17 Works, January 2nd. is Piero di Cosimo's day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #259

Cosimo Rosselli  (1439–1507) 

Descent from Mount Sinai, circa 1480

Fresco

Height: 350 cm (11.4 ft) Width: 572 cm (18.7 ft)

Sistine Chapel

In the upper part is Moses kneeling on Mount Sinai, with a sleeping Joshua nearby: he receives the Tables of the Law from Yahweh, who appears in a luminescent cloud, surrounded by angels. In the foreground, on the left, Moses brings the Tables to the Israelites. In the background is camp of tents, with the altar of the golden calf in the middle; the Israelites, spurred by Aaron, are adoring it: the position of some of them, painted from behind, was usually used for negative characters, such as Judas Iscariot in the Last Supper. Once seeing that, Moses, in the center, gets angry and breaks the Tables on the ground. The right background depicts the punishment of the idolatrous and the receiving of the new Tables. Joshua, in the blue and yellow, appears with Moses. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462[1] – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento; he is said to have abandoned these to return to religious subjects under the influence of Savonarola, the preacher who exercised a huge sway in Florence in the 1490s, and had a similar effect on Botticelli. The High Renaissance style of the new century had little influence on him, and he retained the straightforward realism of his figures, which combines with an often whimsical treatment of his subjects to create the distinctive mood of his works.

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs, c. 1490

Panel, 71 x 260 cm

National Gallery, London

The battle depicted takes place between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous. Pirithous, king of the Lapith, had long clashed with the neighboring Centaurs. To mark his good intentions Pirithous invited the Centaurs to his wedding to Hippodamia. Some of the Centaurs, over-imbibed at the event, and when the bride was presented to greet the guests, she so aroused the intoxicated centaur Eurytion that he leapt up and attempted to carry her away. This led not only to an immediate clash, but to a year-long war, before the defeated Centaurs were expelled from Thessaly to the northwest. More on  the Battle of the Centaurs against the Lapiths

Vasari has many stories of his eccentricity, and the mythological subjects have an individual and quirky fascination. He trained under Cosimo Rosselli, whose daughter he married, and assisted him in his Sistine Chapel frescos.

Piero di Cosimo  (1462–1522)

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, c. 1490

Tempera on panel

Height: 570 mm (22.44 in); Width: 420 mm (16.53 in)

Condé Museum

This Florentine painting from the Quattrocento is one of the most famous masterpieces of the Condé museum. Painted around 1490, the portrait known as Simonetta Vespucci has never ceased to intrigue art historians. The young and beautiful mistress of Giuliano de Medici, "the idol of Florence", who posed for Botticelli, died of consumption at the age of twenty-three in 1476 and her lover would have had this portrait painted in memory of her. But it is not certain that we are in the presence of the portrait of Simonetta, because the inscription which names her at the bottom of the painting is perhaps later. Moreover, if this portrait represents Simonetta well, it is then a posthumous portrait, because Piero di Cosimo was only fifteen years old when he died.

It could rather be the Cleopatra with the serpent around her neck. However, the iconography does not correspond to Cleopatra, represented with the serpent biting her breast.

The depiction of a woman with a naked bust is unusual for a 15th century portrait. It can also be an ideal portrait, a Neoplatonic allegory of death, symbolized by the serpent which bites its tail, which leads to beauty. The funeral interpretation of the painting is reinforced by the black clouds and the dead tree which appear in front of Simonetta, on the left, while on the right, the trees have leaves and the sky is blue. More on this painting

The son of a goldsmith, Lorenzo di Piero, Piero was born in Florence and apprenticed under the artist Cosimo Rosseli, from whom he derived his popular name and whom he assisted in the painting of the Sistine Chapel in 1481.

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

The Finding of Vulcan on Lemnos, c. 1495-1505

Oil and tempera on canvas

Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Vulcan (Greek Hephaestus) in Greek and Roman mythology was the god of fire, and the blacksmith who forged the weapons of many gods and heroes. He was the educator of the primitive man, and taught him the proper use of fire. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno. He was married to Venus who made a cuckold of him. He was crippled as a result of being thrown down to earth from Olympus by Jupiter in a fit of anger.

