Jacob de Backer Antwerp 1560 - circa 1590

Private Collection, Florence;
General Félicien Blanpain (Ambassador of Belgium in Italy before 1920);
His deceased sale, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, January 27, 1947, lot 94 (as Italian School, 17th Century, titled 'Suzanne surprise');
With Galerie Jan de Maere, Brussels;
By whom sold to the present owner in 1995.

The picture that Van Mander presents of Jacob de Backer in his Schilder-boeck is of a talented artist who lived a short, unhappy life.  He was abandoned by his father and then entered the studio of Antonio van Palermo, who worked him so hard that he ruined his health.  Despite his short career, a surprisingly large number of works have been attributed to him.  However, in recent years some of De Backer's key works, including the Last Judgment in Antwerp, have been questioned as possible workshop copies.

The present work is a characteristic example of the Romanist style, a northern interpretation of Italian mannerism.   In this unusual representation of Adam and Eve in which God the Father appears in the Garden with them, De Backer clothes the figures in drapery rather than the usual leaves.  The placement of the extremely scanty scarves and shawls serves only to emphasize sinous forms and erotic overtones of the subject.  The attribution to Jacob de Backer was confirmed by Dr. Terèz Gerszi who examined this painting in Vienna in 1993.