(Lokeren 1607/08 – circa 1656 Naples?)
Christ and the Adulteress,
oil on canvas, 125.5 x 174.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for suggesting the attribution to Hendrick van Somer after examining the present painting in the original.

The present painting is characterised by delicate brushwork and an elegant chiaroscuro effect. The depicted figures are illuminated by a light source located left, outside the painting, with the central figures of Christ and the Adulteress, arranged in a stage-like setting.

The drama of the biblical subject is heightened through the close-up composition in front of a monochrome background, as well as the selection of the colour palette, with the use of bold red, blue and white tones which create a counterweight to the restrained dark shades used in the other figures. The play between light and shadow on the voluptuous drapery of the main figures’ robes ­­– especially on Christ’s classical folds – lends plasticity and depth. The dynamics and tension are intensified by the different compositional lines, the viewing directions, the hand and head positions. Somer­ chooses the very moment of the story when Christ is about to lower his finger to the ground in order to write in the sand. Except for two figures, the sitters curiously follow the movement of his right hand, pointing downwards.

The Neapolitan biographer and painter Bernardo de’ Dominici mentioned van Somer in his Vite as a pupil of Jusepe de Ribera (see B. de’ Dominici, Vite dei pittori scultori e architetti napoletani [1742], vol. III, Bologna 1971, p. 32). The artist indeed retained from the art of Ribera a monumentality of composition and vigorous expression of sentiment, as well as the attentive rendering of details, especially the beard, hair, hands and highlights. Furthermore, we also see Ribera’s legacy in the handling of the pigments, the broad impasto brushstrokes in the adulteress’s blouse, in contrast to the fluid manner in the robes.

Until recently Hendick van Somer was confused with the homonymous Dutch painter from Amsterdam (see G. J. Hoogewerff, Hendrick van Somer, schilder van Amsterdam, navolger van Ribera, in: Oud Holland, vol. LX, 1943, pp. 158­-72). Only little is known about the life of the artist who left the Low Countries with his family in circa 1622 and settled in Naples, where he is recorded active until 1655. Documents bear witness to his contact with the painter colleagues Viviano Codazzi, Micco Spadaro and Matthias Stom.