An Italianate Landscape with an Unidentified Subject from the Old Testament, Cornelis van Poelenburch, c. 1620 - c. 1627 – (Cornelis Van Poelenburch) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Cornelis Van Poelenburch

Date: 1627

Size: 22 x 33 cm

Technique: Oil On Copper

Notwithstanding the apparent narrative and archaic dress that seem to suggest a story from the Old Testament, there has been no convincing identification of the subject of this painting. When it appeared at auction in 1958 it was identified as Joseph Relating his Dreams to the Shepherds (read: ‘to his brothers’; Genesis 37:6-9). However, the young Joseph is traditionally depicted surrounded by his brothers to whom he tells his dreams; in this painting the figure is only addressing a man and a boy, and he is much older than Joseph was in the story. When the painting was acquired by the museum, another identification was proposed: Joseph Searching for his Brothers (Genesis 37:15-17). This can be discarded, because the story says that Joseph set out into the wilderness on his own, and met only one man who told him where to find his brothers.5 Against the third and most recent reading of the subject suggested when at auction with Phillips as Jesse Presenting his Son David to the Prophet Samuel (I Samuel 16:11-12) is the fact that there is no sign of Jesse’s other seven sons whom he had introduced to Samuel before David, nor of the horn of oil with which Samuel was about to anoint David. Furthermore, the figure who should be Jesse does not fit the description of an ‘old man’ given in the Bible (I Samuel 16:12). This painting is characteristic of Van Poelenburch’s easel pictures produced in Italy between c. 1620 and 1627: forums or open fields structured by a sequence of light and dark areas that recede into the distance. The foreground is populated by small figures and cattle, and a classical building stands on the edge of the field.6 Another characteristic of the early works is the contrast between the bright dress of the figures and the cool grey, almost silvery tones that dominate the landscape.7 Most of the 60 or so paintings known from Van Poelenburch’s Italian period depict views reminiscent of Roman forums populated with small figures. They show the influence that the small, brightly coloured landscapes on copper by Adam Elsheimer must have had on the young artist when he arrived in Rome, and of those by Filippo Napoletano who was active in Florence at the time Van Poelenburch stayed there. It is difficult to establish a chronology of these cabinet pieces produced by Van Poelenburch in Italy, as only eight of them are dated. In an attempt to discern stylistic development, Sluijter-Seijffert suggested that those from around 1620 show landscapes with relatively small agile figures, as for example Van Poelenburch’s earliest dated picture, the View of the Campo Vaccino of 1620,8 where as those produced in Italy a few years later have larger figures, such as The Flight into Egypt dated 1625.9 In that case the present picture should date from early in Van Poelenburch’s stay in Italy, around 1620. The dating of this painting to early in Van Poelenburch’s career in Italy is also supported by the tin coating with which the copper plate is prepared, which seems to occur only in Italy.10 Furthermore, the thinly applied, sometimes transparent paint is typical for Van Poelenburch’s early works; later paintings show more opaque paint layers that completely cover the light ground layer. Taco Dibbits, 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. 240.