(Antwerp 1612–1661)
Jupiter and Mercury with Philemon and Baucis,
oil on panel, 54 x 80 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 2 November 2004, lot 112 (as David Ryckaert III);
where acquired by the present owner

The present painting is registered in the RKD database under no. 0000279802 (as David Ryckaert III).

The composition of the present painting of Philemon and Baucis, derives from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Ovid, Met. VIII, 621–96) – a popular subject in seventeenth-century Flemish art: Jupiter and Mercury came disguised as ordinary peasants and asked the townspeople of Tyana for a place to sleep for the night, however they were turned away by all inhabitants. Only Philemon and his wife Baucis, an old couple living in a poor hut on the outskirts of the town, show hospitality, take them in and treat them to everything they have. As they recognise their guests as gods by the fact that the wine jug miraculously fills, they decide to sacrifice their only goose to them – which is the exact moment Ryckaert depicts in the present painting.

In keeping with the story and yet alienating into the seventeenth-century-reality, the artist situates the mythologic scene in a genre setting. The artist displays his skill in great detail, on the table appears a bulging fruit basket, – which is actually diametrically opposed to the story about the poor people – in the foreground clay jars and baskets are shown, also a rough-woven carpet – all objects in which Ryckaert’s material consciousness comes to bear. In addition, the warm palette with individual colour accents, the harmonious composition and also the fine modelling are characteristic for the artist’s oeuvre.

David Ryckaert III grew up in a family of artists, his father David II and his uncle Marten made a living as professional artists. As soon as he could handle a brush, he was apprenticed in his father’s Antwerp workshop and after the admission to the Guild of St. Luke in 1636/37 he started working as an independent master, concentrating on genre and still-life paintings.