When Vulcan was thrown down from Olympus, he landed on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean where he was looked after by the inhabitants. He is shown being helped to his feet by one of a band of nymphs. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo  (1462–1522)

Vulcan and Aeolus, circa 1490

 (or The Return of New Life to Lemnos)

Tempera and oil on canvas

155.5 × 166.5 cm (61.2 × 65.5 in)

National Gallery of Canada

Inspired by Classical authors, Piero imagined the dawn of civilization, when humanity lived in harmony with Nature. The horse has been tamed, metal-working invented, and men build a primitive house from rough tree trunks. It was painted at a time of fascination with the exotic: the figures’ partial nudity, and the giraffe and camel would have suggested other lands and cultures to Piero’s contemporaries. While the setting is fully conceived, the exact subject remains uncertain, but likely shows the story of Vulcan, the blacksmith god, who taught man craft. Frame: carved wood, painted and partly gilded. Italy, late 16th – early 17th century. More on this painting

For ancient Greeks, the island of Lemnos sacred to Hephaestus, god of metallurgy, who—as he tells himself in Iliad I.590ff—fell on Lemnos when Zeus hurled him headlong out of Olympus. There, he was cared for by the Sinties, according to Iliad, or by Thetis, and there with a Thracian nymph Cabiro (a daughter of Proteus) he fathered a tribe called the Kaberoi. Sacred initiatory rites dedicated to them were performed in the island. Its ancient capital was named Hephaistia in the god's honour. More on Lemnos

In the first phase of his career, Piero was influenced by the Netherlandish naturalism of Hugo van der Goes, whose Portinari Triptych (now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) helped to lead the whole of Florentine painting into new channels. From him Cosimo acquired the love of landscape and the intimate knowledge of the growth of flowers and of animal life. The manner of Hugo van der Goes is especially apparent in the Adoration of the Shepherds, at the Berlin Museum.

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Venus, Mars, and Cupid, c. 1505

Oil on panel

72 x 182 cms | 28 1/4 x 71 1/2 ins

Staatliche Museen, Berlin | Germany

Despite the different datings they have been given the two panels (Death of Procris (See below) , and Venus and Mars) may have formed part of a cycle illustrating themes from ancient mythology. The long shape of the panels suggest that they may have decorated a cassone chest.

Another aspect of Piero's artistic personality is his ability to infuse his subjects with wit and fantasy. The subject matter is sensual in nature, with Cupid nestling beside Venus' breast near a long-eared rabbit, a symbol of sexual excess. The black and white birds down below seem to symbolize the lovers, Venus and an exhausted Mars asleep on the ground.

This panel may have been painted as part of a suite of marital furniture, such as a bedstead, hope chest, or frieze. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

The Death of Procris

Oil on panel

65 x 183 cms | 25 1/2 x 72 ins

National Gallery, London | United Kingdom

A nymph lies on a patch of grass in the foreground, blood streaming from wounds on her throat and hand. A satyr, half man and half goat, kneels next to her, mourning her death. A dog sits at her feet, balancing the stooping figure of the satyr and seemingly mourning as well. More dogs appear at the lakeside in the background.

It has been suggested that this painting depicts an episode from the Metamorphoses, an influential poem by the ancient Roman writer Ovid. If this is the case, then the beautiful nymph would be Procris, who was accidentally killed by her husband Cephalus. A fifteenth-century adaptation of the Metamorphoses added the satyr, which is not mentioned by Ovid.

The painting’s dimensions suggest that it was part of furniture or inserted into wooden panelling. Piero di Cosimo specialised in the production of such paintings, known as spalliere. More on this painting

Cephalus was married to Procris, a daughter of Erechtheus, an ancient founding-figure of Athens. One day the goddess of dawn, Eos, kidnapped Cephalus when he was hunting. The resistant Cephalus and Eos became lovers, and she bore him a son. However, Cephalus always pined for Procris, causing a disgruntled Eos to return him to her, making disparaging remarks about his wife's fidelity. 

Once reunited with Procris after an interval of eight years, Cephalus tested her by returning from the hunt in disguise, and managing to seduce her. In shame Procris fled to the forest, to hunt. In returning and reconciling, Procris brought two magical gifts, an inerrant javelin that never missed its mark, and a hunting hound, Laelaps that always caught its prey. The hound met its end chasing a fox (the Teumessian vixen) which could not be caught; both fox and the hound were turned into stone. But the javelin continued to be used by Cephalus, who was an avid hunter.

Procris then conceived doubts about her husband, who left his bride at the bridal chamber and climbed to a mountaintop and sang a hymn invoking Nephele, "cloud". Procris became convinced that he was serenading a lover. She climbed to where he was to spy on him. Cephalus, hearing a stirring in the brush and thinking the noise came from an animal, threw the never-erring javelin in the direction of the sound – and Procris was impaled. As she lay dying in his arms, she told him "On our wedding vows, please never marry Eos". Cephalus was distraught at the death of his beloved Procris, and went into exile. More on Cephalus and Procris

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Perseus Frees Andromeda, c. 1513

Tempera grassa on wood

70 x 120 cm

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

In the centre of the composition, Perseus is dealing with the sea monster that is about to attack Andromeda, daughter of the King of Ethiopia, offered as a sacrifice to placate the monster's ire. The monster had been unleashed by Poseidon, angry with the boastful Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother. Perseus is shown twice more in the painting, when he sees the dragon and the young sacrificial victim, while flying through the skies on his winged sandals, when he celebrates the liberation of Andromeda, who will become his bride. In the composition, the jubilation of Andromeda's father and the laughing crowds, shown on the right, contrasts with the desperation of the family at the destiny of the young princess in the scene on thee left.

