Gerard de Lairesse (1640–1711)
Hercules between Vice and Virtue, c. 1685
Oil on canvas
Height: 112 cm (44 in); Width: 181 cm (71.2 in)
Louvre Museum
The theme comes from the famous apologue of Prodicas, transmitted by Xenophon, often represented by painters (Raphael, Carrache, Rubens, etc., cf. Panofsky). Vice is embodied by the provocative Voluptuousness, accompanied by an old woman in the role of matchmaker. The attribute of chaste Virtue is a horse bit, a symbol of restraint and moderation. Behind Hercules, already on the path to good, a Fame and, in the background, the temple of glory which rewards good deeds. More on this painting
Hercules at the crossroads, also known as the Choice of Hercules and the Judgement of Hercules, is an ancient Greek parable attributed to Prodicus and known from Xenophon. It concerns the young Heracles/Hercules who is offered a choice between Vice and Virtue—a life of pleasure or one of hardship and honour. In the early modern period it became a popular motif in Western art. More on Hercules at the crossroads
Gerard or Gérard (de) Lairesse (11 September 1641 – June 1711) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and art theorist. His broad range of skills included music, poetry, and theatre. His importance grew in the period following the death of Rembrandt. His treatises on painting and drawing, Grondlegginge Ter Teekenkonst (1701),based on geometry and Groot Schilderboek (1707), were highly influential on 18th-century painters.
An Allegory of the Senses, c. 1668
Oil on canvas
H 137.2 x W 182.9 cm
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
The senses are represented in this painting by the five main figures, each of whom holds or does something associated with a particular sense. But while the senses are short-lived, true love, symbolized by the statue of Cupid, is eternal. Such a grand and moralizing painting was probably commissioned by someone both learned and wealthy, presumably a member of the van Rijn family whose children are believed to be the models in the painting.
In 1730, Elizabeth van Rijn married Jacques-Philippe d'Orville, a celebrated Amsterdam professor, from whose descendant this painting was purchased in 2001. Lairesse was one of the greatest and most celebrated artists of his day, and a leading exponent of French-style Classicism. More on this painting
Gerard de Lairesse
Allegory of Abundance (? Allegory of the Blessings of the Peace of Breda), c. 1667
Oil on canvas
150 x 135 cm.
Haags Historisch Museum, The Hague
Central in this painting is a standing woman with a winged scepter topped by a hand and eye. She is Industria. She looks at the seated woman who, with her many breasts, represents fertile nature, and points to the statue that is crowned with flowers. The marble woman is an amalgam of several female statues. This painting must have been a commissioned chimneypiece—perhaps his first in Amsterdam—and he did his best to make a memorable work that would have dazzled Amsterdam connoisseurs. More on this painting
De Lairesse was born in Liège and was the second son of painter Renier de Lairesse (1597-1667). He studied art under his father and from 1655 under Bertholet Flemalle. He worked in Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle for Maximilian Henry of Bavaria from 1660. In 1664 De Lairesse fled from Liège after an affair with two sisters, his models, led to difficulties. He travelled north with a girl named Marie Salme and married her in Visé. The couple settled in Utrecht, where a son was baptized in April 1665. When his talent as an artist was discovered by the art dealer Gerrit van Uylenburgh, he moved to Amsterdam. De Lairesse arrived with his violin, with which he impressed Jan van Pee and probably Anthonie Claesz de Grebber in Uylenburgh's studio. In 1670 a son, Abraham, was born; the engraver Abraham Blooteling, with whom he collaborated, was the witness at the baptism; another son was baptized in 1673.
Apollo is one of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The national divinity of the Greeks, Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. More on Apollo
Gerard de Lairesse (Dutch, Liège 1641–1711 Amsterdam)
Apollo and Aurora, c. 1671
Oil on canvas
80 1/2 x 76 1/8 in. (204.5 x 193.4 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Aurōra is the Latin word for dawn, and the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry. Aurōra renews herself every morning and flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of the Sun. More on Aurōra
De Lairesse was celebrated in his lifetime as a painter and advocate for an idealizing manner based on the study of classical antiquity. This work, likely destined to hang over the mantelpiece in a grand Amsterdam home, depicts the sun god consorting with the goddess of the dawn, a popular subject in French and Italian painting at the time. The attractively individualized young faces have led to speculation that they may be disguised portraits of a newly married couple. More on this painting
Gerard de Lairesse 1641-1711
Venus Presenting Weapons to Aeneas
Oil on canvas
Height: 161.8 cm (63.7 in); Width: 165.8 cm (65.2 in)
Museum Mayer van den Bergh
de Lairesse has illustrated the passage from Virgil's Aeneid (Book VIII) in which Venus descends amid clouds to bring weapons made by Vulcan to her son Aeneas: "See the promised gifts, product of my husband's art. Now seek out the Laurentine enemy and defy proud Turnus".
