HENDRICK VAN BALEN THE ELDER | Bathsheba in her bath, attended by maids, with a garden and palatial setting beyond

Art market, London, 1940s;
From where acquired by an aristocratic family;
Thence by descent until acquired by the present collector.

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 work on panel seems clean. There are hardly any retouches. This is a work that may be under-restored. There is visible thinness in the sky. This thinness is not necessarily due to abrasion, since the profiles of the branches and the birds against the sky seem undamaged. One of the columns on the far right has received a few retouches. There is also a retouch in the neck of the woman holding the grapes. If the work were cleaned, freshly varnished and accurately retouched in a few spots it would respond well.
"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."

Hendrick van Balen was a well-educated painter of cabinet pictures who may have traveled to Italy between 1595 and 1600. He ran a large studio in Antwerp for over thirty years, where he educated Anthony van Dyck, Frans Snyders, and three of his own sons, and collaborated with other Antwerp masters. Best known for his mythological and allegorical scenes, Van Balen also painted altarpieces and small-scale religious scenes like the present, almost certainly made for a private patron. Van Balen depicted the most popular scene from the Old Testament story of Bathsheba: King David, who appears faintly as he leans over the balcony atop the colonnaded palace, caught sight of Uriah’s beautiful wife while she bathed, and coveted her. In keeping with the elegant, late-Mannerist style of early 17^th century Flanders, Van Balen’s subject matter is used primarily as a vehicle to depict beautiful female figures. The women wear classicizing robes of bright primary colors and braided hairstyles, and the enclosed leisure garden, the late-Renaissance architecture of the palace, and the bronze fountain with nude figures reflect the taste for classical motifs in Van Balen’s time.

Although Van Balen did not depict the eventual death of Bathsheba’s husband, he hinted at the deeper message of the story by including a small dog and a chained monkey, who have no narrative function in the composition. Rather than pets, the dog symbolizes loyalty (fide) and the chained monkey symbolizes a sinful man ruled or chained by his own lust. In the present scene, Bathsheba is still loyal to Uriah while David’s lust has already taken over him, suggesting that the proper moral code will soon be upset.