The subject of the painting, derived from the Ovid's Metamorphoses illustrates the story of a famous couple from Greek mythology and seems right for the destination of the panel, painted as part of the furnishings for a nuptial room, most likely that of Filippo Strozzi the younger and Clarice de' Medici in Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, on which cabinet maker Baccio d'Agnolo was working in 1510-1511. The artist, Piero di Cosimo, an eccentric, imaginative Florentine painter, working above all to make the narration clean and the improbably musical instruments or eastern costumes of the subjects credible, rather than evoking the drama of the story, also diluted by the reassuring view of the sea in which the enormous monster is swimming, almost bathing in a pond. More on this painting

He journeyed to Rome in 1482 with his master, Rosselli. He proved himself a true child of the Renaissance by depicting subjects of Classical mythology in such pictures as Venus, Mars, and Cupid, The Death of Procris (See above), the Perseus and Andromeda series (See above), at the Uffizi, and many others. Inspired to the Vitruvius' account of the evolution of man, Piero's mythical compositions show the bizarre presence of hybrid forms of men and animals, or the man learning to use fire and tools. The multitudes of nudes in these works shows the influence of Luca Signorelli on Piero's art.

Piero di Cosimo

The Visitation with Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony Abbot, c. 1489/1490

Oil on panel

184.2 x 188.6 cm (72 1/2 x 74 1/4 in.)

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

The central scene of the eccentric Florentine artist Piero di Cosimo's Visitation depicts the meeting of the Virgin Mary and the elderly Saint Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Saint Nicholas on the left, identified by his attribute of three gold balls alluding to his charity towards the daughters of an impoverished nobleman, and Saint Anthony Abbot on the right, identified by his cane, bell and ever-present pig, sit in the foreground as studious witnesses to the event. Additional scenes relating to the birth of Christ are depicted in the background: the Annunciation painted on a distant church wall, the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds on the left, and the Massacre of the Innocents in the middle ground. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo

The Nativity with the Infant Saint John, c. 1495/1505

Oil on canvas

(diameter): 145.7 cm (57 3/8 in.)

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

In this Nativity, among the largest of Piero’s roundels, was likely intended for devotional use in a private palace or in the more public setting of a local confraternity or guildhall. Mary kneels in adoration of the infant Christ, who rests on a blue mantle, his head supported by a pillow of wheat that evokes the Eucharist. Also present to venerate the incarnate Jesus are an angel and the young John the Baptist, who clutches a reed cross and regards the Christ child with touching solemnity.

Piero’s narrative vision encompasses details sublime and mundane, from the symbolic rose and bud, rocks, and dove beside Christ to the half-ruined stable in the background with its niche of kitchen utensils. Jesus’s father, Joseph, descends the building’s wooden stairs in the cautious manner of an aged man. He is attended by angels bearing flowering branches to celebrate the Child’s birth. In the distance at left, the three Magi traverse a serene landscape whose rolling contours perfectly complement the tondo’s shape. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, Florence 1462–1522 Florence)

The Young Saint John the Baptist, ca. 1480–82

Tempera and oil on wood

11 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. (29.2 x 23.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Saint John the Baptist is one of the patron saints of Florence, where representations of him as a youth enjoyed a special popularity in the fifteenth century. In its format and profile depiction of the saint, this picture resembles contemporary marble reliefs, but the soft modeling reflects Piero's awareness of Netherlandish painting. More on this painting

John the Baptist (sometimes called John in the Wilderness; also referred to as the Angel of the Desert) was the subject of at least eight paintings by the Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610).

 

The story of John the Baptist is told in the Gospels. John was the cousin of Jesus, and his calling was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. He lived in the wilderness of Judea between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, "his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey." He baptised Jesus in the Jordan.

According to the Bible, King Herod's daughter Salome requested Saint John the Baptist's beheading. She was prompted by her mother, Herodias, who sought revenge, because the prophet had condemned her incestuous marriage to Herod. More John the Baptist

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. Peter, John the Baptist, Dominic, and Nicholas of Bari

Tempera and oil on panel

69 3/4 in. x 47 in. x 5 in. (177.2 x 119.4 x 12.7 cm)

Saint Louis Art Museum

In a lifelike rendering, this large panel portrays a sacra conversazione (holy conversation) where saints surround the Madonna and Child in a unified pictorial space. Piero di Cosimo’s approach is far removed from the compartmentalized divisions in Lorenzo di Nicolo’s altarpiece elsewhere in this gallery. Here, Saint Peter presents the kneeling Saint Dominic (left) while Saint John the Baptist announces Christ’s ministry, and Saint Nicholas kneels in devotion (right). The three smaller panels, called a predella, depict scenes from the lives of Saints Dominic, John, and Nicholas. The Pugliese coat of arms adorns the frame, identifying the Florentine family who commissioned the work for its private chapel. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

St Mary Magdalene, c. 1490-95

Tempera on panel

72 x 53 cm

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

St Mary Magdalene is identified by her profile and the halo, her long hair and jar of ointment. The jar alludes to the visit of the Magdalene and the pious women to the sepulcher on Easter morning. Having reached the place where the body of Jesus would be embalmed with perfumed oils, they found the sepulcher empty and were the first to bear witness to the Resurrection. The long hair with which the Magdalene is generally depicted actually derives from an erroneous interpretation of the Gospel, arising from a confusion between the Magdalene with the nameless prostitute who, repenting of her sins, shed tears on Jesus's feet and dried them with her own hair.

