Sebastiaan Vrancx

In the family of the present owner since the beginning of the 19th Century.

 

The actual painting is softer and slightly less red in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The panel seems to consist of two planks, joined horizontally. The lower plank has a restored horizontal crack, which has been retouched. The panel is bevelled on the lower, left and right sides, and very lightly bevelled on the upper side. The join and the repaired crack have been reinforced on the reverse with 7 battons of approx. 4 by 6 cm. and are visible to the front The panel is slightly bowed. Horizontal flaking of approx. 7 cm. just above the crack in the lower right corner, has been temporarily secured to prevent from further flaking. Some minor retouched surface scratches can be observed lower left and lower right, above the repaired crack. Otherwise, no major damages seem to be apparent, and the paint surface seems to be in very good condition, with all details nicely preserved, also in the background. The paint surface is covered with a thick and glossy, slightly dirty layer of varnish. Inspection under ultra violet light is partly impeded by the varnish, but confirms the aforementioned strengthening and retouchings, and reveals additional tiny scattered retouchings in the sky upper left and in the figures lower right. Offered in a decorative carved gilt wood frame, resized, in fair condition. (MW)
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Sebastiaen Vrancx was pivotal for the development of battle and cavalry scenes in the Low Countries. He created a standard type for this genre that was soon to be followed by his contemporaries. Vrancx transformed the monumental, large scale battle scenes from the 16th Century into small size skirmishes. Instead of focussing on the heroics of chivalric imagery, Vrancx showed the cruel reality of warfare in the Eighty Years War.¹

This picture is typical of the artist's treatment of the subject in which groups of small scale figures in colourful dress stand out from the grey-greenish hues of the landscape. The lively composition is full of anecdotal details and encourages close scrutiny by its viewers. The fluidity of the meandering roads, painted in subdued light colours provides a sense of motion in the overall composition and form the backdrop to the swarming soldiers. Furthermore, this contrast between the fluid brushstrokes and the stark, linear, contours of the figures allow for a dynamism that is sometimes missing in Vrancx's work, but is outstandingly present in here.

1. See M.P. Maarseveen, J.W.L. Hilkhuijsen, J. Dane (eds.), Beelden van een strijd. Oorlog en kunst vóór de Vrede van Munster 1621-1648, exhibition catalogue, Delft 1998, pp. 110-115.