JAN DAVIDSZ. DE HEEM UTRECHT, 1606 - 1684, ANVERS Peaches, grapes and a partly-p…
Description

JAN DAVIDSZ. DE HEEM UTRECHT, 1606 - 1684, ANVERS

Peaches, grapes and a partly-peeled lemon in a Wanli “kraak” porselein bowl, with a ham on a pewter platter, a silver-gilt cup and cover, a pewter flagon, and a roemer with a knife on a plate, on a partly-draped table Oil on panel Signed and dated lower left 26 3/16 x 39 3/4 in. PROVENANCE Amsterdam, Galerie P. de Boer; Collection Sir Emmanuel Kaye (England). Sold by his executors; London, Christie's, 12 December 2001, no. 18; Turin, Luigi Caretto Gallery; Acquired from this gallery by the present owner, Private Collection, Turin (Italy); Chiale Fine Art, Racconigi, 2018 - 2020, exhibited at BRAFA, Brussels and at the Masterpiece exhibition, London. BIBLIOGRAPHY Turin, Luigi Caretto Gallery, Collezionismo Maggiore, 2022, vol. I, no. 8 [ill.], dated 1640 - 1650. EXHIBITION Maestri Fiamminghi ed Olandesi del XVI-XVII secolo, Collezionismo Maggiore, Turin, Luigi Caretto Gallery, 7 November - 7 December 2002, n°8. KNOWN COPIES Anonymous, oil on canvas, 78 x 108 cm, Lyon, Musée des Beaux Arts, inv. n°H724. An attribution to Cornelis Kruys is suggested (C. Briend, exhibition catalogue, Lyon, Bourg-en-Bresse, Roanne, 1992, no. 29 [ill.]. Anonymous, oil on canvas, 85 x 115 cm, Winterswijk, private collection, suggested as attributed to Cornelis de Heem; Daniel Katz Gallery, Dieren, Private Collection (Italy), 1996 (Nicolas R.A. Vroom 1945, p. 147, fig. 131, 205, no. 17, as Cornelis Cruys). The attribution was confirmed by Fred Meijer after examination of the work in December 2001, January 2018, 2019 and 2020. He will include it in the catalogue raisonné currently in preparation. Based on the two known copies, Fred Meijer hypothesises that the work by Jan Davidsz. de Heem was cut on the left, top and bottom. Between Antwerp and Amsterdam, between 1580 and 1620, the tables set with their objects and food were meticulously laid out in the early years of their production in Antwerp. The tables were gradually freed from the fixed movement and allowed to become a kind of ordered chaos, which is characteristic of the Baroque order, combined with the absolute meticulousness that characterises the work of Jan Davidsz de Heem at the end of his Antwerp period around 1650. Depending on the nature of the foodstuffs, these tables are preferably called ontbijtjes or banketjes. In the daily cycle of feasting and fasting, we have the representation of a fat meal with a cheerful atmosphere where abundance is assumed with tranquillity and serenity. The choice of food is made to provoke the gourmet imagination and maintain a desire in the making. The The arrangement of the food and objects, rigorously parallel to the frame of the painting, accentuates the effect of the offering and the spirit of an epicurean sharing where all the possible senses are called upon. Dominated by the affirmation of material wealth with the Wan-li cup, the pewter dishes and the pronkbeker, the composition favours the virtuosity of the way of painting through the accentuation of reflections and luminous colours. The half-full römer, which symbolises temperance, is a perfect example of the desire for pleasure in the spirit of rational epicureanism. half-full römer, which symbolises temperance, while the ham evokes the fatty meal. The precautionary allusion to Christ is never far away through the grape, the red fruit, the peach, just as the apple represents malum. If the lemon essentially expresses pleasure and seduction, the unrolled skin symbolises the ineluctable passing of time. As always with Jan Davidsz. de Heem, the balance between the attraction of pleasure and the incitement to restraint is perfectly established. Between a symbolic offering and a place of delectation, This cultural form of adherence to the present, which is more allusive than explicit, is the heir to the ancient xenia, which was offered to visitors as a sign of hospitality. The sumptuary expenditure is asserted but in opposition to the rigour of the dark tablecloth and without the play of folds, the illusionist presence of objects and foodstuffs is opposed to the background brushed like a timeless space. We would like to thank Alain Tapié for his help in writing this note.

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JAN DAVIDSZ. DE HEEM UTRECHT, 1606 - 1684, ANVERS

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