Piero di Cosimo's painting, however, includes details that go beyond the traditional depiction of the saint, drawing on the artist's own time: the style of her dress, the open book and the lady's pose, like the architecture framing her, draw directly on the portraiture of the 1400s. In fact, it cannot be excluded that the painting may actually have been commissioned by or for a lady named Maddalena, who wished to be portrayed as the saint whose name she bore.

The painting is notable for its extremely refined execution, particularly striking in the pictorial surface and definition of the details. In these ways, Piero di Cosimo reveals his profound understanding and appreciation of the formal values of Flemish painting. More on this painting

During his lifetime, Piero acquired a reputation for eccentricity—a reputation enhanced and exaggerated by later commentators. Reportedly, he was frightened of thunderstorms, and so pyrophobic that he rarely cooked his food; he lived on a diet of hard-boiled eggs, which he prepared 50 at a time while boiling glue for his artworks. He also resisted any cleaning of his studio, or trimming of the fruit trees of his orchard; he lived, wrote Vasari, "more like a beast than a man".

If, as Vasari asserts, he spent the last years of his life in gloomy retirement, the change was probably due to preacher Girolamo Savonarola, under whose influence he turned his attention once more to religious art. The death of his master Roselli may also have affected Piero's morose elder years. The Immaculate Conception with Saints, at the Uffizi, and the Holy Family, at Dresden, illustrate the religious fervour to which he was stimulated by Savonarola.

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, Florence 1462–1522 Florence)

A Hunting Scene, ca. 1494–1500

Tempera and oil transferred to Masonite

27 3/4 x 66 3/4 in. (70.5 x 169.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This picture and its companion (also in The Met's collection) (See below) reimagine the early history of humankind and are among the most singular works of the Renaissance. Their inspiration was the fifth book of De Rerum Natura by the Epicurean poet and philosopher Lucretius (ca. 99–55 B.C.). A manuscript of Lucretius’s work was discovered in 1417 and published in Florence in 1471–73. Lucretius believed that the workings of the world can be accounted for by natural rather than divine causes, and he put forward a vision of the history of primitive humanity and the advent of civilization that was much discussed in Renaissance Florence—and beyond. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, Florence 1462–1522 Florence)

The Return from the Hunt, ca. 1494–1500

Tempera and oil on wood

27 3/4 x 66 1/2 in. (70.5 x 168.9 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This picture and its companion (also in The Met's collection) (See above) reimagine the early history of humankind and are among the most singular works of the Renaissance. Their inspiration was the fifth book of De Rerum Natura by the Epicurean poet and philosopher Lucretius (ca. 99–55 B.C.). A manuscript of Lucretius’s work was discovered in 1417 and published in Florence in 1471–73. Lucretius believed that the workings of the world can be accounted for by natural rather than divine causes, and he put forward a vision of the history of primitive humanity and the advent of civilization that was much discussed in Renaissance Florence—and beyond. More on this painting

With the exception of the landscape background in Rosselli's fresco of the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sistine Chapel, there is no record of any fresco work from his brush. On the other hand, Piero enjoyed a great reputation as a portrait painter: the most famous of his work is in fact the portrait of a Florentine noblewoman, Simonetta Vespucci (See above), mistress of Giuliano de' Medici. According to Vasari, Piero excelled in designing pageants and triumphal processions for the pleasure-loving youths of Florence, and gives a vivid description of one such procession at the end of the carnival of 1507, which illustrated the triumph of death. Piero di Cosimo exercised considerable influence upon his fellow pupils Albertinelli and Bartolomeo della Porta, and was the master of Andrea del Sarto.

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, 1462–1522)

The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus, c. about 1499

Oil on panel

79.2 x 128.4 cm (31 3/16 x 50 9/16 in.)

Worcester Art Museum

In this allegorical setting the mythological figures of Bacchus and Ariadne, in the right foreground, are accompanied by satyrs and maenads who make noise to attract a swarm of bees to settle in a hollow tree. The result is the discovery of honey, considered a step forward in the history of civilization which is symbolized in the background by the juxtaposition of an idyllic view of a town (on the left) and a wild and forbidding landscape (on the right). More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo

The Misfortunes of Silenus, c. 1500

Oil on panel

80.1 x 129.3 cm (31 9/16 x 50 7/8 in.)

Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University

This panel, along with a companion showing the Discovery of Honey, was probably commissioned as a nuptial gift to adorn the bedchamber in the Florentine palace of Giovanni Vespucci and his bride; both panels are described by the artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari in his Life of Piero di Cosimo. Wasps (vespe in Italian) adorned the family’s coats of arms, and the scenes were certainly chosen as humorous but cautionary tales for the newlyweds. The story is based on passages from Ovid’s Fasti, where Silenus, looking for honey, climbs on the back of his donkey to reach into the hollow of a tree. Inside, he discovers a wasp’s nest, setting off a series of misfortunes: the branch on which he was leaning breaks, and he falls from his donkey, is kicked by an ass, and is stung by the wasps he disturbed. At the left of this panel, Bacchus and Ariadne watch as Silenus’s stings are treated with mud. 

The paintings in the Worcester and Harvard Art Museums shared a common provenance until the “Discovery of Honey” (See above) was sold in 1937 to the Worcester Art Museum and the “Misfortunes of Silenus” was sold in 1940 to the Fogg Art Museum. The Fogg Art Museum purchased the painting directly from Mrs. Douglas. More on this painting

Vasari gave Piero's date of death as 1521, and this date is still repeated by many sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica. However, contemporary documents reveal that he died of plague on 12 April 1522. He is featured in George Eliot's novel Romola. More on Piero di Cosimo

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23 Works, November 1st. is Cornelis Cornelisz's day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #229

Circle Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

The Last Supper

Oil on Panel

76 x 108 cm.

Private collection

The Last Supper is based on a late 15th-century mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. It is one of the world's most famous paintings.

The painting represents the scene of The Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, as it is told in the Gospel of John, 13:21. Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among the Twelve Disciples when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him. More on the The Last Supper

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (1562 - Haarlem - 1638) who himself added ‘van Haarlem’ to his name, was one of the leading figures of Dutch Mannerism, together with his townsman Hendrick Goltzius and Abraham Bloemaert from Utrecht. He was born in 1562 in a well-to-do Catholic family in Haarlem, where he first studied with Pieter Pietersz. At the age of seventeen he went to France, but at Rouen he had to turn back to avoid an outbreak of the plague and went instead to Antwerp, where he remained for a year with Gilles Coignet. 

Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem
THE WEDDING OF PELEUS AND THETISTHE WEDDING OF PELEUS AND THETIS, c. 1593

Oil on canvas

246 x 419 cm

Frans Hals Museum

A classical story of the gods: the wedding of the sea goddess Thetis and the human Peleus, to which all the gods were invited except Eris, the goddess of discord. In revenge she threw (above left) a golden apple (of discord) ‘for the most beautiful’ of the goddesses present. The shepherd Paris was asked to choose among them (above right): Hera, who promised him wealth, Athena, who offered wisdom, and Aphrodite, who promised him the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen of Troy. Paris’ choice of Aphrodite was the indirect cause of the Trojan War. The painting was intended as a warning against discord. More on this painting

Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem
A MONK AND A NUN, c. 1591

Oil on canvas

116 x 103 cm

Frans Hals Museum

According to legend a nun was accused of having become pregnant. To verify this a monk had to squeeze her breast and if it produced milk she was guilty. But instead of milk she produced wine — the reason for the wine glass on the table. Instead of proving the nun’s guilt the miracle was witness to her faith. Yet the legend may not have been the real subject of the painting. Pictures of amorous monks and nuns were a popular genre in the late 16th century. This may in fact be a satire on the immorality of the cloisters and the Catholic Church. More on this painting

 Cornelis Cornelisz. from Haarlem

Monk and nun embrace each other

Oil on oak panel

60 x 49 cm

Private collection

Cornelis van Haarlem

The Choice Between Young and Old, c. 1597

Oil on canvas

73 x 89 cm

Private collection

In the 1580s, Cornelis van Haarlem was one of the principal exponents of the Mannerist style which enjoyed a brief but intense flowering in Haarlem. By the mid 1590s, however, when the present picture was painted, Cornelis's work was shifting towards a more temperate approach. The violent contortions and exaggeratedly muscular nudes which typified his earlier style, gave way in favour of more restful poses and figure types, more akin to classical ideals of proportion and harmony. More on this painting

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (Dutch, 1562 - 1638)

Allegory on the Brevity of Life, c. 1617

Oil on panel

47 x 58.5 cm

Statens Museum for Kunst

A young couple, virtually naked, sit in a natural setting, almost like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Absorbed by vanity, they are lost in contemplating their own reflection in a mirror held up to them by a bearded man. The man is Father Time. We see something the young couple do not. Behind them an arrow points directly towards them. The arrow of Cupid? No, of Death. Here Death has not been personified as a skeleton with all its bones picked clean; it is a far more uncanny apparition: a so-called “transi” – a half-rotted corpse. In its own day the painting served to remind observers of the inevitability of death: it comes to us all, young and old, rich and poor, and this is intended to urge us to live in accordance with Christian virtues. More on this painting

The artist returned to Haarlem in 1581, and two years later, in 1583, he received his first important commission for a group portrait of a Haarlem militia company (See below) (now in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem). From roughly 1586 to 1591 Cornelis, together with Goltzius and Flemish émigré Karel van Mander formed a sort of “studio brotherhood” which became known as the ‘Haarlem Academy’.

