Anthonie van de Velde

Provenance:

Sale in Paris, Charpentier Gallery, 24 June 1960, Me Ader, lot 247, reproduction pl.XXXIII (like Sebastiaen Vrancx);

Private collection.

 

 

The term “perspective” was used in...

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Provenance:

Sale in Paris, Charpentier Gallery, 24 June 1960, Me Ader, lot 247, reproduction pl.XXXIII (like Sebastiaen Vrancx);

Private collection.

 

 

The term “perspective” was used in Dutch to designate pictorial representations of architecture. It is clear from this term that architecture held a major role in these paintings and was more than just a background. The three-dimensional effect of a well-constructed perspective plunged the viewer into a dreamlike universe filled with luxury and grandeur. The illusory nature of this architecture became a source of admiration for an audience in search of iconographic surprise.

 

The banquet of Anthony and Cleopatra is powerful proof of the importance that portrayals of palatial architecture acquired in Antwerp and Amsterdam at the turn of the 16th and 17th century. Anthony van de Velde accentuates a complex and cleverly-constructed architectural grouping. Opening onto other wings, the banqueting hall is indeed impressive owing to its dimensions, its luxurious décor and the size of its large plate glass windows, flooding the scene with light. The main room meets all the techniques developed in the works of Vredeman de Vries: the architectonic elements and the furnishings guide our eyes to the painting’s vanishing point, situated right in the middle of the panel and symbolised by a tiny open door.

 

The palace’s architecture is intended to be seductive. The artist creates an imposing design before our eyes, worthy of receiving the queen of Egypt. There are numerous references to antiquity. The central nave, which contains the vanishing point, is governed by alternating pillars and niches. It becomes a uniform showcase, inherited from classical architecture and the greatest ornamentalists of his day.

 

 

Each of the alcoves contains sculptures from the Greek pantheon, painted in astonishing trompe-l’oeil. At the same time, the architrave is decorated with bas-reliefs representing garlands of fruit as well as war trophies. Delicate decorative sculptures, grotesque figures and vases on the pillars bear witness to the painter’s meticulousness in his trompe-l’oeil renderings. The splendour of the palatial architecture is also expressed through the use of marble which, together with the stone, enriches the building with polychromy. Huge plate glass windows illuminate the space and reducing the heaviness of the walls.

 

Contrary to the choice of the majority of architectural painters who granted little importance to the characters in their paintings, van de Velde deals with a particularly ambitious subject here. The meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra offers the artist numerous pictorial possibilities whose duty it is to amaze with a rich and spirited painting. The Renaissance was fond of antiquity, its myths and its history. Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, both perfidious and debauched, despotic and capricious, fascinated the artists of the time. Here, Anthony van de Velde paints the meeting between Ptolemy’s descendent and Caesar’s successor: Mark Anthony. Inspired by Plutarch’s writings, this banquet scene is pictured with verve, in the style typical of the northern Renaissance.

 

The story of Anthony and Cleopatra was well-known to Renaissance painters thanks to the first translation of the Life of Anthony, which told Europe about the queen of Egypt’s tragic story. In the second half of the 1st century B.C., just after the assassination of Caesar, the Roman republic was plunged into civil war. Mark Anthony and Octavius (the future Augustus, emperor of Rome) joined forces with Lepidus, a man loyal to Caesar, to form new alliances. With his age and experience, Mark Anthony had set his eye on Egypt, the granary of the Mediterranean. In order to strengthen his hold on the far eastern territories of the Roman republic, Mark Anthony joined forces with Cleopatra, the legitimate air of the Pharaohs. According to Roman historians, the political regime introduced by Anthony and Cleopatra was close to a theocracy. The couple settled in Alexandria and invented the “inimitable life”, a sort of religious organisation founded on Dionysiac mysticism. Anthony was

 

 

 

 

 

assimilated with Dionysus and Cleopatra with Aphrodite. Plutarch described a couple revelling in ceremony and luxury, whose decadent lifestyle was far removed from Roman ways.

 

Chapter 26 of the Life of Anthony talks of the meeting that took place in 41 B.C. in Tarsus, between Caesar’s former general and the queen of Egypt. It is this particular banquet that Anthony van de Velde has chosen to portray in this magnificent painting of an extraordinary format. The two historical characters can easily be distinguished in the crowd. Anthony is situated at the centre of the room, posing proudly in his costume and wearing a gold helmet. Behind him, high-ranking men are in discussion; they have not noticed the majestic arrival of the queen of Egypt. The beautiful Cleopatra enters the room accompanied by a suite of women. At her feet, a page presents her with her sceptre. Roman officers seem to be dazzled by her grace. The servants in the scene are busy with the last preparations for dinner. The banquet promises to be gargantuan: the magnificently set tables await the many guests. The wine will be served and poured from silver carafes, swan and peacock pies and pâtés already decorate the tables with their brilliant white tablecloths. Van de Velde perfectly aligns the pomp of royal decorum with this exaggerated imaginary architecture.

 

A master of optical illusion and a skilful mannerist painter, Anthony van de Velde creates a remarkable work, both in the quality of its architecture and in the way he renders his subject. A successor to Hans and Paul Vredeman de Vries, he distinguishes himself as a true humanist by introducing a subject into this superb décor that was highly fashionable in the 17th century. Shortly before Shakespeare, but well before Tiepolo at the Palazzo Labia, Anthony van de Velde revived the myth of the great Cleopatra in a resolutely mannerist framework; the dimensions, the richness of the décor and the beauty of the perspectives are truly breathtaking.