Flemish School, circa 1600, an artist in the ambit of the young Peter Paul Rubens

This intriguing panel of Hercules and Omphale was painted in Antwerp around 1600 by an artist in the ambit of the young Peter Paul Rubens. Although the attribution for the present painting remains a point of discussion, the panel maker’s mark of Michiel Claessens on its reverse points to an Antwerp hand, and the lack of the Antwerp brand mark affirms the panel was made before 11 December 1617. The picture calls to mind the series of eleven heads of emperors in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, attributed to Rubens and his workshop. It also shares some visual affinities, particularly in the facial type of Omphale, to examples by Otto van Veen, who was Rubens’ teacher from about 1594/1595 until 1598. Some aspects of the painting also suggest an awareness of the traditions surrounding artists active elsewhere, such as in Haarlem, Prague and various German cities, including Geldrop Gortzius, Hendrick Goltzius, and Bartolomeus Spranger. Goltzius and Spranger’s ill-matched lovers and images of Mars and Venus in particular serve as comparisons, and indeed a copy of the present composition in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Rennes is attributed to Spranger.¹

^1.  https://art.rmngp.fr/en/library/artworks/bartholomaeus-spranger_hercule-et-omphale_huile-sur-toile