Selene and Endymion
Oil on canvas
177 cm × width 118.5 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The chaste goddess of the moon, Selene (or Diana), is in love with the shepherd Endymion. Only at night when he is asleep does she quietly creep down to him, accompanied by Cupid, whose torch symbolizes burning love.
Cupid with a burning torch points Selene (or Diana) to the sleeping Endymion. Behind the moon goddess, the moon shines in the sky between the clouds. More on this painting
Gerard de Lairesse 1641-1711
Odysseus and CalypsoOil on canvas
125 cm × width 94 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The Greek poet Homer recounts how the heroic warrior Odysseus found refuge on the island of the nymph Calypso. The Trojan War is over: Amor, the god of love, now teasingly places the battle helmet on Calypso’s head. Odysseus and Calypso instantly fall in love. This painting hung in the Soestdijk hunting lodge, in the apartment of Mary Stuart, the consort of William III.
The naked goddess puts an arm around Odysseus' shoulders. An Amor places a plumed helmet on her head. In the background a curtain stretched in front of a tree. More on this painting
Gerard de Lairesse, (Flemish, 1641-1711)
Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus, c. 1670
Oil on canvas
91.4 x 113.7 cm (36 x 44 3/4 in.)
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Greek goddess Calypso held the hero Odysseus captive for seven years, preventing his return home from the Trojan War. Despite Calypso’s charms and the luxurious surroundings, Odysseus longed for his home and family, so the Olympian gods finally allowed his freedom. Here, the god Hermes swoops down to free Odysseus from Calypso’s embrace. De Lairesse, popularly known as the “Dutch Poussin,” introduced to the Netherlands a classicizing style influenced by artists of the French Academy. More on this painting
Mercury Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus, c. 1680
Oil on canvas
132 cm × width 96 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
During his wanderings, Odysseus encounters the nymph Calypso, who falls in love with him and holds him captive on her island. Jupiter then sends Mercury to command her to let Odysseus return to his wife.
Mercury orders Calypso to let Odysseus leave. In the foreground, an Amor poses with Odysseus' helmet and weapons. More on this painting
Lairesse, Gerard de. 1641-1711
The Landing of Helena led by Paris to the Priam Palace in Troy, c. 1685-1690
Other title: Cleopatra and Antoine disembark at Tarsus
Oil on canvas
Height: 0.6 m; Width: 0.67 m
Louvre Museum , Paris
Other title: Cleopatra and Antoine disembark at Tarsus (wrongly said, J. Foucart, p. 172)
Description / FeaturesIt is advisable to return to the previous title to Villot, that given by sales and documents of the 18th century.
Scene inspired by the Iliad and rarely represented. Old King Priam is in the far right, beyond the palace entrance arcade. More on this painting
Achilles Discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes, c. 1685
Oil on canvas
138 x 190 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague
The subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Knowing her son was destined to die if he went to fight in the Trojan war, Thethis, a sea nymph, disguised Achilles as a woman and entrusted him to King Lycomedes, in whose palace on the isle of Scyros he lived among the king's daughters. Odysseus and other Greek chieftains were sent to fetch Achilles. They cunningly laid a heap of gifts before the girls - jewellery, clothes and other finery, but among them a sword, spear and shield. When a trumpet was sounded, Achilles instinctively snatched up the weapons and thus betrayed his identity.
This subject is rare in seventeenth-century Northern Netherlandish art. However, it became extremely popular in Flanders after Rubens' version appeared in c. 1616. There are three known versions of the theme by Lairesse: in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, and in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig. More on this painting
De Lairesse moved to Spinhuissteeg where he became a member of the literary society Nil volentibus arduum, which seems to have gathered in his house from 1676 until 1681. In 1682 he sold copies of sheet music composed by Lully. In May 1684 he rented the nearby house of Caspar Barlaeus. His pupils Philip Tideman and Louis Abry lived there too.
De Lairesse produced paintings as decorations for the Soestdijk Palace between 1676 and 1683. In 1684 he moved to the Hague and worked there for a year. In 1685 he painted works for the Loo Palace. In 1688-1689, he decorated the civil council chamber of the Hof van Holland at the Binnenhof, presently known as the Lairesse room, with seven paintings with subjects from the history of the Roman Republic, all displaying a remarkable legal iconography.
Lairesse, Gérard de (Liège, 1641 - Amsterdam, 1711)
Abraham receiving the three angels of the Lord who will announce to him the next birth of his son Isaac, c. 1680-1685
Oil on canvas
Height: 1.2 m; Width: 1.64 m
Louvre Museum, Paris
Abraham receiving the three angels of the Lord who will announce to him the imminent birth of his son Isaac with Sarah, Abraham's old wife, who will soon have a son despite his advanced age. The angels are represented here without wings, in a purely secular fashion, and the tent of the biblical story, omitted.
