The Monogrammist AG

Teeming with figures, monuments, and altars, this church interior is notable for its imposing size as well as its exuberant and colorful detail. Although the architectural details are fanciful and the setting is likely imaginary, the costumes of the elegantly attired figures are typical of those found in Antwerp. The fine lace of the figures in the lower foreground, and the dark attire of the ladies kneeling for mass at far left and at the baptism in the distant foreground, for example, were popular in this city in these early decades of the 17th century. Next to another mass being said towards the far right of the scene is an elaborate and as-yet-unidentified tomb adorned with an impressive coat of arms that features the Order of the Golden Fleece. 

This panel is signed with the monogram AG and dated 1634, but a firm identification of its author remains elusive.  The architectural painter Anton Gunter Gheringh has been proposed in the past as a possible candidate, although recent research suggests he was not born until 1630, making him too young to have executed this work. Nicolaes de Gyselaer (circa 1590 - 1654) has also been put forth as an alternative attribution. While there are some compositional affinities shared between the present example and paintings by Gyselaer,¹ his signature, ND GYSELAER, is notably different than that found on this panel.  A last possibility might be Abraham Mathysz. van Gherwen (active 1605–1643) from Rotterdam, whose work in this particular genre is known from a single example of 1643 (a free copy of Hendrick Aerts) formerly with Antiquaires du Louvre, Paris in 1984.²

Traditional elements of church perspective derived from Netherlandish painters such as Pieter Neeffs (1578–1656) are in this panel strikingly fused with more Germanic features, which may suggest an artist of German origin. Some of the elegant figures that fill the scene may have been completed by another hand, and stylistic parallels may be found in the work of Wolfgang Heimbach (1615–1678).

1. For example, see Nicolaes de Gyselaer, Church interior with a Catholic Procession, New York, Christie's, 4 October 1996, lot 18.  

2. Oil on panel, 98 by 113 cm, see https://rkd.nl/explore/images/106196.