A favourite topic of Renaissance artists, Minerva in her bare flesh, and the more conservatively clad Muses make up this wonderful collaborative composition by Hendrik van Balen I and Jan Brueghel I.

Art or obscenity?

The early 17th century saw the popularity of Minerva and the Muses soar in the Dutch and German Mannerist workshops. Could this be the result of lingering obsession with the classical world in post-Renaissance Europe, leading the artists to pay homage to the patron Goddess of the Arts and the nine muses? Certainly, when explaining the painting to polite society. But what better way to express pent-up 17th century sexual frustration (countdown to the 60s: 352 years) than to depict 10 women in varying states of undress all in the name of art? From an artistic viewpoint, the composition also afforded the artists an opportunity to practice painting nudes, landscape and detailed precious musical instruments all in one go. Artists like Bartholomäus Spranger, Joachim Wtewael, and Henrik de Clerck are other confirmed Minerva fans.

A metamorphosis of identification

Minerva Visits the Nine Muses has experienced a series of identity metamorphoses (coincidentally the name of Ovid’s work upon which this painting is based – Met. V, 250-268) relating to its creators. While Hendrik van Balen has long been known to have painted all the figures in this scene, the identity of the painter responsible for the landscape, flowers, and instruments has been mused over somewhat more. The painting comes with an old certificate compiled by Klaus Ertz in which he attributes the landscape to Jan Brueghel II. But a stamped panel maker’s mark, unseen by Ertz, bears the date 1608, leaving Jan Brueghel II at the age of 7 when he supposedly completed the painting. While a masterpiece by a 7 year old child prodigy would be a tempting sales ploy, it is unlikely, and the landscape has now been firmly attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder. Another collaborative work by Hendrick van Balen I and Jan Brueghel I is Moses Striking the Rock (sold at Claude Agutte’s, Paris on 7th December 2012, lot 20 for €969,000), also on copper and identical in size and the two paintings compare in their refined composition and brilliant colours.

Van Balen: a life in service of the Muses

A master of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke (THE artist’s guild to be a member of in the Low Countries) at the age of only 17, Hendrick van Balen was appointed its dean in 1609, cementing his reputation as one of the foremost Flemish artists of the time. Van Balen undertook journeys to Italy (joining the exclusive Romanists’ Guild) and the Northern Netherlands to further study the arts and he led a successful workshop for over 30 years with many notable pupils, Anthony van Dyck among them. One of only a few of van Balen and Jan Brueghel I’s paintings to survive, Minerva Visits the Nine Muses typifies van Balen’s skill with its elegant figures and subtly executed muses. The composition is refined and balanced and the figures sit perfectly in Brueghel’s congenial landscape background. A joint effort by two of the period’s master painters, this painting is perhaps lent appropriate praise by Minerva herself when describing this scene in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the very work that inspired this painting: “And when she saw the Bowres to which the muses did resort/ And pleasant fields beclad with herbes of sundrie hew and sort/ She said that for their studies sake they were in happie cace/ And also that to serve their turne they had so trim a place.”

The painting, with a price estimate of €300,000 – €500,000, will be featured in Dorotheum’s old master paintings auction on April 19, 2016 starting at 5pm.

The auction catalogue can be found here.

Auction: Old Master Paintings

When: 19.04.2016 – 17:00

Where: Palais Dorotheum Wien