Godfried Schalcken

Baroness LeeAnn de Gidro, Budapest, Hungary;
Thence by descent to the present collector.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in very good condition. The canvas has an old glue lining and the cracking is slightly raised throughout. The picture is most likely clean. A few retouches have been added to the left of the standing figure's right thigh in the background and there are retouches across the bottom edge. Nonetheless, apart from a few spots above the seated figures on the right and some other spots in the background to the left of the standing figure's shoulder, the condition is excellent. The varnish is very dull and possibly slightly dirty, and the lining could certainly be improved. Further restoration will greatly improve a beautifully preserved painting.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This nocturnal painting, exceptional in its infusion of warm colors, raking luminescent light and beautifully modeled figures, is an important discovery in Godfried Schalcken's oeuvre, and appears to be the prime version of the composition on which two other variants are based.  Its composition, showing Diana and her nymphs, was first published by the eminent biographer-cataloguer Cornelis Hoofstede de Groot as a Diana and her train in the fifth volume of his Catalogue Raisonné: "The goddess, holding her bow and arrow, walks to the left through the wood.  In the right middle distance the nymphs are resting".  Nearly a hundred years later, Thierry Beherman published two versions of the present composition as Diana and her Nymphs.¹  The present picture is followed more closely by another version in Pommersfelden, betraying a stiffness often associated with studio hands, which was painted for Mattheus van der Brouck and thereafter formed part of the famed Bisschop collection.  Beherman suggests a date of 1680-85, thus placing the picture within Schalcken's mature and most successful period.    

Throughout seventeenth-century Dutch painting, Diana and her nymphs remained a popular subject, fraught with symbolic meaning and set within a natural landscape.  The present subject recalls the mythological stories of Diana and the hunt narrated in Ovid's Metamorphoses.  Schalcken does not make it clear at what point of the story he seems to be depicting, but what is clear is his understanding of the myth.  Callisto, seen bare breasted, defies the chastity for which Diana embodies, indicated by her orange tunic and hand which conceal her breasts.  The virginal Diana appears to be headed back to the forest to hunt, her arrow still wet with blood.  A curious vignette, through a corridor of trees in a background clearing, reveals Callisto imploring, with arms outstretched, to Diana, most presumably a previous narrative that may well indicate Callisto's (lost) virginity.

Schalcken rounds out this composition with many sophisticated and brilliant pictorial devices that would have not been lost on those who truly appreciated the technical concerns explored by artists of the time.  He employs Callisto as a repoussoir device, as she looks out at the viewer, drawing the viewer into the depth of the picture plane.  With the nymphs falling in rank behind Callisto, they are shown from various angles: one is shown strictly in profile, while another's back is to the viewer, and yet a few others are shown in three-quarter profile.  These various positions, most certainly intentional, recall Schalcken's interest in sculpture, as his teacher Gerrit Dou often painted youths studying sculpture by artificial light, and, specifically, reveals his knowledge of the theoretical debate known as paragone.  The use of light in Schalcken's expansive nocturnal scenes, for which he earned the name Monsieur Chandelle in France, serves as more than mere setting but evokes a mood that is at once dark and beautiful.  

We are grateful to Dr. Jan Kosten of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, the Hague, who, based upon photographs, confirms the present painting to be autograph and believes it to be the prime version by Schalcken. 

1  See T.S. Beherman, Godfried Schalcken, 1988, p. 115, cat. no. 30 (most recently sold at auction, London, Sotheby's, December 8, 1993, lot 105) and cat no. 30 bis. (in the Collection of the Count of Schönborn-Wiesentheid, Pommersfelden).