Artist: Joost De Pape
Date: 1629
Size: 123 x 105 cm
Technique: Oil On Panel
Ovid, Metamorphoses 10:529-559, tells how Venus, the goddess of love, lay with her beloved mortal, Adonis, the son of Myrrha and her own father King Cinyras, and told him the tale of Atalanta and Hippomenes, so as to turn him against hunting ‘bold’ creatures.7 Painted on an approved Antwerp oak support of four pieces of differently prepared timber, in the year after Joos de Pape became a master in the Antwerp guild, this is the only extant signed painting by the artist. It is not known who his master had been, but his manner of painting obviously owes much to Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), although the idiom of Gaspar de Crayer (1584-1669) seems also to have been influential.8 It has to be said that the similarity of the formulation of the two right legs in particular, and the poses of the protagonists in general are evidence that De Pape was not an artist of the first rank. However, the absence of Adonis’s left foot and truncated strap of the horn can be explained by likely losses of the support. Although omitting Cupid, De Pape accurately conveyed Ovid’s story as illustrated, for instance, in Philip Galle’s (1537-1612) print after Anthonie Blocklandt (1533/34-1583).9 His immediate source of inspiration was probably Antonio Tempesta’s (1555-1630) print in his Metamorphoseon ... Ovidianarum of 1606.10 The spear, hound and hunting horn identify the male protagonist, emphasize his love of the chase and places the account more in the tradition of Titian’s (c. 1488-1576) interpretation of the story that has recently been expounded by Penny.11 Technical photographs show that a different composition was first begun on the support and then abandoned. Visible in X-radiographs in the right middle ground on a small scale are the legs of two seated soldiers in Roman-style costumes. Presumably this first subject was very probably intended by De Pape to be from the antique; but there is no means of knowing as yet what it was to be. Gregory Martin, 2022
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