Simon de Vos (Antwerp 1603-1676)
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF CHRISTIAN B. PEPER (LOTS 259-272)
Simon de Vos (Antwerp 1603-1676)

Minerva and Mercury protecting Painting against Ignorance and Calumny

Details
Simon de Vos (Antwerp 1603-1676)
Minerva and Mercury protecting Painting against Ignorance and Calumny
oil on panel
16 x 22¾ in. (40.6 x 57.8 cm.)
Provenance
with Gooden and Fox, Ltd., London, where acquired by the present owner in 1961.
Literature
E. McGrath, 'The Painted Decoration of Rubens', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XLI, 1978, p. 275.
D. Cast, The Calumny of Apelles: a study of the humanist tradition, New Haven, 1981, pp. 182-183, fig. 51.
Exhibited
Saint Louis, The Saint Louis Art Museum, A Gentleman Collects, 25 October 2002-5 January 2003.

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Lot Essay

In the present work, the Antwerp painter Simon de Vos depicted an artist's studio inhabited by a variety of allegorical and mythological figures. On the left stands Minerva, goddess of Wisdom and protector of the arts, her arm around the female personification of Painting holding a palette in her hand. Across the studio, critics, accompanied by a withered old crone, likely Fury, stand before a painting that is being protected by Mercury. The picture represents the Judgment of Midas: Midas, having judged the music contest between Apollo and Pan, has been given ass' ears for preferring Pan's music to that of Apollo. Like Midas, the critics in the studio bear ass' ears, a motif that Flemish artists often used to denote ill-informed art criticism in this period. Scattered on the floor are artists' implements and a poem, in Dutch, extolling the power of art over dishonor. Overhead, Fama blows her trumpet.

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