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| Mattheus van Helmont (Antwerp 1623 - Brussels 1679)
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| The Liberation of St. Peter
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Oil on panel
24 ¿ x 32 in. (62 x 82.5 cm.)
Stamped on the reverse with the coat-of-arms of the city of Antwerp and the panel maker's mark of François de Bout
With inventory number '724' painted on the reverse
Provenance: Valpinçon, Paris; Anon. Sale, Sotheby's, London, 30 November 1983, lot 69;
Anon. Sale, Christie's, London, 4 July 1997, lot 21; Private Collection
A pupil of David Teniers the Younger, Mattheus van Helmont was a member of Antwerp’s guild of painters by 1646. His abundant production, generally signed or monogrammed but seldom dated, spreads out between 1638 and 1670. Influenced greatly by his master and Adriaen Brouwer, van Helmont specialized in the painting of genre subjects, particularly village scenes, kermesses and interiors, but also produced still lifes and several versions of The Temptation of Saint Anthony. In addition, he painted Italian markets and fairs, which suggests he visited Italy at some point in his career. Apparently of an unruly character and often involved in brawls, he left Antwerp in 1674, leaving many paintings with his creditors, and settled in Brussels where he died five years later.
The present painting was produced before the artist left Antwerp, and depicts a scene from the life of Saint Peter (Acts 12:1-11). During the persecution of the apostles by Herod, Peter was thrown into prison. As he slept, an angel appeared in his cell, telling him to arise. He was led past the guards, out of the prison and through the city gates, unobserved. In the Colnaghi picture van Helmont has relegated this miraculous episode to the background, focusing instead on the foreground, in which sits a group of soldiers, reminiscent of the popular tavern scenes produced by Teniers, Brouwer and others. In arranging his composition in this manner, van Helmont was following the precedent of his master, Teniers, in the latter’s various representations of the same biblical subject. With this treatment of the theme, both artists were employing a pictorial tradition introduced in the sixteenth century by Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer, who combined secular subjects with religious ones within the confines of a single picture. In the Colnaghi picture, van Helmont not only conceived the theme in this manner, but also borrowed specific elements from Teniers’s versions, such as the drum, the discarded armour and the red officer’s jacket. The flag and suit of armour on the mannequin may instead have been taken from Teniers’s various depictions of Guardrooms (see, for example, works in the Hermitage, Leningrad; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; and The Dulwich Picture Gallery, London).
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P. and D. Colnaghi and Co., Ltd - 15 Old Bond Street London W1S 4AX, United Kingdom Tel: +44-20-7491 7408 Fax: +44-20-7491 8851 contact@colnaghi.co.uk
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