Provenance: pPrivate collection
An exceptional panel for both the originality of its formal conception and the elegance of its execution, this surprising work displays Cornelis de Heem at the...
read moreProvenance: pPrivate collection
An exceptional panel for both the originality of its formal conception and the elegance of its execution, this surprising work displays Cornelis de Heem at the peak of his abilities. Both literally and figuratively dominating the composition, a large macaw with blazing plumage perches on an overturned basket from which spills forth a plethora of fruits interspersed with magnificent blossoms of roses, tulips, carnations and other types of flowers. As the immediate cause of all this instability, and hence the accidental yet pointed incarnation of the notion of vanitas inherent in the genre, the elongated body of the stunning creature also helps the artist to mark out the diagonal arrangement of elements, according to his preferred compositional system. In this case, in contrast to the frontal presentation favoured in his other banketjes, a transversal arrangement predominates. The sparing selection of types of flowers, which are much less diverse than in the compositions by Jan Davidsz De Heem, echoes the approach taken in the artist’s other still lives.
The spectacular macaw also allows him to juxtapose, against the reds and whites of the flowers, the yellow and blue tones to which he was particularly partial. Aside from the Christian association of the parrot with regard to its potential to transmit the Word, the bird appears here, as an object of luxury, to take on more negative connotations related to hubris and vanity. And naturally, in this context, the animal’s imperfect aspirations to imitate the human voice reflect our own limitations in the face of the transcendent and the divine. Aside from these symbolic considerations, it seems fairly likely that the inclusion of this exotic animal is also a product of the fashion for such exotic animals that was stimulated by the development of commercial ties between the United Provinces and Brazil at the time.
The illustrations and canvases produced by Pieter Post at the behest of Prince Maurice of Nassau, which form a veritable compendium of Brazilian flora and fauna, are especially revelatory in this regard. They have certainly contributed to the development of the exotic motif in the work of the Dutch still life painters in the second half of the 17th century, among whom Cornelis de Heem was surely one of the most brilliant.
A Flemish still life painter, Cornelis was the son and pupil of Jan Davidsz de Heem, a Dutch painter who was instrumental in the still life development in Flanders and Holland alike. In 1660,...
read moreA Flemish still life painter, Cornelis was the son and pupil of Jan Davidsz de Heem, a Dutch painter who was instrumental in the still life development in Flanders and Holland alike. In 1660, Cornelis de Heem was registered in the painters Guild of Antwerp, a town where the major part of his career was to take place. From 1676 to 1681, he resided in The Hague where he was a member of “Pictura”, a painters’ association. He then returned to Antwerp where he settled for good.
His most accomplished still lives are hardly distinct from those of Jan Davidsz De Heem, characterised by their pure featuring of fruit bowls and later lavishly intermingling flowers and fruits, arranged on table-tops with brown or grey backgrounds. He almost always signed his paintings in capital letters.
In this perfectly proportioned bouquet, conceived in the purest baroque spirit, Cornelis de Heem shows with intelligence and sensibility the degree to which he has assimilated his father’s lessons. The forms are here arranged with science and care; their subtle balance is, where needed, either magnified or attenuated by the use resorting to a chiaroscuro that softens the outlines and indirectly suggests the notion of vanitas which all flower representations implicitly contain. In composition, de Heem’s paintings are often inspired by his fatherly models, yet to the expert eye, they undeniably bear a signature of their own, recognisable in the way he distributes light, in particular on the grapes and likewise, in the mysterious, slightly metallic sheen borrowed in places from the copper support.
