(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
Meleager and Atalante hunting the Calydonian boar,
oil on canvas, 134.5 x 181 cm, framed

The present version of Peter Paul Rubens’s Meleager and Atalante hunting the Calydonian boar attests to the immediate popularity this dramatic compositon attained in Antwerp and with Rubens’s international clientele, leading to demand for workshop repetitions, of which the present canvas is one. An attribution of the present present painting to Ruben’s pupil Vincent Malo (1595–1675) has been suggested by Anna Orlando.

Vincent Malo was born circa 1602 in Cambrai. He was active in Antwerp from around 1623 – the year he is first recorded in the local guild of St. Luke. According to Raffaele Soprani, the Italian aristocratic art historian whose Delle vite de’ Pittori, scultore ed Architetti Genovesi was published in 1674, Malo was first trained by David Teniers the Elder and then by Rubens. It can be safely argued that Malo indeed did spend some time in Rubens’ workshop, as the latter’s influence on Malo’s oeuvre – especially his early work – is abundantly clear (furthermore, Malo seems to have had access to drawings from Rubens’ Cantoor). Recorded students of Malo include Flups Mertens and Jakes Clasens (both have left no known works) and the still-life painter Isaac Wigans. Vincent Malo collaborated with other Antwerp artists, such as Gysbrecht Leytens and Andries van Eertvelt, executing the figures in their land- and seascapes. Seventeenth-century art inventories mention several works by Malo owned and sold by collectors and dealers in Antwerp.

Malo was last recorded in the guild of St. Luke in 1634; that same year he probably went to Genoa. There, he stayed for some time with Cornelis de Wael, another artist from Antwerp who had settled there with his older brother Lucas in the 1610’s. Malo and de Wael were to collaborate, as was also noted by Cornelis de Bie in his compilation of artist biographies, the Gulden Cabinet der Edel Vry Schilderconst, which was published in 1661. In his entry on the artist, de Bie wrote that Malo’s art ‘niet te verbeteren (is)’ and ‘wel staen mach op het toneel van Picturas uyterste Wetenschap’.