The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist

Antwerp, 1574/1575 - 1632

Date: c. 1603-4
Medium: Oil on copper
Dimensions: 47.5 x 68.2 cm (62.4 x 83.7 x 5.2 cm)

The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist is an exemplary model of Flemish master Hendrik van Balen’s refined interpretation of the Italianate Mannerist style that was popular in 17th-century Antwerp. In a feat of great technical achievement, the artist skillfully blended history painting with landscape and still life painting. By harnessing certain compositional and formal tools as well as the very materiality of the support, he succeeds in painting a scene of buzzing contemplation and active religious reflection. Van Balen is most commonly known for his tutoring of Antoon van Dyck (1599-1641) and Frans Snyders (1579-1667), whose brilliant careers have come to eclipse that of their master. Nevertheless, he remains an important figure in Flemish Baroque painting for his elegantly executed multifigural cabinet pictures, often painted on copper plate. Small-scale cabinet paintings on copper are a unique feature of the Baroque period in Antwerp. The present example epitomizes the tradition.

Technical Data

Artist: Hendrick Van Balen
Subject: The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist
Date: c. 1603-4
Culture: Flemish
Medium: Oil on copper
Dimensions: 47.5 x 68.2 cm (62.4 x 83.7 x 5.2 cm)
Inscriptions: stamped on the reverse with the maker’s mark of Pieter Stas (active in Antwerp c. 1587-1610), and the hand of the city of Antwerp
Inventory Nº: FGM.099

Provenance

Before 1794

Skåne, Sweden, Count Gustaf Adolf Sparre (1746–1794), Skåne, Sweden, and by inheritance to his wife.

After 1794

Skåne, Sweden, Countess Amelie (née Ramel) Sparre (1753–1830).

Before 1830

Skåne, Sweden, Count Gustaf Adolf Frederik de la Gardie (1800–1830).

Before 1842

Skåne, Sweden, Count Jacob Gustaf de la Gardie (1768–1842).

1855

Count Carl de Geer of Leufstra (1781–1861), and given in 1855 to his granddaughter, Elisabeth von Platen-Wachtmeister (1834–1918) and her husband Count Axel Fredrik Wachtmeister (1827–1899), Vanås, Sweden, and by descent.

2007

London, Sotheby’s, 5 December 2007, lot 1.

Before 2018

London, with Richard Green.

2018

London, Christie’s, 5 July 2018, lot 9, where acquired by the present owner as a bequest to the Gaudium Magnum Foundation, Lisbon.

Literature

Posthumous inventory of Gustaf Adolf Sparre, 1794, p. 118, no. 49;
G. Göthe, Tafvelsamlingen pa Wanås, Stockholm, 1895, p. 15, no. 15, as ‘Flemish School, c . 1600’;
I. Jost, Hendrick van Balen D. Ä: Versuch einer Chronologie der Werke aus den ersten zwei jahrzehntendes siebzehnten Jahrhunderts unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der kabinettsbilder, “NederlandsKunsthistorich Jaarboek “, 14, 1963, p. 118, fi g. 14, as datable to circa 1605-1608.
I. Hasselgren, Konstsamlaren Gustaf Adolf Sparre 1746- 1794, Göteberg, 1974, p. 118, illustrated on p. 169.
B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632). Ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, Turnhout 2004, I, p. 141, no. A 17; II, p. 326, fi g. A.17, as datable to circa 1610.
K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568- 1625): Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, Lingen, 2008-10, II, p. 557, no. 258.
A. Howie in The Gaudium Magnum Collection. Old Master Paintings and Drawings at Villa Lusa, Rome, ed. L. d’Orey Capucho Arruda and G. Rossi Vairo, Firenze 2021, pp. 68-77

Scholars &
Contributors

Ana Howie

Assistant Professor of Early Modern Art, Cornell University

How to cite:
A. Howie, Hendrick Van Balen. The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist, in Gaudium Magnum Foundation. The Painting Collection, ed. V. Rossi, with T. Borgogelli and A. Marengo, Lisbon 2026.