Jan Brueghel the Younger Antwerp 1601 - 1678, and Hendrick van Balen Antwerp 1575 - 1632

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Description

Hendrick van Balen
the holy family with the infant saint john the baptist and angels in a landscape, within a garland of flowers containing medallions with scenes from the Life of the Virgin
oil on canvas

Provenance

Hans Czjek von Smidaich, by whom acquired, probably in Vienna, circa 1880-90;
Thence by family descent to the present owners.

Catalogue Note

The medallions within the flower garland depict scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary; they are, clockwise from top left: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Presentation in the Temple and Christ among the Doctors.

The design of the flower garland is closely based upon that by Jan Brueghel the Elder which surrounds a Virgin and Child by Rubens, which is today in the Muséee du Louvre in Paris.¹ The Louvre painting has been identified with the still life of a garland around a Madonna by Rubens described by Jan Brueghel the Elder in a letter of 5 September 1621 to Ercole Bianchi, the agent of Cardinal Federico Borromeo in Milan, to whom the painting was sent. Apart from the addition of the roundels, the still life here also differs from the Paris garland in the omission of the wild animals drawn from the life by Brueghel in the Archducal menagerie in Brussels. In view of the exceptionally high quality of the present work, it is reasonable to suppose that it was executed soon after that in Paris and perhaps under the close supervision of Jan Brueghel the Elder himself. This would point to a possible date between 1621 and 1625, the year of the elder Brueghel's death. By this date Hendrick van Balen was already well established as Brueghel's principal collaborator on works of this type.² The slightly lesser quality of the figures in the medallions would suggest that these were perhaps the work of studio assistants.

1. K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1528-1625). Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Cologne 1979, p. 611, cat. no. 325, reproduced fig. 383.
2. For two very similar works, with comparable disposition of the figures, see, for example, B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632), ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, Turnhout 2004, vol. I, p. 148, cat. nos. 37 and 38, reproduced vol. II, p. 342, figs. A37 and A38. Werche also suggests a dating around 1620 for these works.