Cornelis van Haarlem

The Banquet of the Officers of the St. Adrian Militia Company, c. 1583

Oil on panel

135 x 233 cm

Frans Hals Museum

Banquet of a platoon of the St. George Civic Guard, Haarlem. The man at the top left looking at the viewer is a selfportrait of Cornelis van Haarlem, the man below left looking at the viewer is his brother Hans, and the man in the center looking at the viewer is the artist Pieter Pietersz. The man with the flag is Ensign Joost van Heussen. The man in white doublet with left hand touching his heart and right hand shaking hands with the left hand of a man holding his right hand op to swear an oath, is Cornelis Jabosz. Schoudtgen. This gesture in the painting shows a man making a business deal, and it also illustrates the guild rule about the guild's "wijncoop", or wine purchase. According to the saying that is painted on the mantelpiece above which this painting once hung, there shall be no business deals made while in this schutter's hall - if a man regrets his decision the next day, he can be relieved of his promise by making the wine purchase. More on this painting

Cornelis Engelsz  (1575–1650)

Feast of the Cloveniers in Haarlem, portraying the men serving from 1615-1618, c. 1618

Oil on canvas

171 cm x 247,5 cm

Frans Hals Museum

In the 1590’s he continued to receive many important commissions from the Municipality and other institutions. Before 1603, he married the daughter of a Haarlem burgomaster. In 1605, he inherited a third of his wealthy father-in-law’s estate; his wife died the following year. From an illicit union with Margriet Pouwelsdr, Cornelis had a daughter Maria in 1611. Around 1630, Maria married the silversmith Pieter Bega, and in 1631/32 their son was born, Cornelis Bega, who became a painter. After a very successful career, Cornelis died in 1638, leaving all the red chalk drawings and half of his estate to his only child Maria, while the other half went to Margriet Pouwelsdr. He had at least nine pupils of whom Gerrit Pietersz Sweelink, Cornelis Jacobsz Delff and Salomon de Bray are the best known.

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (Dutch, 1562 - 1638)

The Fall of the Titans, c. 1588-1590

Oil on canvas

239 x 307 cm

Statens Museum for Kunst

We see a number of naked men falling, shouting and screaming, into an abyss. The figures whirl and spin down towards us, helpless. The artist has done much to showcase his skill in depicting the body from all angles. Having lost the struggle for dominion over earth to the Olympian gods, the Titans are hurled down into Tartarus, an underworld located even further down than Hades in Greek mythology. At the time the painting was created the titans were viewed as symbolic figures representing those who could not control their urges. The figures' genitals are covered by butterflies and dragonflies, which may be symbols denoting homosexuality. The Titans are being cast into the underworld, but here it appears as if they are being cast down to us, and the depiction is full of both intensity and pity. More on this painting

Cornelis painted mainly religious and mythological subjects and portraits, and between 1588 and 1602 produced designs for 22 prints. In the last years of his life he abandoned the life size figures in his work and, instead, chose to paint small scale histories and genre scenes.

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, (1562 - Haarlem - 1638)

Venus, Cupid and Ceres, c. 1604 

Oil on canvas

96.7 x 109.2 cm

Private collection

A newly discovered work by Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, this colorful painting interprets the ancient witticism, “Without food and drink, love grows cold.” Venus, Roman goddess of love, is joined by Cupid and Ceres, goddess of grain; Bacchus, god of wine, is present symbolically through the grapes. The supple, translucent flesh demonstrates the interest in naturalism that blossomed in Northern Europe in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, which led artists to work increasingly “from life,” that is, from observation of models. More on this painting

Cornelis van Haarlem

Mars and Venus, c. 1609

Oil on sheet metal

48,8 x 68,8

Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie

Naked Venus lies on a slight hill, leaning against Mars sitting next to her. The lovers are having a conversation, which may be indicated by the goddess's hand raised in a rhetorical gesture. The fact that this is not a serious dispute is evidenced by the behavior of her companion, who embraces her breast in love. Next to them, in a forest clearing, putti belonging to the goddess of love's entourage play with the attributes abandoned by the god of war. They wave a large white banner, play the snare drums, briefly display each other's weapons. A couple in love completely ignores the frolics of this group.

