Literature
G. Isarlo, Caravage et le caravagisme européen, vol. II, Aix-en-Provence 1941, p. 72 (subject wrongly identified as "Herminie et le Berger");
E. Schleier, 'A Lost Baburen Rediscovered,' in Burlington Magazine, CXIV, 836, November 1972, p. 787, note 5;
L.J. Slatkes, 'Additions to Dirck van Baburen,' in Album Amicorum J.G. van Gelder, The Hague 1973, pp. 267-268; 272, notes 6-11, reproduced fig. 2;
A. McNeil Kettering, 'The Batavian Arcadia: Pastoral Themes in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley), vol. I, 1974, pp. 217-220, vol. II, p. 444, notes 8, 11, Appendix, pp. 501, 561;
B. Nicolson, The International Caravaggesque Movement, Oxford 1979, p. 17, reproduced on dust-jacket;
C. Brown in A. Blankert et al., Gods, Saints & Heroes: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C. 1980 - 1981, p. 110;
A. McNeil Kettering, The Dutch Arcadia, Pastoral Art and Its Audience in the Golden Age, Montclair, New Jersey 1983, p. 164, under note 19, pp. 174, 189;
P. Janssen, 'Jan van Bijlert (1597/98-1671), schilder uit Utrecht' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht), 1984, p. 52;
C. Brown, Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, exhibition catalogue, Philadephia 1984, p. 130;
M.A.H. te Poel, 'De Granida en Daifilo voorstellingen in de Nederlandse schilderkunst in de 17de eeuw' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Rijskuniversiteit, Utrecht), 1986, pp.17, 21-23, 50;
J.A.L. de Meyere, `Hendrick ter Brugghen en tijdgenoten. Nieuw licht op de Gouden Eeuw,' in Antiek, 21, 1987, pp. 345, 347, reproduced pl. 7;
A. Blankert & L.J. Slatkes, Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht: Hendrick ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen, exhibition catalogue, Braunschweig 1987, pp. 24, 33, 188-190, no. 37, reproduced p. 189;
D.E.A. Faber, 'Dirck van Baburen, His Commissioner and His Motifs,' in R. Klessmann (ed.), Hendrick ter Brugghen und die Nachfolger Caravaggios in Holland: Beiträge eines Symposions...im Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, vom 23. bis 25. März 1987, Braunschweig 1988, pp. 143-149, passim, reproduced p. 142;
J.A.L. de Meyere, "Granida en Daifilo" (1625) van Gerard van Honthorst, Utrecht 1988, pp. 20-21, reproduced plate 19;
B. Nicolson (L. Vertova ed.), Caravaggism in Europe, vol. I, Turin 1989, p. 53, reproduced vol. III, fig. 1070;
P. Huys Janssen, Rembrandt's Academy, exhibition catalogue, The Hague (Hoogsteder and Hoogsteder) 1992, p. 266, cited under no. 37, p. 268, note 2, reproduced p. 268, fig. 37a;
Agnew's 175th Anniversary, exhibition catalogue, London (Agnew's) 1992, under no. 4;
Dutch and Flemish Old Master Paintings, exhibition catalogue, London (Johnny van Haeften)1992, under no. 3;
P. van den Brink & J. de Meyere, Het Gedroomde Land: Pastorale schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, exhibition catalogue, Utrecht 1993, pp. 21, 24, 28 (n. 27), 29, 30 (and n. 28), 56, 58 (and n. 2), 87-91, no. 4, pp. 92 (under no. 5), 163, 164 (under no. 25A and n. 6), 192 (under no. 33), 231 (under no. 44), 241 (under no. 46); and p. 313, Appendix 2, no. 2, reproduced p. 88;
H. Bussers in Le Musée caché. À la découverte des réserves, exhibition catalogue, Brussels 1994, pp. 65-66, under no. 20, reproduced p. 66;
L.J. Slatkes, 'Baburen, Dirck (Jaspersz.) van,' in The Dictionary of Art, vol. III, London, 1996, p. 8;
L.M. Helmus in Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age, exhibition catalogue, San Francisco 1997-1998, pp. 309, 430, note 3, reproduced p. 309, fig. 1.
Notes
This monumental canvas, in which the shepherd Daifilo kneels before the Persian princess Granida, is the earliest treatment of this subject in western Art and it fomented a surge of pastoral and literary-based works in Netherlandish painting throughout the ensuing decades. The subject is taken from Act One, Scene Three of Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft's Granida, completed in manuscript in 1605 and first published in 1615, just eight years before this painting was executed. Granida, daughter of the King of Persia, has lost her way out hunting, stumbling into Daifilo and Dorilea, pastoral lovers exchanging cross words. Baburen chooses the moment when Granida has revealed her identity to Daifilo who, having spurned his former lover Dorilea now cowering in the background, kneels before the princess offering her a bowl of water. The two fall immediately in love, he follows her to court and, after several further twists and turns in the story, the pair escape to lead a sweet pastoral life together. This subject was tackled soon after by a host of the leading artists in the Netherlands, notably by the so-called Utrecht Caravaggisti whose leading master, Gerrit van Honthorst, treated a later episode of the play in 1625 in a work now in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.υ1 Baburen repeated the composition, or parts of it, on at least two further occasions, the only intact version being unsigned and predominantly painted by the artist's studio (Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels).υ2 Of the third version, only two separate fragments remain; one depicting Granida was sold London, Christie's, 25 April 2001, lot 53, while the other depicts the shepherdess Dorilea. Baburen painted the present work shortly after his return from Italy where he had been since circa 1611 when he completed his apprenticeship with Paulus Moreelse in Utrecht. Although he is documented in several Italian cities, such as Parma (1615), he appears to have spent much of his time in Rome and it was there that he executed his most important works, often with the collaboration of David de Haen (d. 1622). The commission he received for the Pietà Chapel of S. Pietro in Montorio, which he completed between 1615-20, should be considered the apex of his career in Italy. Just as his Entombment, which is still in situ on the altar of the chapel there, reveals Baburen's close study of Caravaggio and in particular the latter's own treatment of that subject (Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana), so too does the present work, specifically in the kneeling Daifilo whose soiled feet pointing out at the viewer and dramatic lighting recall the beggars of Caravaggio's Madonna di Loreto (Sant'Agostino, Rome). With the present work Baburen thus brought back to the north his Italian learning, adapting it to his newly invented pastoral themes and, in so doing, initiating a new language of Netherlandish painting that would be a dominant force throughout the ensuing decades. The painting will be included in the forthcoming monograph on the artist currently in preparation by
Professor Wayne E. Franits.
A note on the Provenance:
The painting is almost certainly identifiable with an entry from the last will and testament of a Dutch Nobleman, Pieter van Hardenbroeck, from 1656.υ3 Hardenbroeck, who left the painting to his lawyer Jan de Wijs, probably commissioned it to commemorate his love for Agnes van Hanxelaer, who he married in 1628, and Leonard J. Slatkes has in fact proposed that Hardenbroeck himself was the model for the figure of Daifilo.υ4 1. See L.M. Helmus, 1997-98, pp. 307-309, reproduced fig. 308.
2. See H. Bussers, 1994, reproduced p. 64.
3. Will drawn up by G. Vastert on 8 May 1656; original document in Utrecht, Municipal Archives, Ms. No. U 021 a 022; published with English translation in D.E.A. Faber, 1988, p. 143, note 2.
4. See Slatkes, 1973.
