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拍品专文
In this seductive picture, a female nude reclines in luxurious surroundings that include a brocade curtain and richly adorned pillow with a large tassel and decorative gold leaves. Her supple body is presented fully to the viewer, a diaphanous cloth her only covering as light and shadow emphasize the curves of her form. The presence of the winged boy suggests that the subject could potentially represent either Venus and Cupid or Cupid and Psyche, but the composition in fact corresponds closest to a drawing by Bloemaert depicting Danaë, the daughter of the King of Acrisius of Argo. The drawing, in a private collection (fig. 1), is in the same direction as the present work, as opposed to the subsequent print, which was engraved and published in 1610 by Jacob Matham, stepson of Hendrick Goltzius (see Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemaert and his sons: paintings and prints, Doornspijk, 1993, p. 148, no. 106). In contrast to the present painting, the works on paper portray the nude resting her head on her hand and she is accompanied by an older woman, catching coins that fall from the sky, identifying the subject unmistakably as Danaë.
Titian's seminal full-length nudes were a key precedent for Bloemaert in creating the present work. In his multiple versions of Danaë, he depicted her both with Cupid and an older woman, who represented a rapacious maid (see versions in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, dated 1544, and Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, dated 1564). The similarities between Bloemaert's composition and those of Titian suggest he likely saw a print or workshop copy after the artist (see E.J. Sluijter, 'Emulating Sensual Beauty: Representations of Danaë from Gossaert to Rembrandt,' Simiolus, XXVII, nos. 1/2, 1999, p. 39). Yet artists far closer to Bloemaert produced similar reclining nudes, such as a Jupiter and Danaë by Bloemaert's contemporary in Utrecht, Joachim Wtewael (Musée du Louvre, inv. RF 1979-23) or the Sleeping Venus in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Dijon (inv. 135) by Dirck van Ravesteyn. Most closely related to the present work is a monumental Danaë of 1603 now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (inv. M.84 191) by Hendrick Goltzius, which Bloemaert may have known through his friend Aernout van Buchell (see Sluijter 1999, loc. cit.). As noted by Sluijter, this was among the first subjects Goltzius painted after turning from printmaking to painting around 1600. With pictures like these, Goltzius harnessed the painted nude as a powerful conduit between the sense of sight and the arousal of lust (see E.J. Sluijter, 'Venus, Visus en Pictura,' in R. Falkenburg et al., Goltzius-studies: Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XLII-XLIII, 1991-2, pp. 338-339). For Bloemaert, this subject is somewhat unusual: the present picture is one of his few full-length nudes, another being a print of 1607, also engraved by Matham, of Cupid and Psyche (Roethlisberger, op. cit., no. 102, fig. 177).
Though the painting was thought to depict Venus and Cupid at the time of its reemergence and subsequent sale in these Rooms in 2013, it has more recently and persuasively been suggested that Bloemaert deliberately calibrated the painting’s subject to create a degree of ambiguity for the knowledgeable viewer to tease out whether the nude woman represents the goddess of the soul or amorous love and beauty. However, on balance, such an informed connoisseur would likely have deduced that its true subject was Cupid and Psyche, for the painting represents a learned reworking of a print by Jan Muller after a design by Bartholomeus Spranger (New Hollstein II.189.70). Bloemaert had turned to this print on several previous occasions, including by adopting the figure of Cupid for the repoussoir figure at lower right in his Wedding of Peleus and Thetis of circa 1590-95 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich). While the position of the nude figure’s torso and legs in Bloemaert’s painting conform closely to Muller’s print after Spranger’s design, Bloemaert changed the position of her head and arms and removed all extraneous narrative elements, including the figure of Cupid himself. By focusing simply on the sleeping putto who lifts the curtain to reveal the nude figure of Psyche, the artist cleverly encourages his viewer to play the role of Cupid about to enter Psyche’s bed.
Titian's seminal full-length nudes were a key precedent for Bloemaert in creating the present work. In his multiple versions of Danaë, he depicted her both with Cupid and an older woman, who represented a rapacious maid (see versions in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, dated 1544, and Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, dated 1564). The similarities between Bloemaert's composition and those of Titian suggest he likely saw a print or workshop copy after the artist (see E.J. Sluijter, 'Emulating Sensual Beauty: Representations of Danaë from Gossaert to Rembrandt,' Simiolus, XXVII, nos. 1/2, 1999, p. 39). Yet artists far closer to Bloemaert produced similar reclining nudes, such as a Jupiter and Danaë by Bloemaert's contemporary in Utrecht, Joachim Wtewael (Musée du Louvre, inv. RF 1979-23) or the Sleeping Venus in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Dijon (inv. 135) by Dirck van Ravesteyn. Most closely related to the present work is a monumental Danaë of 1603 now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (inv. M.84 191) by Hendrick Goltzius, which Bloemaert may have known through his friend Aernout van Buchell (see Sluijter 1999, loc. cit.). As noted by Sluijter, this was among the first subjects Goltzius painted after turning from printmaking to painting around 1600. With pictures like these, Goltzius harnessed the painted nude as a powerful conduit between the sense of sight and the arousal of lust (see E.J. Sluijter, 'Venus, Visus en Pictura,' in R. Falkenburg et al., Goltzius-studies: Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XLII-XLIII, 1991-2, pp. 338-339). For Bloemaert, this subject is somewhat unusual: the present picture is one of his few full-length nudes, another being a print of 1607, also engraved by Matham, of Cupid and Psyche (Roethlisberger, op. cit., no. 102, fig. 177).
Though the painting was thought to depict Venus and Cupid at the time of its reemergence and subsequent sale in these Rooms in 2013, it has more recently and persuasively been suggested that Bloemaert deliberately calibrated the painting’s subject to create a degree of ambiguity for the knowledgeable viewer to tease out whether the nude woman represents the goddess of the soul or amorous love and beauty. However, on balance, such an informed connoisseur would likely have deduced that its true subject was Cupid and Psyche, for the painting represents a learned reworking of a print by Jan Muller after a design by Bartholomeus Spranger (New Hollstein II.189.70). Bloemaert had turned to this print on several previous occasions, including by adopting the figure of Cupid for the repoussoir figure at lower right in his Wedding of Peleus and Thetis of circa 1590-95 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich). While the position of the nude figure’s torso and legs in Bloemaert’s painting conform closely to Muller’s print after Spranger’s design, Bloemaert changed the position of her head and arms and removed all extraneous narrative elements, including the figure of Cupid himself. By focusing simply on the sleeping putto who lifts the curtain to reveal the nude figure of Psyche, the artist cleverly encourages his viewer to play the role of Cupid about to enter Psyche’s bed.