(Brussels 1568–1625 Antwerp) and(Antwerp circa 1555 - after 1590)
The Judgement of Midas,
oil on panel, 104 x 140 cm, framed

We are very grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution. A written certificate, August 2016, accompanies the present painting.

Unusual in its composition and witty approach, this painting is a characteristic work of two of Antwerp’s most interesting painters, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Jacob de Backer.

Depicted is a large-figured mythological scene, placed in a verdant, green woodland landscape. Klaus Ertz describes the compositional scheme and the iconography of the work: „…three different groups of figures dominate the composition: In the left foreground, accentuated by a triangular shaped patch of grasses and plants, we see two fauns. Their gestures – one is putting his finger on his mouth, silencing the spectator, whilst the other on the right appears to enjoy himself immensely – appear to explain the event we are witnessing. Mirroring this left group is a second, composed of three women sitting on the earth in the right corner, commenting upon the main event with gestures and looks. Clad in erotically revealing gowns, they appear to be nymphs, enthralled by Apollo’s masterly violin playing. Two of them are looking directly at the god, whilst the nymph at the right border of the composition gazes at the beholder. The central and most important group is dominated by the figure of the god of the mountains, Tmolos, sitting in front of a tree trunk, clad only in a red scarf, signaling with his pointing hand his definite judgment about the competition he (and we) witness. He is looking towards Midas”.

To the left and right of Tmolus we see the competitors in the legendary contest, Apollo to the right and Pan to the left. Behind the trees further satyrs are gathered. Represented is the well-known scene from the Roman poet Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’. Apollo and Pan had a musical contest that was to be judged Tmolus, who picked Apollo as the winner. King Midas, also present at the contest, disagreed with Tmolus, believing Pan to be the better musician. Apollo punished him for this by turning his ears into those of an ass. Klaus Ertz has identified this highly unusual depiction of the scene convincingly as a collaborative work by Brueghel and Backer: “I am convinced that the landscape, foreground and background of the painting were executed by Jan Brueghel the Elder, whilst the figures are by a different hand, in my opinion by Jacob de Backer. The condition of the painting may be described as very good.“

Jacob de Backer is one of the most mysterious artists of 16th-century Antwerp. Despite the fact that he was praised in contemporary sources, van Mander noted that his works “are very sought after and wanted everywhere and enrich the cabinets or galleries of art lovers in many places… In short, he is easily one of the best colourists that Antwerp has known: he had a fleshy manner of painting because he highlighted not just with white but with flesh colour, so that he earned eternal fame among painters” (see: K. van Mander, Schilder-Boeck, Haarlem, 1603/4, 231v–232r, ed. and trans. H. Miedema, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters, Doornspijk, 1994, I, pp. 185/86), very little about his life is known. This has led to various efforts to reconstruct his life and oeuvre, which is a difficult task (see: Eckhard Leuschner, Defining De Backer: New Evidence on the Last Phase of Antwerp Mannerism Before Rubens, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, CXXXVII, no. 1587, 2001).

The scarce documents regarding the biography of this highly accomplished artist, ingeniously combining late Mannerist elements with early Baroque influences comes as something of a surprise. Despite his brief career, he seems to have been very prolific. He is known to have contributed to several paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder, and had a lasting influence on the figure style of Peter Paul Rubens.  Interestingly, one of the few contemporary or early sources deal with his collaboration with Brueghel: In the account books of the Antwerp dealer Forchhoudt, a contemporary of both artists, there is the following entry: “1702, 4 Augustus, Weenen. - Reeckeninghe (Mercus Forchoudt) vane en party schilderijen ghemerckt…ontfangen per conto van de SSs Melchior y Guillmo Forchoudt en syn vercocht alsvolght: n1 | 1 Vonnis van Midas van de Bacquer ende Breugel, met” (see: Jean Denucé, Exportation d’oeuvres d’art au XVIIe siècle à Anvers. La firme Forchoudt, 1930, p. 259). An auction catalogue lists: “Sale of Henrietta Popta, 5 april 1697 n.164 ‘t Oordeel van Pan en Midas van Jacob Backer” (see: G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen zedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt. Benevens een verzameling van lysten van verscheyden nog in wezen zynde cabinetten, vol. I, 1752, pp. 40-42, n.34), and finally in the sale of the Dealer Jacomo de Wit at the auction house Everaerts, Antwerp, 15th May 1741 (“Een stuck Schilderye verbeldende het Vonnis van Midas, de figueren door J. De Backer en het Landtschap geschildert van den Fluweelen Breugel, puyck goedt, h.3 v. 4 d., br.4 v.4 duym”, Naergelaeten door Juffrouw de Weduwe van wylen. Sieur Jacomo de Wit, verkogt den 15 Mey 1741 in Antwerpen, p. 32, n. 8). Regardless whether the present painting is one of the “Judgments of Midas” in these early sources, the dimensions given in the Wit Sale catalogue are close to the ones of the present painting, they do indeed prove that collaborations of the two were not uncommon.

Ertz cites three paintings as comparisons: Jan Brueghel I and Jacob de Backer, Landscape with Diana and Acteon, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, inv. no. NM 367 copper 37 x 27 cm; Jan Brueghel d. Ä. and Jacob de Backer, Diana and Acteon, London, with Johnny Van Haeften 2007, copper 26.6 x 36.2 cm; Jacob de Backer, Judgment of Midas, Nice, private collection, copper 35.5 x 43 cm. The present painting in its unusual, almost humoristic and witty composition is an interesting addition to the known oeuvre of both Backer, and of course also an excellent example of the beautiful landscapes of the elder Brueghel. His refusal to employ the traditional scheme of brown-green-blue for fore, middle- and background, so characteristic of late-Mannerists Flemish landscape painting, instead using a predominantly brown/greenish palette, “can be considered quite modern for the date of execution, circa 1590“, as Ertz notes.

Brueghel was quite young when he collaborated with Backer in the early 1590s, before the profound influences of his Italian sojourn had an effect on his style. The harmonious composition and apparently seamless collaboration with one of, as Van Mander tells us, Antwerp’s most sought after figure painters is a tribute to the accomplishment of the young and emerging master.