Abel Grimmer

Provenance: Delbelke Collection, Antwerp, 1935; private collection.

Portrayals of the different seasons played an important role in Flemish painting. This pictorial tradition dates back to the...

Provenance: Delbelke Collection, Antwerp, 1935; private collection.

Portrayals of the different seasons played an important role in Flemish painting. This pictorial tradition dates back to the 14^th and 15^th century books of hours, such as the Duke of Berry’s book of hours created by the Limbourg brothers. A century later, Pieter Brueghel the Elder and Lucas van Valckenborch founded their interpretations mainly on this pictorial tradition and marked the depiction of the seasons with their talent. Particularly attracted to this theme, Abel Grimmer added his own mark with powerful colours and a certain intentionally naive style.

Dating from the end of the 16^th century, the two panels presented here fully embrace this tradition by illustrating scenes from the New Testament. They would have originally belonged to a series of twelve paintings, each symbolising a month of the year. Grimmer based his works on the Emblemata Evangelica, a series of twelve prints engraved by Adriaen Collaert after the drawings of Hans Bol, published by the Sadeler family in 1585.  The Emblemata Evangelica was comprised of scenes from the New Testament that were associated with the monthly signs of the zodiac.

The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen is usually associated with the month of October. However, we are presented here with an illustration of the month of March. It isn’t the grape harvests of autumn that are depicted in the landscape Christ is pointing to, but the practice of pruning and planting the vines, one of the first activities to take place at the end of winter and traditionally associated with the month of March. The inscription “MATT. 21” at the bottom of the tondo confirms that Grimmer is referring to the passage in the Gospel according to Matthew where this parable is told.

This is what the text says:   “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall round it, dug a wine press in it and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went abroad. When harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenant farmers to collect his produce. But the farmers took his servants and beat one, killed another, and attacked another with stones. Again, he sent other servants to them, a greater number than the first, but the tenant farmers treated them the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, “They will respect my son”. But when the tenant farmers saw his son, they said to one another, “This is the heir. Come on, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!” So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those farmers?” They said to him, “He will put those horrible men to a horrible death. Then he will lease the vineyard to other farmers who will give him his produce at harvest time.” Matthew 21.

Grimmer has therefore chosen to only tell the beginning of the story when the owner is planting the vine and building a watchtower. The artist presents us with a landscape that is still awakening from its winter sleep, where the bare trees exude a certain serenity. In reality, Grimmer is showing the calm before the storm: Christ’s gesture warns of the violence that will ensue during the warmer season of the grape harvest.

The small group composed of Christ, Pharisees and his disciples seems to be added as an after-thought. Furthermore, the characters in the foreground are portrayed “classically” rather than dressed in contemporary clothing like the other figures.  Grimmer creates a sort of “painting in a painting”, where Christ’s group doesn’t belong to the scene in the background but presents it.

The second tondo doesn't illustrate a parable but a passage from the life of Christ.  Grimmer shows the arrival of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem based on the Gospel according to Luke:

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.  And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2

The scene depicted in this tondo therefore shows the month of December, reminding us of the celebration of Christmas. Grimmer illustrates the moment when Joseph and Mary are refused entry to the inn. Mary’s hand is placed on her stomach, announcing the imminent arrival of Christ, while Joseph is preparing to leave in search of a crib. Although the tondo is supposed to portray the month of December, Abel Grimmer has not painted a snowy landscape. He demonstrates his great talent as a colourist through the subtle chromatic gradations of browns, beiges and greens. The gradual blending of the different planes of depth culminates in soft blues, ending with the sea literally melting into the sky.

As usual, the artist naturally takes advantage of the religious scene to present daily life in a village at that time. Grimmer enjoys depicting the main square as well as the numerous trivial scenes of daily life taking place in the hamlet. The simple and uncluttered architecture of the buildings unequivocally reveals the painter’s hand, which is also recognisable in the graphic rendering of the branches.

Through the softness of their chromatic harmonies, the attentive stylisation of their elements, the delicacy of their technique and the expressive characterisation of the scenes of everyday life, these two panels exude an atmosphere of intense veracity and poetry typical of Abel Grimmer’s best works.

Circa 1570 - Antwerp - 1618

Abel Grimmer, a painter from Antwerp, was the son of the landscape-painter Jacob Grimmer, with whom he carried out an apprenticeship before acceptance as a Master of...