Merry Company in an Interior

Between 1630 and 1651

Attentive observer, may I challenge you to find some unusual elements in this panel painting? One detail has to do with the symbolic use of color, the other with a later adjustment of the image. Indeed! The Blessed Virgin is not dressed in her usual sky blue cloak, which refers to her purity, but in a red robe. During the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the Virgin often wore such a red garment to refer to the Passion of Christ. After all, the blessing Christ child with his orb would shed his blood for the redemption of mankind. The second strange element catches the eye when one looks closer at the little Jesus. It appears that he was originally depicted completely naked, but got on a transparent loincloth over time. In the past there were several times when nudity in art was subject to some form of censorship. For example, the supervision of Christian art was strongly encouraged by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). This assembly was dealing with the inner-ecclesiastical reform of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the important theologians who followed the council’s guidelines was Joannes Molanus (1533-1585). He did not consider the nakedness of the Christ Child to be edifying and pointed out that children could be endangered in this way. He may have been referring to the dangers of paedophilia. During the 19th century, puritanism emerged. A famous example of a moral preacher was Pope Pius IX...

Willem Muys was a Dutch, 18th-century painter of history pieces, portraits and cabinet pieces. Above all, he appears to have been active as a painter of ‘wallpaper’. Until the mid-18th century, ‘wallpaper’ was not painted on paper but on coarsely woven linen. Wealthy citizens had their mansions or country estates adorned with ‘wallpaper’ with landscapes, exotic birds or chinoiseries. Willem Muys mainly painted ‘wallpaper’, which means that few of his works have been preserved. They are hardly represented in public collections. The works of his sons, Nicolaas en Robbert, both painters, are a little less rare. The painting with Rebecca and Eliezer...

As the Dutch painter Philips Wouwerman often did, this artist painted travellers stopping at an inn or a farm. One of the men got off his horse to urinate against the facade of the building. The motif of a peeing man was far from an exception in Dutch genre paintings...

Preparation for Carnival: a three day festival of insatiable eating, drinking and carousing that preceded the forty days of Lent, a period of penitence when the pious drank only wate...

The portrait represents a man, estimated to be 60 years of age, standing turned to the viewer's right, looking at the viewer with a commanding expression. He has a moustache and beard and wears a high fur cap. He wears a brown mantle over a whitish shirt and, over it, a heavy gold chain...

The Namur painter and engraver, Louis Decoeur (1884-1960) became a member of “L’Effort” around 1910. This artist's association provided a free studio for painters in Brussels, on the first floor of a building located at Quai au Bois à Brûler number 31. Here innovative artists who the official salons did not appreciate were given a forum. The members of "L'Effort" opposed academism. Some names of artists who have worked in the studio spaces of "L'Effort" are: Jean Brusselmans...

A FEAST OF THE GODS WITH VENUS AND BACCHUS Collections: With Appleby Brothers, London, June 1957; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1961; John and Eileen Harris, acquired from the above, to 2015. Literature: Jacob Simon and Ellis Hillman, English Baroque Sketches: The Painted Interior in the Age of Thornhill, 1974, cat. no.12 (as by Louis Laguerre); Elizabeth Einberg (ed.), Manners and Morals: Hogarth and British Painting, 1700-1760, exh. cat., London (Tate Gallery), 1987, cat. no.10 (as by Louis Laguerre); Tabitha Barber and Tim Bachelor, British Baroque: Power and Illusion, exh. cat., London (Tate Britain), 2020. Exhibited: Twickenham, Marble Hill House, English Baroque Sketches: The Painted Interior in the Age of Thornhill, 1974, no.12 (as by Louis Laguerre); London, Tate Gallery, Manners and Morals: Hogarth and British Painting, 1700-1760, 1987, no.10 (as by Louis Laguerre); London, Tate Britain, British Baroque: Power and Illusion, cat. no 92, 2020. CUPID AND PSYCHE BEFORE JUPITER Collections: With Appleby Brothers, London, June 1957; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1961; Anthony Hobson, acquired from the above, to 2015. These recently re-united paintings are the most ambitious surviving baroque ceiling sketches made in Britain in the early eighteenth century. From the Restoration until the rise of Palladianism in the 1720s decorative history painting formed the preeminent artistic discipline in Britain. It was a field dominated by Continental artists including the Italian Antonio Verrio and the Frenchmen Louis Laguerre and Louis Chéron...

Painted with gilt wood frame, 58 x 75 cm. is the work of the painter couple Viviano Codazzi (Valsassina 1603-Rome 1670), who specialized as a quadraturist and landscape painter, and...

Sebastiano Mazzoni Andata al calvario Olio su tela, Sec. XVI, cm 130x143; con cornice 167x153x9 Il dipinto rappresenta un episodio della Passione di Cristo cui accennano appena i Van...

Maître italien (XVIIe siècle) - Madone des Douleurs avec couronne d'épines. 99 x 74 cm sans cadre, 107 x 83 cm avec cadre. Peinture ancienne à l'huile sur toile, dans un cadre en b...

Girolamo Negri, known as Boccia (Bologna 1648 - Bologna 1720) - Sibilla. 65 x 50.5 cm without frame, 90.5 x 75 cm with frame. Antique oil painting on canvas, in a carved and gilded...

Italian master (17th century) - Holy Family with St. John the Baptist. 66 x 99cm. Oil on canvas, unframed. Lined canvas. Good state of conservation of the pictorial surface, there...