(Utrecht 1566–1638)
Bacchus, oil on panel, 78 x 57 cm, framed

We are grateful to Jan Kosten, RKD, The Hague, for identifying the present painting (oral communication, July 2010).

The present composition may be compared with the works of the artist (see A. W. Lowenthal, Joachim Wtewael and Dutch Mannerism, Doornspijk 1986, pp. 155/56, no. A-94, pl. 130, in particular p. 156). Unpublished to date, this painting offers new insights into the work of the last great Dutch Mannerist. The present Bacchus resembles a painting of the same subject matter that was sold at Christie’s in New York on 25 January 2002, lot 15. In her catalogue raisonné, Lowenthal relates the painting to a Venus in the City Art Gallery, New York and to a depiction of Ceres, which is still considered lost. This assumption is based on the fact that two such sequences of deities, including Bacchus, Ceres, and Venus, are mentioned in Wtewael’s inventory. A Venus preserved in the Brukenthal Collection in Sibiu (Hermannstadt) can be mentioned in this context as a further component of one of Wtewael’s series. Lowenthal did not succeed in clarifying whether it belonged to one of the series listed in the inventory, nor was it possible for her to find out whether the series that included the painting sold at Christie’s was the other one mentioned. She considers it possible that a third series also existed, of which our painting might have formed part (see Lowenthal, op. cit.,p. 196). The other pictures related to our painting have not as yet been identified. A further Bacchus, a roundel, is in the Musée de Moulins (see Lowenthal, op. cit., no. A77). Wtewael numbers among the last exponents of Northern Mannerism, a style with which he remained even when the naturalistic style of the Netherlandish Baroque had taken hold. However, the present painting illustrates that he did not defy contemporary tendencies. Wtewael’s huge success among aristocratic collectors around 1600 is accounted for by his impressive painterly style and the request for his work also explains why there are at least three autographversions of the Bacchus.

We are grateful to Jan Kosten, RKD, The Hague, for identifying the present painting (oral communication, July 2010). The present composition may be compared with the works of the artist (see A. W. Lowenthal, Joachim Wtewael and Dutch Mannerism, Doornspijk