Jan Brueghel the Elder

Charles-François, Marquis de Calvière (1693-1777), Paris and Véznobres;
His deceased sale, Paris, Joullain, 5 May 1779, lot 5;
Charles-Joseph, Comte de Calvière (1749-1805), Château de Véznobres;
Thence by inheritance in the family.

K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, Vol. II, Landschaften mit christlichen Themen; Mythologie, Lingen 2008-10, p. 686, cat. no. 336, reproduced pp. 688 and 689 [detail], (as circa 1595).

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 copper panel is in lovely condition. The copper is flat and un-reinforced. The paint layer is stable and has always been so. The only retouches to speak of are in a few tiny spots in the sky and in the sunlit area of the water. Above and to the right of the figure there are a few isolated retouches but overall the condition is very good.
"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."

Brueghel and Rottenhammer collaborated on at least thirteen paintings in the period from about 1595 to 1597.¹  They met when they were both in Rome and continued to work together after Brueghel returned to Antwerp in 1596.  All their collaborations were painted on copper, a support that suited the precise and brilliant styles of the two artists.  The usual procedure appears to have been for Rottenhammer to paint the figures first and then Brueghel to fill in the foliage around them.   

Ertz dates Perseus and Andromeda to circa 1595-96 and notes that it is apparently the first time that Brueghel used a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses as the subject of one of his paintings.²  The tale is from Book IV of the Metamorphoses.  Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother had boasted that she and her daughter were more beautiful than the Neriads.  Upon hearing it, Neptune was furious and sent a sea monster to destroy her father Cepheus's kingdom.  Jupiter's oracle told Cepheus that the only way to save the kingdom was to sacrifice his daughter, so he had her chained to the cliff on the sea coast where Perseus saw her.  He promised to save her if he could marry her, to which her parents quickly agreed, so he slew the monster and freed her. 

In this glowing copper we see Perseus drawing back his sword, about to swoop down on the sea monster.  Andromeda is chained to the rocks with just a mere slip of transparent drapery that does nothing to hide her nudity, while her parents and their subjects are gathered on the shore, cheering Perseus on.  The composition itself is not unlike some of Brueghel's river landscapes, such as The Wooded River Valley with a Carriage Road of 1602, in the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel.³  However, here Brueghel has brought the foreground closer to the viewer, allowing more room for Rottenhammer's sensuous Andromeda. 

A Note on the Provenance
Despite a successful career in the army, serving both Louis XIV and Louis XV, Charles-François, Marquis de Calvière, found the time to assemble a far-reaching collection of paintings, drawings, marbles, bronzes and books.  His first interest was paintings and began buying while he was still in his teens, but in his later years concentrated more on antiquities.  

Unfortunately at his death the Marquis owed 274,000 livres. Although his son, Charles-Joseph wanted to keep the collections together, and even add to the paintings and drawings, he was eventually forced to go to auction to settle his father's debt.  The results of the sale were mixed, probably because there was too much property for the market to absorb at once.  Perseus and Andromeda was the only painting by Brueghel included in the auction, although there were six lots of drawings by him.  It appears that it may have remained unsold, since annotated catalogues indicate Joullain, who was the auctioneer as the buyer.  In any case, it reverted to Charles-Joseph and remained in the family for more than 200 years. 

1.  Ertz includes nine paintings in his earlier catalogue, K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625), Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, Cologne 1979, and an additional four in the revised version cited here. 
2.  Ertz 2008-10, Op. cit., p. 690.
3.  Ibid., cat. no. 13.