TREASURES OF AL ANDALUS, OLD MASTERS, FINE ART AND ANTIQUES
Lot 84:
Oil on canvas, framed measurements: 95 x 82 cm. Frameless measurements: 77 x 74. (Antwerp, 1590-1661). Flemish painter. The son of an important silk merchant, he soon emigrated with his family to the Northern Netherlands, where he converted to Calvinism. He studied painting from 1605 and in 1611, back in Antwerp, he entered the Guild of Saint Luke, after a period of apprenticeship with Jan Brueghel the Elder. In 1614 he re-embraced the Catholic faith as he entered the Jesuits of Mechelen as a layman, taking vows in 1625. Thereafter he signed “Daniel Seghers societatis Iesu”. From 1625 to 1627 he lived in Rome, and on his return to Antwerp he would remain in his monastery, as a flower painter, until the day of his death. It is difficult to establish an evolution of his style, although a development from the simpler to the more complicated garlands is evident. The use of flowers and plants from the Netherlands grown in gardens relate him to painters such as Jan Brueghel, although unlike him he pays less attention to contours and more to transparencies and the combination of light and shadow. His flower arrangements always denote prior preparation, while his garlands show a brilliant use of symmetry as a clarifying element of the composition. Garlands surrounding devotional images made from the work of Rubens are common in his production. The Prado houses several examples of these garlands with figures made by other painters who collaborated with him, including artists such as Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, Cornelis Schut, González Coques or Domenichino. Sometimes the religious image is replaced by mythological figures or scenes such as Garland with Flora (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam). There are even garlands with private portraits, such as that of Leopoldo Guillermo (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence). The detailed representation of the flowers must be related to the Jesuit counter-reformation iconography. The devotional character of the image was emphasized by the meticulous observation of flowers and plants, which was interpreted by the theologians of the Company as a stimulus for religious contemplation. The intellectual nature of his flower garlands made him maintain relationships with writers, especially with poets like Joost van de Vondel, who would praise his work on several occasions. Similarly, numerous European princes received gifts from the Jesuits or carried out their own commissions, which guaranteed the success of Seghers’s work. Among these collectors were some as influential as Federico Enrique de Orange Nassau, Cristina of Sweden or Carlos I of England. Reference bibliography: Burke-Gaffney, Michael Walter, Daniel Seghers (1590-1661). A Trecentenary Commemoration, New York, Vantage Press, 1961; Kieckens, F., Daniel Seghers, Antwerp, 1886; Díaz Padrón, Matías, The Age of Rubens in the Prado Museum. Catalog raisonné of Flemish painting of the 17th century, Barcelona, Editorial Prensa Ibérica, and Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1995, p. 1179. Among these collectors were some as influential as Federico Enrique de Orange Nassau, Cristina of Sweden or Carlos I of England. Reference bibliography: Burke-Gaffney, Michael Walter, Daniel Seghers (1590-1661). A Trecentenary Commemoration, New York, Vantage Press, 1961; Kieckens, F., Daniel Seghers, Antwerp, 1886; Díaz Padrón, Matías, The Age of Rubens in the Prado Museum. Catalog raisonné of Flemish painting of the 17th century, Barcelona, Editorial Prensa Ibérica, and Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1995, p. 1179. Among these collectors were some as influential as Federico Enrique de Orange Nassau, Cristina of Sweden or Carlos I of England. Reference bibliography: Burke-Gaffney, Michael Walter, Daniel Seghers (1590-1661). A Trecentenary Commemoration, New York, Vantage Press, 1961; Kieckens, F., Daniel Seghers, Antwerp, 1886; Díaz Padrón, Matías, The Age of Rubens in the Prado Museum. Catalog raisonné of Flemish painting of the 17th century, Barcelona, Editorial Prensa Ibérica, and Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1995, p. 1179. 1886; Díaz Padrón, Matías, The Age of Rubens in the Prado Museum. Catalog raisonné of Flemish painting of the 17th century, Barcelona, Editorial Prensa Ibérica, and Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1995, p. 1179. 1886; Díaz Padrón, Matías, The Age of Rubens in the Prado Museum. Catalog raisonné of Flemish painting of the 17th century, Barcelona, Editorial Prensa Ibérica, and Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1995, p. 1179.
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