CLAES CORNELISZ. MOEYAERT | MERCURY AND ARGUS SURROUNDED BY ANIMALS IN A LANDSCAPE

Possibly sold anonymously, Paris, Joullain Fils, 30 March 1772, lot 230;

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 25 January 2001, lot 122, when acquired.

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, no. 94;

Hamburg, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Die Geburt des Kunstmarktes. Rembrandt, Ruisdael, van Goyen und die Künstler des Goldenen Zeitalters, 23 September 2017 – 7 January 2018, no. 80.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

Possibly H. Mireur, Dictionnaire des ventes d'art, vol. V, Paris 1911, p. 303;

A. Tümpel, 'Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert. Katalog der Gemälde', in Oud Holland, vol. 88, 1974, p. 265, cat. no. 164 or 165;

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M. J. Bok et al., At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 98, cat. no. 94, reproduced in colour;

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Historical and Allegorical Pieces, Niederländische Malerei des 17. Jahrhundert der SØR Rusche Sammlung, vol. IV, Münster 2010, pp. 260-64, cat. no. 42, reproduced in colour;

F.W. Kaiser and M. North, Die Geburt des Kunstmarktes. Rembrandt, Ruisdael, van Goyen und die Künstler des Goldenen Zeitalters, exh. cat., Munich 2017, p. 124, cat. no. 80, reproduced in colour.

Moeyaert was one of Rembrandt’s most prolific and competitive contemporaries in Amsterdam. This is the earliest dated history painting by the artist, and exemplifies the narrative art of the so-called ‘Pre-Rembrandtists.’

The subject comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Jupiter falls in love with Io, a priestess in the service of his wife Hera. To save Io from Hera’s ensuing wrath, Jupiter transforms her into a white heifer, but Hera, wise to the plan, puts the cow under the guard of Argus, her shepherd who has one hundred eyes. In return, Jupiter thwarts Hera’s scheme by commanding his son Mercury, disguised as a shepherd, to lull Argus to sleep with an enchanted flute and thus free Io. In this work, Argus has succumbed to the spell of the music and Mercury is on the point of drawing his sword to slay the shepherd.

The temple here bears some similarity to the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli, and the motif appears in others of Moeyaert’s paintings.