Hendrick van Balen

Utrecht, Rijksmuseum Het Catharijneconvent, inv. no. 102, lent by the present owner from 1983 until 2002.

P. Dirkse, 'Nieuwe aanwinsten', Catharijnebrief. Mededelingen van de Vereniging van Vrienden van het museum Het Catharijneconvent te Utrecht, 1984, no. 5, pp. 1-2.
B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen. Ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, Turnhout 2004, vol. I, p. 139, no. A.12, reproduced vol. II, p. 322.

The actual painting is warmer and fuller in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The octagonal panel seems to consist of one plank. The panel is very lightly bevelled along all edges and is slightly bowed. No major damages seem to be apparent. Three very thin vertical retouched splits of approx. 3 cm. are visible along the lower edge. Some thinnes can be observed in the background and in the darker tones, but otherwise, the paint surface seems to be in very good condition. Particularly the impasto brushwork in the highlights has been beautifully preserved. A tiny retouched paint loss is visible under the upper right edge. Small retouchings and minor strengthening can be observed throughout, e.g. in the young boy in the foreground, in the red cloak of the central figure, in the costumes and draperies of the figure's on the left, and in the figures and trees in the background. The paint surface is covered with a slightly dirty and glossy layer of varnish. Although inspection under ultra violet light is largely impeded by the thick varnish layer, it does confirm the retouchings as mentioned above. Offered in a plain wood frame with a gilt moulded parcel, in good condition. (MW)
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Although the Antwerp painter Hendrick van Balen is primarily known as a painter of cabinet-sized historical, allegorical and mythological scenes, he also painted some large scale works. Both date and subject matter of this painting are a matter of debate. Werche, in her dissertation on Van Balen, dates it to around 1610, comparing it on grounds of style to the slim figures and faces in Van Balen's Wedding of Peleus and Thetis, in Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen (inv. no. 920).¹ Dirkse, however, sees more resemblance in the handling of the figures in paintings datable to around 1615-20.² Both Werche and Dirkse agree that the scene depicted derives from the Bible-book of Numbers. According to Werche the painting represents the scene from the story of Moses and Joshua in which Moses presents Joshua as his successor and leads him to stand before Eleazar the Priest and the whole community (Num. 27;22-23).³ However, in this picture Eleazar stands unobtrusively behind Moses as a witness, and Joshua is presented solely to the officers of the army.  Therefore, Dirkse's description of the subject as passage 31 from the book of Numbers, seems a more plausible one.

This passage, hardly ever depicted in 17th Century art, tells the story of the Israelite Pinehas, son of Eleazar, who with his army of 12000 soldiers gained victory over the Midianites. To Moses' fury, the Israelites took captive all women and took all the spoil and plunder. Eleazar commended all material loot should be purified by water. Moses' fury lessens when, with Eleazar and, in this painting, with Pinehas too, he is called to meet the officers of the army, who tell them that miraculously none of the 12000 Israelites have died during battle. According to Dirkse, this is the very moment portrayed here, with part of the precious loot in the foreground, and the camp and a man carrying buckets of water for the ritual purification in the background (Num. 31;48-51).⁴

Although the painting is unusual in size and subject matter, both composition and colour scheme are very typical for Van Balen. Moses, both in pose and facial expression portrayed as the old, respected leader, and the younger Pinehas, who wears a decorated red robe, are in the centre of the composition and as such brightly illuminated. The soldiers on the left, and the figures on the right, are all with their backs towards the spectator, remain in the dark, and function as a repoussoir. The background is made up of solely light colours, and blue and green hues.

1. Werche under Literature, p. 322.
2. Dirkse under Literature, p. 2.
3. Werche, op. cit. 
4. Dirkse, op. cit.