip - may be by another hand (albeit contemporary to the rest of the painting).