(Antwerp 1644–1680 Amsterdam)
The grieving Pyramus, pointing the dagger at himself,
oil on panel, 67 x 50.5 cm, framed

On the reverse, stamp in the wood: cross moline with the letters P and M as well as old inscription in a red colour: Piramo.

We are grateful to Bernhard Schnackenburg for identifying the painting as an autograph work by Jan Andrea Lievens.
Likewise we are grateful to Thomas Eißing for determining the type of wood as pine-wood.

Schnackenburg writes: “The picture has already been recognised as the work of a Dutchman with Flemish influences, and linked to the oeuvre of Jan Lievens. The High Baroque style, on the basis of Rubens and Van Dyck, indicates a late period after 1660, at the end of Jan Lievens’ creative production. He himself, however, can be ruled out as the painter, as faces with similarly moving emotion are not known from his late period. Rather, much suggests that it is a work of his gifted son and student, Jan Andrea Lievens. Closely related in the liveliness of the facial expressions, in the depiction of the hands, and the fleecy, light fabrics is the newly resurfaced painting, The Drinker, by Jan Andrea Lievens (Sotheby’s, New York, 31 January 2013, lot 70), which immediately after its completion was deemed worthy of an engraved reproduction, with the indication of his famous father as inventor (Schneider 1972/73, no. 126). Similarly widely painted is The Geographer in Leiden, Rheinlandhaus (Schneider no. 117, exhibition catalogue, Jan Lievens, Washington 2008, no. 55). The commission was issued to Jan Lievens in 1665 or 1666, who transferred the execution to his as yet unknown son and therefore received only a portion of the honorarium. It appears that he hoped for support from Jan Andrea in his old age”.

Regarding the content of the painting, Schnackenburg writes further: “The picture stimulates attention first of all with its unique iconography. The half-figure, full-frame depiction of Pyramus, ready for death, is unique. The countless depictions of this tragedy of love across the centuries are all arranged scenically, with entire figures in a landscape or architectural setting, among them also the suicide of Pyramus. In this picture, Pyramus’ face is depicted from close up, with the visible detail of the tears he sheds for his beloved Thisbe, whom he deems killed by a lion and whose blood-stained veil he holds in his left hand. The focus is not as much on the story as on the figure of misfortune in the foreground. As a martyr, like the wounded Sebastian, he casts an imploring glance upwards to a higher power. This motif exceeds the boundaries of Ovid’s narrative”.