Name: JOACHIM ANTHONISZ. WTEWAEL (UTRECHT 1566-1638)
Brand: Venus, Cupid, Bacchus and Ceres
Price: 55000.00 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

JOACHIM ANTHONISZ. WTEWAEL (UTRECHT 1566-1638)
Venus, Cupid, Bacchus and Ceres
oil on copper, oval
5¹⁄₄ x 4¹⁄₈ in. (13.2 x 10.5 cm.)

(Possibly) Diderick, Baron van Leyden, Heer van Vlaardingen, Huis met de Hoofden, Amsterdam; his sale (†), Schley, Amsterdam, 13 May 1811 (=1st day), lot 22, 'Bacchus, Venus en Ceres, verzeld van Kupido. Zeer uitvoerig geschilderd. Hoog 4, breed 3,1/2 duinen. Koper, ovaal', acquired 4 guilders by the following,
Charles Howard Hodges (1764-1837).
(Possibly) Baron Alfred Liebieg (1854-1930), Vienna; his sale (†), Artaria, Vienna, 22 March 1934 (=3rd day), lot 593 (70 schillings).
Anonymous Sale; Sotheby's, New York, 3 June 1988, lot 29.
with Robert Noortman, Maastricht, 1995, from whom acquired by the following,
Dr. Anton C.R. Dreesmann (1923-2000), inv. no. A-81; his sale (†), Christie's, London, 11 April 2002, lot 576, where acquired by Alice and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

(Possibly) Internationale Sammler-Zeitung, XXVI, no. 8, 15 April 1934, p. 62.
(Possibly) A.W. Lowenthal, Joachim Wtewael and Dutch Mannerism, Doornspijk, 1986, p. 216.

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Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

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Lot Essay

Dr. Anne Lowenthal accepted the present work as an autograph painting by Joachim Wtewael, noting a relationship with a drawing of the same composition in the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, which may be a preparatory work. An additional drawing in the Kupferstichkabinett of the same format and subject relates to the figure of Bacchus.

The subject, Sine Cerere et Libero (meaning 'without food and wine, love will grow cold'), was adopted from a quotation from Eunuchus, a Roman comedy by the 2nd century BC Roman playwright Terence. It implied that love, personified by Venus, could not thrive without feasting, represented by Ceres, goddess of Agriculture, and Bacchus, God of Wine. It was a popular theme in seventeenth-century Northern art as a moralising tale against the dangers of overindulgence.