Offered by Galerie Thierry Matranga
REQUEST INFORMATION
Oil on oak panel. Antwerp school of the first half of the 17th century, attributed to Caspar van den Hoecke.
Inspired by an episode from the Old Testament, our composition represents Esther's plea to her husband Ahasuerus, king of the Persians, also known by the Greek name of Xerxes. Esther and her people were threatened by an edict of the minister Aman condemning the Jews to death. Etiquette, however, forbade the queen to appear before the king unannounced. In defiance of this ban, Esther fainted with emotion after begging Ahasuerus to cancel the decree. Magnanimous, the latter forgives his wife with a gesture of his scepter and agrees to spare his people. It is the author of the decree, Aman, who ends up hanging from a gallows, as seen in the background of our painting. If the Jews commemorate Esther on the feast of Purim, the Christians see in her a prefiguration of the Virgin Mary. Indeed, her intervention with the king prefigures Mary's intercession with Christ on the day of the Last Judgment: Esther had obtained the grace of the Jews, the Virgin will obtain the salvation of the human race. This theme, which emphasizes religious tolerance, was particularly topical in the Grand Siècle, when society was riven by religious quarrels.
This work, full of pathos and painted in fine glazes, is representative of the Antwerp Baroque style, which was inspired by Peter Paul Rubens and brilliantly represented here by one of his emulators, Caspar van den Hoecke. The display of figures in a palatial architecture in a horizontal order recalls the compositions of Paul Veronese, who depicted this episode around 1555 (Uffizi Museum in Florence). Peter Paul Rubens was probably inspired by the Venetian master for his own interpretation of the subject, which has now disappeared, but which we still remember thanks to an engraving dated 1631. Like Rubens, van den Hoecke renders the emotion of the figures through an expressive treatment of the faces and subtle hand movements. However, he did not neglect the details and paid great attention to the realization of the fabrics and textures, whose volumes are rendered by fine touches. Thus, this work represents a synthesis between Ruben's vivacity and the attention to detail that so animated Flemish painters throughout the Golden Age. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has another version of this composition by van den Hoecke, which differs somewhat in size (54 x 77 cm), setting and color palette: the Vienna painting is not very open to the outside world, whereas ours shows a tree-lined courtyard with a bustling crowd. Also, in our version, rather than a window through which the viewer watches a meal, van den Hoecke offers our gaze the perspective of the palace facade.
Our painting is highlighted by a powerful frame with an inverted profile in burl veneer and black guilloche.
Dimensions : 44 x 59,5 cm - 68 x 83 cm with the frame
Biography : Caspar or Gaspar van den Hoecke (Antwerp, c. 1585 - Id. ap. 1648) began his apprenticeship with Juliaan Teniers in Antwerp in 1595. He became a member of the St. Luke's Guild in 1603 and trained many apprentices, including his two sons, Jan and Robert van den Hoecke. His body of work consists mainly of religious paintings.
Bibliography :
- D'HULST, R. -A., VANDENVEN, M., Corpus Rubenanium Ludwig Bruchard: The Old Testament (part III), London, Harvey Miller, 1968.
- MARTIN, John Rupert, Corpus Rubenanium Ludwig Bruchard: The ceiling paintings for the Jesuit church in Antwerp (part I), London, Harvey Miller, 1967.
- REAU, Louis, Iconographie de l'art chrétien, Paris, PUF, 1957.
- VLIEGHE, Hans, Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585-1700, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1998, p. 109.
