Utrecht follower of Caravaggio, circa 1630

In the family of the present owners since at least the last quarter of the 19th Century.

The painting is less red in tone and less bright than the catalogue illustration suggests. The canvas has a firm relining and the paint layer is somewhat flattened and some thin spots are visible in the lower centre and along the edges. No damages are visible to the naked eye, only a few pinpoint paint losses mainly along the edges of the composition. The face and flesh tones are nicely preserved and overall the painting is in good condition. The paint surface is under a dense and fine craquelure pattern, but secure. The old varnish layer is dirty and seems to have been unevenly cleaned. Inspection under UV-light is impeded by the varnish layer, but some spots of retouching in the hand holding the glass became apparent. Offered unframed. (JD)
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Clearly inspired by the famous Self Portrait as a Young Bacchus by Caravaggio in the Galleria Borghese, Rome, which shows the artist as a youth with a grapevine in his hair, looking from behind over his bare shoulder, the origin of this work must be found in Utrecht, probably in the 1630s¹. Many artists from the north were drawn to the dramatic new style developed in Rome by Caravaggio and in Holland those artists gathered in the city of Utrecht. Artists like Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629), Dirck van Baburen (1594/5-1624) and the young Jan van Bijlert (1597/8-1671) all resided there and were actively incorporating the style of Caravaggio into their own works.

Although this Bacchus is indebted to Caravaggio in composition and in its use of chiaroscuro, the soft rendering of the flesh tones and the loose way the grapevine is painted, for example, point clearly to a northern origin. It is most likely this work was painted in the circle of the Utrecht Caravaggists, where the influence of Caravaggio was indirectly felt  through those northern artists.  Benedict Nicolson was the first to try and group together a few of these caravaggesque masters living in Utrecht in the early 17^th Century, but was unable to identify them.² The group of pictures associated with his so-called 'Master A', 'Master B' and 'Master D' seem to fit our painting best. According to Nicolson the painters that belong to these groups can be viewed as followers of Ter Brugghen, active in Utrecht in the mid-1620s ('Master A'), imitators of Ter Brugghen, and Van Baburen, in Utrecht, with traces of a Honthorst follower ('Master B') and followers of Van Baburen and Ter Brugghen ('Master D'), active in Utrecht in the 1630s. Especially in the so-called 'Master D' group, albeit an uncertain grouping, we see similarities to the present work. See for instance the Fluteplaying Boy by oil-lamp, recorded with P. de Boer in 1970, which reveals similar facial features as our Bacchus here. ³ Or a painting grouped under 'Master B', the Boy violinist, formally in a collection in Stockholm, which shows a comparable handling of light.⁴  Besides these, when looking at the Evangelist John by Jan van Bijlert, painted around 1625-30, we see a similarity of light and texture to our present work as well.⁵

1. See B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, Oxford 1979, vol. I, p. 78, no. 1, reproduced vol. II, plate 1, 67 by 53 cm.
2. Nicolson, op. cit. vol. I, pp. 84-7.
3. idem, vol I, p. 85, reproduced vol. III, no. 1005, as Finson with P. de Boer, 67 x 51 cm.
4. idem, vol I, p. 84, reproduced vol. III, no. 1078, formaly in the Direktör P.W.  Widengren Collection, Stockholm, 83 by 65 cm.
5. See P. Huys Janssen, Jan van Bijlert, 1597/8-1671, Amsterdam 1998, pp. 106-7, cat. no. 30, reproduced p. 230, plate 8.