The Announcement To The Shepherds, Jacques Waben (1575-1641)

Jacques Waben
(Alkmaar ca. 1575-1641/1642 Hoorn)
Signed in the bottom centre and dated ‘J. Waben f./1620’.

The Announcement to the Shepherds

Oil on oak panel
103 x 63 cm
in frame 107 x 67

Provenance: Vienna Palais Dorotheum Old master painting 10.12.2015 (lot 143)

This is a spectacular depiction of the theme of the annunciation to the shepherds, set in a nocturnal atmosphere dense with photos but refined, the episode of the birth of Jesus reported in the Gospel according to Luke (Lu 2:8-15), in which an angel announces the birth of Christ to a group of shepherds.

We see the scene just as described in the Gospel passage that sets the event at night where the shepherds, intent on watching over their flock, were startled by the sudden appearance of an angel of astonishing beauty who we see here radiating a powerful golden light, while at his side a multitude of other angels from the heavenly army sing praises to God.

After exhorting them not to be afraid, he informed them that a saviour, the Messiah, had been born in Bethlehem, whom they would find wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger, cared for by the Virgin and St Joseph.

The annunciation to the shepherds was the most depicted night scene in Flemish painting from the 15th century onwards, evocative and extremely fascinating. The theatricality of the scene is enhanced by the vivid, intense and brilliant colours, as well as by the strength of the strokes of light that pierce the nocturnal setting. Splendid is the detail of the descent of the divine word, synthesised in the rays of light that from the angel end on the shepherds dazzled by its power.

Of excellent quality, the work is signed and dated by the painter Jacques Waben (Alkmaar ca. 1575-1641/1642 Hoorn), a talented Dutch portraitist of the Golden Age.

This superb panel painting is one of the rare examples of his painting with a religious theme, most probably commissioned for private devotional use or perhaps for a chapel in a small church.

It is a valuable work with an effective devotional intensity, able to involve and fascinate the viewer. Incredibly poetic is the dichotomy between the two spatial parts of the panel, the upper part, from which an ethereal and graceful beauty leaks out, and the lower part, where on the contrary the predominant sense is that of an earthly drama, with the shepherds seemingly overwhelmed by divine force.