(Antwerp 1582–1662)
The Holy Family with Angels playing on the Cross,
oil on panel, 36.8 x 50.6 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution of the present painting to Adriaen van Stalbemt after examination of the original. A written certificate (2019) is available.

Klaus Ertz compares it to two similar works by the artist (see K. Ertz/C.
Nitze-Ertz, Adriaen van Stalbemt 1580-1662, Lingen 2018, ill. no. 131
and 256).
The longstanding Flemish tradition of depicting the Holy Family on the Rest on the Flight to Egypt or more generally in an invented landscape, is here portrayed with the unusual scene of the infant Christ being laid upon a cross and crowned with a garland of flowers by similarly infantile angels. This complex group upon the cross exhibits both van Stalbemt’s celebrated skill as a figure painter - he was often called upon to paint staffage in other artists’ compositions - and his erudition as a ‘pictor doctus’. The juxtaposition of intertwined infantile flesh against the instruments of Christ’s passion -a column, a flogger, nails and a crown of thorns, develops upon a theme treated by contemporary Italian painters, of the Christ child asleep on the cross.

Stalbemt’s paintings also show an affinity with the compositions of Adam Elsheimer, and in spite of van Stalbemt never having been to
Italy, the enthusiasm of Antwerp masters such as Rubens for both
Elsheimer’s and Italian art, as well as Stalbemt’s practice as a printmaker, probably acquainted him with such works. Van Stalbemt moved to Middelburg after the fall of Antwerp in 1585, apparently as a protestant refugee, and returned in 1609, being made dean of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1617.