Lot 19: SIMON DE VOS

A BACCHANAL IN A GROTTO
signed and dated lower left: S.D.Vos in et f 1634

53.2 by 72.5 cm.

oil on panel

Bought by the great-grandfather of the present owner in the 1930s.

In 1615 Simon became a pupil of Cornelis de Vos (1584-1651), to whom he was not related. In 1620 he became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. He initially specialised in small vivid genre scenes and Caravaggesque themes, but also painted merry companies and musical scenes in a style related to that of German painter Johan Liss (1595-1630). After 1640, inspired by both Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) he turned away from genre scenes altogether and mainly painted biblical subjects and small cabinet paintings.

This painting is possibly the prime version of a composition known in two other autograph versions: one recorded in the collection of Lord Spencer, Althorp House, Northamptonshire, by 1851, and the other in the collection of Augusto Caraceni, Rome, 1962. However, none of these versions is as detailed and sumptuous as the present composition. In the latter two paintings the subject is set in a shack and only partially in a grotto, and they lack additional background motifs and characters such as the fountain with the putto and the young boy serving himself a drink. The abundantly composed scene, the elegant, twisting figures and the rich colour palette all are typical for de Vos' work. The still life elements such as the grapes and shells, which are not present in any of the other compositions either, are rendered in such an extraordinarily accurate manner, that one might suggest that they are by a different artist, one close to Jan Breughel the Younger (1601-1687).

Bacchus was evidently a favourite subject of the artist, since he is the main protagonist in several of his works. Another lavish Bacchanal was sold in these Rooms, 8 May 2007, lot 108, and the figure of Bacchus closely resembles the figure of Bacchus in a painting, signed and dated 1639, sold, London, Sotheby's, 6 December 2007, lot 133. This jovial Bacchanal can also be interpreted as an allegory of the five senses.