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Perseus And Andromeda – Cornelis Willaerts (c. 1600 – 1666)
Oil on panel. Dutch school of the 17th century, Cornelis Adamsz Willaerts. Monogrammed and dated 1627.
Cornelis Willaerts invites us to the heart of the mythological episode that relates the meeting between the hero Perseus and his beloved Andromeda. All in fine mounted glazes, it is with great subtlety that the scene is painted, halfway between two genres: marine painting and historical painting. The mythological subject here being a pretext to demonstrate his mastery of the art of the marine with a coloring sensitive to atmospheric nuances. Riding Pegasus, the winged horse born from the head of the gorgon Medusa that he has just defeated, Perseus sees a young woman tied up against a rock and threatened by a sea monster. Conquered by the beauty of the young girl, he fell in love with her at first sight. Sword in hand, he then pounces on the animal and kills it. Then he frees Andromeda and asks her father, King Cepheus of Ethiopia, for her hand in marriage.
Our panel is soberly highlighted by a carved and gilded wooden frame from the Louis XVI period, model with a rolled ribbon and pearl stripe. Dimensions: 45 x 70.5 cm - 53 x 78 cm with the frame
Sold with invoice and certificate of expertise.
Related works: "Perseus and Andromeda" Christies sale 1995 RKD link (https://rkd.nl/images/3079) and "Perseus and Andromeda" private collection sale (https://rkd.nl/images/41073) "Ships in troubled waters with the sinking of a Turkish galley" work by Father Adam - where we find the same rock planted in the sea - dated 1638 in a private collection (https://rkd.nl/images/251449).
Biography: Cornelis Adamsz Willaerts (Utrecht c. 1600 – Id. 1666) is the son of Adam Willaerts (1577 – 1664), a marine painter from Antwerp who settled in Utrecht, where he participated in the founding of the guild and was dean of it. Following in the footsteps of his father and his two brothers (Abraham and Isaac), Cornelis specialized in the genre that made the family's reputation: marine painting. However, he is the only one to associate mythological subjects in his compositions, as in our painting or in his "Bacchus and Ariadne" kept at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.
Cornelis Willaerts invites us to the heart of the mythological episode that relates the meeting between the hero Perseus and his beloved Andromeda. All in fine mounted glazes, it is with great subtlety that the scene is painted, halfway between two genres: marine painting and historical painting. The mythological subject here being a pretext to demonstrate his mastery of the art of the marine with a coloring sensitive to atmospheric nuances. Riding Pegasus, the winged horse born from the head of the gorgon Medusa that he has just defeated, Perseus sees a young woman tied up against a rock and threatened by a sea monster. Conquered by the beauty of the young girl, he fell in love with her at first sight. Sword in hand, he then pounces on the animal and kills it. Then he frees Andromeda and asks her father, King Cepheus of Ethiopia, for her hand in marriage.
Our panel is soberly highlighted by a carved and gilded wooden frame from the Louis XVI period, model with a rolled ribbon and pearl stripe. Dimensions: 45 x 70.5 cm - 53 x 78 cm with the frame
Sold with invoice and certificate of expertise.
Related works: "Perseus and Andromeda" Christies sale 1995 RKD link (https://rkd.nl/images/3079) and "Perseus and Andromeda" private collection sale (https://rkd.nl/images/41073) "Ships in troubled waters with the sinking of a Turkish galley" work by Father Adam - where we find the same rock planted in the sea - dated 1638 in a private collection (https://rkd.nl/images/251449).
Biography: Cornelis Adamsz Willaerts (Utrecht c. 1600 – Id. 1666) is the son of Adam Willaerts (1577 – 1664), a marine painter from Antwerp who settled in Utrecht, where he participated in the founding of the guild and was dean of it. Following in the footsteps of his father and his two brothers (Abraham and Isaac), Cornelis specialized in the genre that made the family's reputation: marine painting. However, he is the only one to associate mythological subjects in his compositions, as in our painting or in his "Bacchus and Ariadne" kept at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.
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