(Antwerp 1603–1676)
The Feast of Bacchus
oil on canvas, 162 x 208.5 cm, framed

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination of the painting in the original (written communication).

Klaus Ertz writes about the multifaceted oeuvre of Simon de Vos: ‘On the other hand, he also depicted merry music-making parties that were clearly dependent on the popular Dutch genre of the same subject matter in terms of style and composition. In these pictures in particular, Dutch notions in the style of Palamedesz. are mingled with the variegated palette and Baroque sweep of Peter Paul Rubens’.

Ertz compares the present painting with the painter´s following autograph works:
(1) The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Musée Calvet, Avignon, 1630s);
(2) Allegory of the Five Senses (sale, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 18 May 2010, lot 18);
(3) The Triumph of Bacchus (sale, Christie’s, London, 5 July 1991, late 1630s);
(4) The Triumph of Bacchus in India (sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 2 October 2002, lot 161, late 1630s);
(5) The Massacre of the Innocents (Rafael Valls Gallery, London, dated 1647)

For his Bacchus compositions, De Vos was influenced by the Triumphal Procession of Bacchus by Maerten van Heemskerck (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Ertz concludes: ‘The painting The Feast of Bacchus to be assessed here is a highly significant autograph work by Simon de Vos painted in Antwerp in the late 1630s.’