Johann Heiss

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 11 January 1996, lot 114;
There purchased by the present collector.

P. Koenigfeld,  Der Maler Johann Heiss, 1982, p. 173, cat. no. 125;
P. Koenigfeld,  Der Maler Johann Heiss: Memmingen und Augsburg 1640-1704, Weissenhorn 2001, pp. 24, 284, cat. no. A39. reproduced in color, fig. 25.

The painting is slightly brighter than it appears in the catalogue illustration. For a high resolution digital image, please refer to the online catalogue at Sothebys.com or contact a member of the Old Master Paintings department. 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 large painting has been fairly recently restored and should probably be hung in its current condition. There is an original addition to the canvas that runs horizontally about five inches from the top edge. The paint layer is heavily applied and is in healthy state. There are restorations across the original canvas join. The upper right sky shows quite considerable restorations as does the dark curtain above the couple on the left side. Within the figure riding in the chariot, there is a good deal of restorations on the right side of his torso. The head of the figure in shadow above the satyr on the right side seems to be almost completely retouched. Although there are other areas like this that have received restorations, some of which are perhaps slightly overly broad, the condition throughout has a very healthy appearance and can be considered good, despite the restorations.
"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."

The scene represented is described both in the Odyssey (VIII: 166-365) and in Ovid's Metamorphoses (IV: 171-189). The god Helios, spying Venus and Mars secretly in bed together, informed the god Vulcan of his wife's faithlessness. In order to catch the lovers in an act of infidelity, Vulcan forged a net of bronze so fine that it was invisible to the naked eye. This he placed over his wife's couch so as to entrap her with Mars at their next tryst. Sure enough, they were thus ensnared, and Vulcan called upon all of the other Olympians to witness in his favor. Heiss has chosen this most dramatic moment to represent the cuckholded god as he makes his case before his peers. In order, however, to cut the tension of the scene with a dash of charming humor, Heiss has added the god Chronos (Time) (see detail) seated at the back getting a better view with a magnifying loupe (see detail).

It is interesting to note that the present composition relates to another mythological picture by Heiss of Vulcan Presenting Pandora to the Gods in the Liechtenstein collection. That painting, which is smaller in size than the present work, has a very similar disposition of figures, with Vulcan showing his creation to the other deities, but in the reverse sense of the present picture. The subject of Vulcan must have intrigued Heiss, as he returned to him in yet another composition, depicting Venus and Mars in Vulcan’s Forge (1675; Sibiu, Brukenthal Museum).

Dated 1679, the painting was executed more than a decade after Heiss began his career in the service of Eberhard VIII, Duke of Württemberg (circa 1663–4) . After his time under the patronage of the Eberhard VIII, Heiss returned to his native Memmingen, where he was commissioned for a number of important altarpieces in and around Upper Swabia, though he probably painted this picture in Augsburg, where he eventually settled in the 1670's.