(Haarlem 1562–1638)
The Flaying of Marsyas,
oil on canvas, 148 x 120 cm, framed

Provenance:
with John H. Collings Ltd., Banwell, Somerset;
sale, Christie’s, London 14 October 1966, lot 141 (as Goltzius);
Federico Zeri Collection, Mentana (Rome);
Private European collection

Literature:
P. J. J. Van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, his first ten years as a painter, 1582-1592, in: Netherlandish mannerism, ed. By G. Cavalli-Björkman, Stoccolma 1985, p. 80;
E. J. Sluijter, De ’heydensche fabulen’ in de Noordnederlandse schilderkunst, circa 1590-1670, The Hague 1986, p. 347, no. 15-2;
P. J. J. Van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, a monograph and catalogue raisonné, Ghent 1999, cat. no. 143, pl. 28

The present painting is registered in the RKD database as Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (image no. 0000080801).

This composition represents a scene from the myth of Apollo and Marsyas from the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Marsyas, a satyr, found an aulos in the forest, a wind instrument that had been made by Athena and which she had then thrown away when she was mocked by her companions for her playing. Marsyas, however, became so proficient at playing and received such acclaim that he became bold enough to challenge Apollo, the god of music. Apollo accepted the challenge and called the Muses to judge the contest. Marsyas was convinced that he could beat the god until the moment when he began to accompany his lyre with song. The very nature of the satyr’s instrument, a wind instrument, wouldn’t allow him to follow suit. Victory was thereby assigned to Apollo who imposed a terrible punishment on Marsyas for daring to have challenged a god: he bound the satyr to a tree and flayed him alive (Metamorphosis VI: 385-391).

This painting has been dated to circa 1588 (see literature). According to Sluijter this is one of the first examples of mythological painting from the newly formed ‘School of Haarlem’ of which Cornelis was a founding member. The vigorous nude figure of Marsyas emerges from the darkness. The convulsed rendering of the body and the ‘uncomfortably’ positioned left hand are, according to Van Thiel (1999, see literature), elements that confirm a dating to no later than 1588.

Works by Cornelisz. van Haarlem executed around this time include Two followers of Cadmus devoured by the Dragon in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. NG 1893) and the Fall of the Titans in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (inv. no. KMS 1). Further comparison can also be made with Christ carrying the Cross in the National Museum, Warsaw (inv. no. M.ob.20) dated 1592: in this work the figure of the protagonist is set against a dark background, emerging out of the darkness with force. Their Michelangelesque bodies are muscular and the nude torso of these statuesque figures occupy the vast majority of the composition (see Van Thiel 1999, cat. no. 93, pl. 78).

Cornelis was born in Haarlem in the Netherlands in 1562. He was a painter and draughtsman and one of the leading exponents of Mannerism in Haarlem; he studied with Pieter Pietersz. (1540/41-1603). After a brief journey to France and a sojourn in Antwerp in 1580-81, he established himself definitively in his native city. Around 1583, Cornelis became friends with the historian Karel van Mander (1548-1606) who inspired the painter’s antiquarian studies, and who also prepared his biography for publication. Van Mander’s text is the only source for reconstructing the artist’s early activity, and it is a portrait of the artist as a masterful and diligent painter. He was much admired by the collector-humanists of the age (see J. L. McGee, Cornelis Corneliszoon Van Haarlem: Patrons, Friends, and Dutch Humanists, Nieuwkoop 1991, pp. 33-52). Cornelis met the celebrated engraver Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) and together with Karel van Mander were to found the ‘School of Haarlem’, the cradle of Mannerism in the Low Countries, and their works were to become celebrated throughout Europe, due to the engravings of Hendrick Goltzius.