A Town Square With Figures C.1590; Circle Of Sebastiaen Vrancx (1573/78-1647)

This exquisite large scale early work depicts a town square teaming with life - horse drawn carriages, upper class ladies with children, groups of well healed men with white ruffs and capatain hats – rich and poor. The city’s elite are out to see, and to be seen, in their luxurious garments. The vocabulary of fabrics and fashion was fabulously diverse and black was a clear status symbol and the most difficult and costly to fix. What you wore and how you wore it was a matter of deep significance. The figures are charmingly animated and calligraphic in style and each has a unique minutely painted face full of expression. Vrancx spent time in Italy and this influence can be seen in the architecture. Vrancx was a gifted figure painter and was regularly invited to paint the staffage in compositions of fellow painters. The treatment of the space and the inclusion of the various groups of figures is another feature of Vrancx’s late style. It is thought that the large gathering represents an auction - if so, this would be a very rare and early depiction. Sebastian Vrancx (1573/78-1647) was a Flemish painter who trained in the workshop of Adam van Noort, who was also the master of other prominent Antwerp painters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens and Hendrick van Balen. After his training he spent time in Italy before becoming a master of the Antwerp Guilde of St. Luke c.1600. His first works were cabinet sized Biblical scenes often with mountainous landscapes and ruins but later he painted landscapes with mythological scenes, allegories of the seasons and months, city views, banquet scenes, village scenes, genre scenes, and architectural paintings. However, it was his battle scenes that achieved the greatest success – he was after all one of the first painters to tackle them. His work had a decisive impact on the evolution of artists such as Peter Snayers and Adan Frans van der Meulen in Flanders and he had many collaborations with artists such as Jan Brueghel the Younger, Frans Francken II, and Abel Grimmer. Provenance: Private collection Germany Measurements: Height 110cm, Width 146cm framed (Height 43.25”, Width 57.5” framed)