The painting "Mars and Venus" was painted by Cornelis Cornelisz in 1609. It belongs to a group of erotic performances inspired by the mannerist art of the court of Rudolf II. The models were provided, among others, by the works of the imperial court painter - Bartholomeus van Spranger. The artist used themes from ancient mythology as a pretext enabling him to smuggle in erotic content. Following the example of ancient sculptures, they were shown in nudes, exposing the beauty of the human body, but also - stimulating the senses of viewers. Aleksandra Janiszewska

Cornelisz. van Haarlem, Cornelis (1562-1638) 

Venus, Bacchus and Ceres, c. 1614

Oil on canvas

154 x 184 cm

Old Masters Picture Gallery

Love can only thrive with wine and good food when rapport and harmony also prevail. This message is conveyed by bringing together Venus, the goddess of love accompanied by Amor, with Ceres, the goddess of fertility, and Bacchus, the god of wine, who is playing a lute. The image was inspired by a proverb, popular in the Baroque period, which was attributed to the Roman comic dramatist Terence. Cornelisz. has arranged the large figures in a balanced composition that seems like a coloured relief. More on this painting

Cornelis van Haarlem

Two Followers of Cadmus devoured by a Dragon, c. 1588

Oil on canvas stuck on oak

148.5 x 195.5 cm

National Gallery

Cadmus, a prince of Tyre, travelled to the Delphic Oracle after his sister Europa was stolen away by Zeus, chief of the Greek gods. There he was told that, instead of searching for his sister, he should ‘follow the cow outside and wherever it rests, build a new city’.

When the cow stopped Cadmus’s followers went in search of water. A dragon was guarding the spring they found; it slaughtered them all. Cadmus managed to kill it, and the goddess Athena told him to sow its teeth in the ground. Armed men sprang from them – and fought each other. Five survived to help Cadmus build the city of Thebes.

Here, the dragon sinks its teeth into a man’s cheek. Its claws seem to tear his flesh, but a closer look reveals that the legs and torso belong to a second person flung across his hips. A glimmer of hope is offered by a distant view of Cadmus fighting the dragon.

This previously unrecorded painting, dating from 1604, is a mid-period work by Cornelis van Haarlem and is characteristic of the moderate classicism which informed his work from around 1600 onwards. It represents a stark contrast to the exuberant Mannerism of his youthful oeuvre, exemplified by his early masterpiece, The Massacre of the Innocents (See below), now in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem. More on this painting

Cornelisz. van Haarlem, Cornelis (1562-1638)

Adam and Eve under the tree of knowledge

Oil on copper

14 x 10 cm

Old Masters Picture Gallery

Cornelis, Cornelisz. Haarlem van (1562-1638)

Adam and Eve, c. 1599

Oil on canvas

183,3 x 139

Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie

The first parents were shown next to a tree with the serpent wrapped around the branch. Leafy twigs cover their nakedness only in intimate areas. According to tradition, they are located in the Garden of Eden, with the scene of Eve's creation from Adam's rib in the background. Divine intervention is symbolized by a ray of light descending from heaven. We can recognize several species of birds that inhabit paradise. More on this painting

Cornelis van Haarlem  (1562–1638)

Susanna at her Bath, c. 1590

Oil on canvas 

Germanisches Nationalmuseum

A fair Hebrew wife named Susanna was falsely accused by lecherous voyeurs. As she bathes in her garden, having sent her attendants away, two lustful elders secretly observe the lovely Susanna. When she makes her way back to her house, they accost her, threatening to claim that she was meeting a young man in the garden unless she agrees to have sex with them.

She refuses to be blackmailed and is arrested and about to be put to death for promiscuity when a young man named Daniel interrupts the proceedings, shouting that the elders should be questioned to prevent the death of an innocent. After being separated, the two men are questioned about details of what they saw, but disagree about the tree under which Susanna supposedly met her lover. In the Greek text, the names of the trees cited by the elders form puns with the sentence given by Daniel. The first says they were under a mastic, and Daniel says that an angel stands ready to cuthim in two. The second says they were under an evergreen oak tree, and Daniel says that an angel stands ready to saw him in two. The great difference in size between a mastic and an oak makes the elders' lie plain to all the observers. The false accusers are put to death, and virtue triumphs. More about Susanna

Cornelis van Haarlem  (1562–1638)

Feast of the prodigal son, c. 1615

Oil on canvas

65.5 x 107.5 [98 x 140.5 x 6.5]

Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie

A group of naked figures gathered around a sumptuously set table. Men and women indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. The musical trio, placed deep in the composition on the right, makes their time more pleasant. The scene takes place in the open air at the edge of the forest. The barely visible figure on the left is probably a servant preparing the next dishes. The subject of this composition was interpreted in various ways by researchers. Due to the considerable amount of nudity and eroticism, it was sought to depict a feast of ancient gods or a scene of the fall of humanity that was to precede the deluge. Both paths turned out to be wrong. First, there were no attributes that would allow the characters to be interpreted as individual deities. Second, the fall of mankind required the presence of Noah's ark in the background, heralding the coming flood. More on this painting

