- 321
Hendrik van Balen I Antwerp 1574/5-1632
Description
- Hendrik van Balen I
- Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh
- signed at center, under the dog, H V BALLEN some letters slightly reinforced.
- oil on panel, with period additions at the four corners.
Provenance
Anonymous sale, Berlin, Rudolph Lepke, March 17, 1908, lot 85 (under the title "Das Urteil").
Literature
Catalogue Note
This painting, recorded in Betina Werche's book (see Literature) as whereabouts unknown, is an important reapearance in Van Balen oeuvre. She only knew the painting through old photographs and describes it as typical example of his work. She compared the work with another work of appoximately the same size representing Moses and Joshua in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Het Catharijneconvent, Utrecht1. It is interesting to note that the Utrecht painting is an octogonal and that the present painting was probably conceived as such. It must then have been altered and made into a square while the painting was still in the studio, as the additions are entirely consistent with the rest of the painting.
The subject matter depicted has been subject to some discussion. In the two early German sales (see provenance) it was simply discribed as "Das Urteil" [ the Judgment ]; it was later described, by Betina Werche as Jacob before Pharaoh. The correct subject, however, seems to be Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. The key to the iconography is revealed by the small figures in the distance making bricks, which would have been impossible for Werche to see in an old photograph.
The episode depicted is taken from Exodus, chapter V and represents Moses and Aaron asking the Pharaoh to let the people of Israel goto the desert to offer sacrifices to God. The Pharoah denied the request and instead ordered them back to work making bricks. Not only had they to keep producing the same quota of bricks but the Pharaoh also ordered that no straw, needed for the production, should be given to them.
1 op.cit., vol. 1, p. 139, no. A12, reproduced vol. 2, p. 322