Artist: Cornelis Claesz Van Wieringen
Date: 1625
Size: 103 x 206 cm
Technique: Oil On Canvas
Like Hendrick Vroom Van Wieringen usually depicted events from the recent past which must have had a special significance for the original owners of the paintings. In this case it was probably the Armada, which was routed by the English at Gravelines in 1588 and then scattered by a violent storm.4 The painting shows several Spanish men-of-war sailing just off a rocky coast. The large ship in the middle is flanked by two three-masters placed a little further to the background. Van Wieringen painted a very unusual subject, and that is the moment when horses and mules were thrown overboard to conserve the stocks of water and food.5 The work was probably commissioned, and because the English drove off the Armada it is not inconceivable that it was painted for an Englishman.6 Van Wieringen’s style is distinctive. The deep blue-green water and the dark tone of the two galleons contrast with the bright colours of the setting. The precision with which the masts, rigging and sails are depicted is at marked variance with the light sky and clouds. The horses and mules are not very lifelike, being rather schematic. The painting can be dated to the early 1620s, given its affinity with Van Wieringen’s works from that period. Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007 See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 340.
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