Bacchus, Venus and Ceres under a grapevine in a pastoral landscape with putti, nymphs and satyrs

Cornelis van Poelenburch travelled to England in 1637 at the request of Charles I. During his four-year sojourn there he produced several mythological paintings for the King, a few of which remain in the Royal Collection. The present painting dates to Poelenburch's time in England. Following a pictorial convention popularized by artists such as Hendrick Golzius, Poelenburch here illustrates a quote from the ancient Roman poet Terence (c. 185-after 160 BC), 'Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus would freeze)', which was understood to mean that without food and wine, love grows cold. The present lot is a remarkably large-scale work for the artist. The Venus figure appears again, with different drapery, in Poelenburch's Mercury and Herse, which sold at Sotheby's, New York, 11 January 1990, lot 58 ($176,000).