Lot 111: Jeremias van Winghe , Brussels 1578 - 1645 Frankfurt The Glorification of Art and Diligence and the Punishment of Gluttony and Earthly Pleasures oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 48 3/8 by 81 in.; 122.8 by 205.8 cm.

Private collection, France;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Claude Aguttes, June 16, 2003, lot 18 (as Attributed to Jeremias van Winghe).

The present composition is a rare example of van Winghe's allegorical scenes, here depicting virtue and vice. Virtue, represented on the left hand side of the canvas, is represented by people conducting productive and scholarly activities. The arts, unsurprisingly, are prominently represented among the virtuous group in the foreground. A gentleman carves a sculpture while behind him another pair of men sketch in red chalk. Vice, on the right hand side of the canvas, is filled with gluttonous individuals consuming alcohol, being lustful, and eating excessive amounts of food. The silver tazza shown amidst this gluttonous group demonstrates van Winghe's technical mastery as a still-life painter. The tazza shown on the table to the right is a quote from a highly accomplished still life composition (sold, London, Christie's, July 5, 2007, lot 9, for $579,542), a genre which he practiced on a number of occasions. Above, two angels fly over the separated scenes. The angel to the left crowns the virtuous scene with a laurel wreath, signifying their good standing as moral and productive members of society, while the angel hovering over vice holds switches and a barbed whip, illustrating the judgment being handed down for such sinful acts. The son of Joos van Winghe (c.1544-1603), Jeremias van Winghe specialized in drawings in his early career, before focusing on figural paintings and portraits until his death in 1645. He studied with Frans Badens in Amsterdam, after which time he lived and worked in Italy for a number of years. Upon marrying Johanna de Neufville, the daughter of a wealthy jeweler, Winghe stepped away from painting in 1616, and subsequently joined his step-father's business. He later returned to painting as his primary profession, around 1640, however this absence from painting provides for the relative scarcity of known works by him. Although he focused primarily on portraits and kitchen scenes (one such example offered London, Christie's, December 8, 2004, lot 30), large scale compositions such as this are not completely unknown within his oeuvre.