Panoramic View of Antwerp from the East, Jan Wildens, 1636 – (Jan Wildens) ◄ prijašnji Sljedeći ►

Umjetnik: Jan Wildens

Datum: 1636

Veličina: 198 x 367 cm

Tehnika: Oil On Canvas

The view is of the city of Antwerp from the east taken from a point above and between the two roads then known as ‘De Straet over Lanteren-hof’ and that on the left ‘den Steenwech’ in the direction of Berchem. Maps were available which could have served as an aide-mémoire.23 In the centre, middle distance, is the Sint-Jorispoort or the Keizerspoort, built between 1542-54; to the north extends the city wall built in the same period also in white stone, and much praised by Ludovico Guiccardini in 1567.24 To the left extending southwards to the citadel is the earth rampart topped by a fence, known as ‘Joincte’, measures for the erection of which were taken by the Archduchess Isabella in 1625.25 The remnants of the stone defences were removed in 1860-63. The spires, set against the skyline, may be identified, from the left, as those of Sint-Michielsabdij, the Sint-Joriskerk, Sint-Andrieskerk, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, the Karmelitenbroedersklooster, Sint-Jacobskerk and of the Klooster der Predikheren. Couvreur gives a detailed description,26 based chiefly on the Brussels version (for which see below). Before the Sint-Jorispoort can be made out a watering place for horses. Maps are inconsistent about the number and location of windmills beside the approach roads (one is surpressed in the present painting, while none occurs in the Brussels version referred to below); but in some maps is marked a tower also, suppressed in the present painting, referred to above, identified simply as ‘Redout’ on the Berchem road, nearly opposite the Sint-Jorispoort. It has recently been shown that the Marquès de Leganés (1580-1655) acquired ‘two Antwerp views from the land side and another from the water side by Wildens…’ during his brief tour of duty in the Spanish Netherlands in the winter of 1634-35.27 The latter view has been identified as that in the Brussels museum;28 the whereabouts of the former ‘to the land side’ is not known. Also unknown are the whereabouts of the ‘two large canvas paintings showing the water and land sides of this city’ for which, as recorded in the accounts of the city of Antwerp for 23 May 1635, a payment was to be made to Jan Wildens.29 These were supposedly for the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, who made his Joyous into the city on 17 April 1635. As the present painting is signed and dated 1636 it may be presumed to be a near replica (having regard to the pentiments in the foreground) of those previously executed; three other similar views are extant, see below. The 1653/54 inventory of the estate of Jeremias Wildens, who died soon after his father Jan, lists four pendant views presumably similar to those earlier painted; these are not specified as by Jan – as occurs with other paintings in the inventory – and so are most likely replicas by Jeremias.30 Pendant views, but smaller than the Rijksmuseum picture, were on the London market in 1972.31 Whether there was a pendant to the present work, a view of the city from across the Scheldt – ‘naer de watersijde’ – is not known. Four other views of the city, of approximately the same size, two from each viewpoint are known, of these, two, in the Brussels museum, already constitute a pair;32 the two others are in the Dieppe museum33 and in the Nationaal Scheepvaartmuseum, Antwerp (on loan).34 The river views are all said to record the arrival of the Dowager Queen Marie de Médicis at Antwerp in September 1631; so it is likely that a pendant to the present painting of 1636 would have done the same. However, this latter could have been executed and /or sold without a pendant; a single such view – although not specified as by Wildens – was listed ‘voor de schouwe’, on the mantelpiece, in the inventory of an Antwerp estate of 1661.35 Wildens is thought to have supplied landscape backgrounds for figure painters, and perhaps towards the end of his career other artists supplied the staffage for his own landscapes.36 But he early developed his own manner of executing figures and animals on a small scale, thus not relying on others.37 The figures in the present painting conform to his generally accepted manner as demonstrated for instance in the Month of July of 1614 executed when he was in Italy.38 The 1653/54 inventory refers to landscapes most likely by Jeremias, but presumably following his father’s example, as yet ‘ungestoffert’,39 that is without the staffage having been introduced. The arrangement of figures and animals in the extant views of Antwerp from the land side follow the same general pattern; this might have been the case already in the lost painting owned by Leganés and those destined for the Cardinal-Infante but it is impossible to say for certain. The variations in the disposition of the ‘better sort’ promenading in the bottom left-hand corners may have been requested by, and have had a particular reference to, prospective owners. The peasants in the foreground are engaged in autumnal work: harvesting root crops, sowing and picking fruit. The peasant ../..