Sebastiaan Vrancx

Léon Buyle, Antwerp;
With Galerie Robert Finck, Brussels, 1968.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a fine copper panel, supported behind around the edges with wooden bars, which are comparatively recent. The two top extreme outer corners have small retouchings, where they could once have been slightly bent. The left edge has slight rubbing from the frame and two or three small old retouchings, the lower one just above the signature. There has been a recent cleaning test in the top left sky, with another in the distant fountain at upper left and also by the edge of the ruin by the sky in the distant landscape at centre right. There may have been slight strengthening touches in the sky long ago, beneath the mature old varnish. The condition is extraordinarily perfect virtually throughout down to the finest detail, with the minutely impasted brush strokes intact and unworn. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This is a relatively early work by Vrancx, probably executed in the first decade of the 17th century, for it reflects the artist's recent trip to Italy (1596-1601) where he was profoundly influenced by Paul Bril and Willem van Nieulandt amongst others; the background ruins in this scene are, in particular, very clearly indebted to the latter. Vrancx's treatments of palace architecture and gardens, often borrowed from Hans Vredeman de Vries and populated by elegant and distinguished people enjoying themselves, formed the basis of his oeuvre after his return to the North in 1601. These works usually take on some moralising overtone, as here, where a gentleman is seen seducing a young lady, while others are at play gambling (the cards strewn across the floor being a symbol of vice). Soon though Vrancx's output was to be dominated by the small cavalry battles for which he is probably best known and to which over half his extant oeuvre is devoted. Vrancx was probably responsible for introducing the subject matter to The Netherlands and these battle scenes were to directly influence the future careers of Pieter Meulenaer, Pieter Snayers and Esaias van de Velde among many others.

A copy of this picture was sold at Christie's South Kensington, 23 April 2004, lot 17.