Cornelis van Haarlem  (1562–1638)

Bathsheba at her Toilet, c. 1594

Oil on canvas

height 77.5 cm × width 64 cm

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The beautiful Bathsheba bathes out of doors assisted by two maidservants. King David spies the young woman from the roof of his palace and instantly falls in love. Although he is not depicted in the painting, David’s presence is suggested by the castle in the distance. Curiously, the servant seen from behind has a male body. More on this painting

Cornelis van Haarlem

Bathsheba

Oil on canvas

102 x 130 cm

Staatliche Museen, Berlin

In this depiction of Bathsheba not only is she completely nude, but so are two of her attendants. This painter's sinuous figures are close to those painted in his Haarlem Academy, in Prague, and in the Loire Valley. Theirs is a figure style derived from the later painters of Fontainebleau. More on this painting

Cornelis van Haarlem

The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist, c. 1602

Oil on canvas

100 x 180 cm

 The National Gallery

The central character of this painting is hidden in the shadows: a man with long hair and a beard who seems to draw the attention of the people gathered before him. This is Saint John the Baptist, standing on what looks like an improvised pulpit. The large crowd is divided between conversation and close attention to John’s announcement of the coming of Christ. The Gospel of Matthew recounts how people flocked from Jerusalem, Judea and ‘all the region round about Jordan’ to hear John’s message and to be baptised by him. Cornelis took great care to depict a variety of people, some looking like his Haarlem contemporaries, others dressed more exotically.

Cornelis seems to have adopted the large-scale landscape with a biblical subject from the Flemish painter Karel van Mander. The subject of Saint John preaching was popular in Netherlandish art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, possibly reflecting contemporary debates about open-air sermons by Calvinist preachers. More on this painting

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, (1562 - Haarlem - 1638)

The Massacre of the Innocents, c. 1590

The infanticide in Bethlehem. Massacre outside the gates of the city. Naked soldiers kill the children with knives and swords.

Oil on canvas

height 245 cm × width 358 cm

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

When Herod, the King of Judea, learned that a child destined to become ‘King of the Jews’ would be born in Bethlehem, he ordered the slaughter of all boys under the age of two. The painter portrayed the massacre as a gruesome nightmare. Horror follows upon horror: at lower left a soldier slits a child’s throat, while above them a woman gouges out a soldier’s eyes. More on this painting

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, (1562 - Haarlem - 1638)

The Baptism of Christ

Oil on copper

Height: 0.45 m; Width: 0.33 m

Louvre Museum

The naked couple is perhaps a symbolic resumption of that of Adam and Eve since Christ by his baptism regenerates and remakes the humanity evoked here by the First couple. - To date around 1599, in the typical calm Mannerist phase that has been that of Cornelis since the end of the 1590s. More on this painting

Cornelis van Haarlem  (1562–1638)

The Baptism of Christ, c. 1588

Oil on canvas

Height: 170 cm (66.9 in); Width: 206 cm (81.1 in)

Louvre Museum

The oldest, most Mannerist in style and largest in dimensions of the ten Baptisms of Christ known today in the painted work of Cornelis (among others those of St. Petersburg, 1616, Dessau, 1619, Karlsruhe, 1623, Haarlem, Douai, Mainz, Moscow, etc.), and certainly one of his masterpieces. - Old copy in Utrecht. More on this painting

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, (1562 - Haarlem - 1638)

Christ with the cross and the chalice, c. 1591-1592

Oil on canvas

135,5 x 106 [166 x 134,5 x 9]

Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie

Here Cornelisz represents Christ in his entire form, and without traces of torment on the body, and at the same time seated between the tools of the Passion and biblical prophets. In Cornelis's painting, the clear Catholic meaning of this engraving is suppressed by limiting the details and presenting against a neutral background three key elements of the Passion and Eucharist: the cross, body and blood of Christ (in the chalice). This is probably related to the situation of the artist who, being a Catholic himself, worked in a Calvinist-dominated environment. Even this approach was interpreted as meeting the expectations of not only the Catholic, but also the Calvinist clientele, who could seek to emphasize the purely symbolic nature of the Eucharist and the ritual of receiving it in two forms. More on this painting

In the 1580s, Cornelis, together with the poet, painter and art theorist, Karel van Mander, and the painter and engraver, Hendrick Goltzius, was one of the principal exponents of Mannerism which saw a brief but intense flowering in Haarlem. By the mid 1590s, however, Cornelis’s work was already becoming more temperate, in response to Gotzius’s own rejection of Mannerism. The violent contortions and exaggeratedly muscular nudes which typified his Mannerist period, gave way in favour of more restful poses and figure types, more akin to classical norms of proportion and harmony. More on Cornelis Cornelisz

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