Gerard de Lairesse 1641-1711
The Expulsion of Heliodorus From The Temple, c. 1674
oil on canvas
Height: 204 cm (80.3 in); Width: 193 cm (75.9 in)
Private collection
The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple illustrates the biblical episode from 2 Maccabees (3:21-28). Heliodorus is ordered by Seleucus IV Philopator, the king of Syria, to seize the treasure preserved in the Temple in Jerusalem. Answering the prayers of the high priest Onias III, God sends a horseman assisted by two youths to drive Heliodorus out.
Lairesse, Gerard de. 1641-1711
Sacrifice, c. 1675-1680
Oil on canvas
113,5х148 cm
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrew and Greeks, and possibly existed before that. Evidence of ritual human sacrifice can also be found back to at least pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica as well as in European civilizations. Varieties of ritual non-human sacrifices are practiced by numerous religions today. More on Sacrifice
Gerard de Lairesse
The Anointing of Salomon, probably 1668
Oil on canvas
130 x 200 cm.
Bradford, England, Cartwright Hall
Priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and led him to Gihon. There the priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ 40And all the people went up following him, playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth quaked at their noise. More on the Anointing of Salomon
Lairesse, Gerard de. 1641-1711
Hagar in the Desert, c. 1675-1680
Oil on canvas
74x60 cm
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Hagar is a biblical person in the Book of Genesis Chapter 16. She was an Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, who gave her to Abraham "to wife" to bear a child. The product of the union was Abraham's firstborn, Ishmael, the progenitor of the Ishmaelites.
After Sarah gave birth to Isaac, and the tension between the women returned. At a celebration after Isaac was weaned, Sarah found the teenage Ishmael mocking her son, and demanded that Abraham send Hagar and her son away. She declared that Ishmael would not share in Isaac's inheritance. Abraham was greatly distressed but God told Abraham to do as his wife commanded because God's promise would be carried out through both Isaac and Ishmael.
The name Hagar originates from the Book of Genesis, and is only alluded to in the Qur'an. She is considered Abraham's second wife in the Islamic faith and acknowledged in all Abrahamic faiths. In mainstream Christianity, she is considered a concubine to Abraham. More on Hagar
Lairesse, Gerard de. 1641-1711
Jesus Christ celebrating Passover with his disciples, c. 1664-1665
Oil on canvas
Height: 1.37 m; Width: 1.55 m
Louvre Museum, Paris
De Lairesse produced paintings as decorations for the Soestdijk Palace between 1676 and 1683. In 1684 he moved to the Hague and worked there for a year. In 1685 he painted works for the Loo Palace. In 1688-1689, he decorated the civil council chamber of the Hof van Holland at the Binnenhof, presently known as the Lairesse room, with seven paintings with subjects from the history of the Roman Republic, all displaying a remarkable legal iconography.
Cleopatra’s Banquet
Oil on canvas
74 cm × width 95.5 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Cleopatra made a bet with Mark Antony on who could give the most lavish banquet. She won by dissolving a priceless pearl in vinegar and then drinking the mixture. De Lairesse painted this story like a scene from a play, situating the figures clad in antique costumes in a fitting décor of Classical architecture and furniture. His classicizing style breathed new life into Dutch painting.
On the right is Cleopatra with bare breasts at the table, on the left is Marcus Antonius. Several guests and members of the royal household are present around the table. Pictured is the moment when Lucius Plancus prevents Cleopatra from taking a second pearl from her earring to dissolve in her wine. Mark Antony loses the bet. On the floor in front of the table is a hunting dog. In the background the architecture of the palace interior with caryatids. More on this painting
De Lairesse suffered from congenital syphilis, which caused him to go blind around 1690. After losing his sight, De Lairesse was forced to give up painting and focused instead on lecturing twice a week. De Lairesse explicitly states that despite his blindness, he was still able to design a perfect composition. He drew on two chalk boards and was assisted by his audience and his son Johannes who collected their notes. After several years two books on art were published.
Lairesse, Gerard de, copy after. 1641-1711
Water Deities (copy)
Oil on canvas
113х93,5 cm
Hermitage
Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilizations in which the sea or ocean, or a great river was more important. Another important focus of worship of water deities has been springs or holy wells. More on Water deities
De Lairesse expressed his disapproval of realism style used by Dutch Golden Age painters like Rembrandt, Adriaen Brouwer, Adriaen van Ostade and Frans Hals because they often portrayed everyday scenes and ordinary people such as soldiers, farmers, maids, and even beggars. In De Lairesse's view, paintings ought to show lofty biblical, mythological and historical scenes, and felt that a complex historical allegory was the highest of genres. "A good painting has a clue, indicating what holds the composition together.
De Lairesse attracted many pupils, including Jan van Mieris, Simon van der Does, and the brothers Teodor and Krzysztof Lubieniecki. According to Houbraken, Jan Hoogsaat was one of his best pupils. According to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), his pupils also included Jacob van der Does (the Younger), Gilliam van der Gouwen, Louis Fabritius Dubourg, Theodor Lubienitzki, Bonaventura van Overbeek, Jan Wandelaar. More on Gerard de Lairesse
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