(Antwerp 1532–1603)
Allegory of the Seven Liberal Arts,
oil on canvas, 156 x 234 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection, since 1950

We are grateful to Luuk Pijl for suggesting the attribution on the basis of a photograph and for his help in cataloguing the present painting (a written communication is available).

Marten de Vos, together with the Francken I brothers, Ambrosius and Frans, was the leading history painter in Flanders after the dominance of Frans Floris. De Vos was also a prolific draughtsman who made numerous designs for Antwerp printers and designers of tapestries and stained-glass windows. He was the youngest son of Anna de Heere and Peter de Vos, who originated from Leiden and became a pupil, at the age of 17, of the unknown Jeroom Scuelens. Shortly after he travelled to Italy, where he resided from 1550 to about 1558 perhaps in the company of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. An Italian source (see C. Ridolfi, Le meraviglie dell’Arte, 1648) writes that De Vos worked in the Venetian studio of Tintoretto.

After his Italian sojourn he married Joanna de Boucq, whose family was originally from Valenciennes in France. The couple had five daughters and three sons. At the time, Frans Floris was the leading history painter in Flanders, and he operated from a large workshop in Antwerp. Despite the powerful presence of Frans Floris and his well-run workshop, De Vos managed to secure important commissions from 1564 onwards. During the 1560s, masters such as Floris, De Vos and the Franckens had to battle the iconoclastic fury, the so-called Beeldenstorm, which reached its zenith in 1566. Despite it, De Vos was appointed by his colleagues the Dean of the Antwerp guild.

The present, impressive painting is of evident high quality. It shows, from left to right, the seven liberal arts: Geometrica, Arithmetica, Grammatica, Musica, Dialectica, Astronomica and Rhetorica – all with the attributes that make it possible to identify them.

The composition of the present painting is known through another version in a private collection in Brussels (see A. Zweite, Marten de Vos als Maler, Berlin 1980, pp. 302-03, cat. 82, fig. 102). The protagonists in the Brussels version are slightly more monumental and, as a result, there is less space between the figures. Close comparison between the Brussels painting and the present work makes it most likely that the present was executed by De Vos with the aid of a studio assistant, according to Pijl. The fact that De Vos headed a well-run workshop makes this assumption highly plausible. The masterful execution of the plethora of details, which can be observed in the fabrics of the clothes, the shells, the plants and the attributes of the figures, all contribute to the powerful impression the present work makes on the viewer.

Zweite (A. Zweite, op. cit., 1980, p. 302) dates the related Brussels painting to the early 1590s, a date a few years before 1600 therefore seems feasible for the present work.