MOSES VAN WTENBROUCK | ITALIANATE RIVER LANDSCAPE, WITH CASTLE RUINS IN THE DISTANCE AND A WITCHES' SACRIFICE IN THE FOREGROUND

Possibly the picture recorded in the 1692 inventory of the estate of the artist's daughter, Cornelia van Uyttenbroeck, no. 65 (as "Een heydense offerande", or as translated "a Pagan offering");

Private collection;

Anonymous sale, Frankfurt am Main, Hugo Helbing, 3-5 July 1934, lot 419 (as circle of Pieter Brueghel the Younger);

Monsieur Van Dyk;

By whom sold, London, Christie's 30 November 1973, lot 122;

There acquired by the present owner.  

U. Weisner, Moyses van Uyttenbroeck: Studien und kritischer Katalog seiner Gemälde and Zeichnungen, dissertation, Universitat Kiel 1963, cat. no. 25;

U. Weisner, "Die Gemälde des Moyses van Uyttenbroeck," in Oud Holland, LXXIX, 1964, p. 221, cat. no. 24.

Sacramento, E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, The Pre-Rembrandtists, 1974, no. 32.

This is one of only about 70 or so paintings known by Moses van Wtenbrouck, a relatively rare artist active in the Hague in the second quarter of the 17th century. Entering the city's painters guild in 1620, he specialized in sweeping Italianate landscapes often animated with historical or mythological subjects. This example, with its small scale figures set in the lower right corner, bears stylistic similarities with other works by Wtenbrouck from the 1620s, where influence of artists such as Breenbergh and Poelenburgh are visible. 

In the lower right corner of this vast river landscape with castle ruins in the distance, three witches surround the flames of a sacrificial pyre before a stone statue as two men in classical attire present a pile of timber for the fire. This as yet unidentified subject may have mythological roots. It may have its origins in Ovid's Metamorphoses, such as Medea's sacrifices (Book VII), but it does not conform to any specific passage. Other sources of visual inspiration, though, can likely be found in Jacques de Gheyn II's drawings and prints of witchcraft,¹ many of which he completed in between 1600-1610 while living in The Hague, where Wtenbrouck lived and worked all his life.  

Weisner (1964) was the first to surmise that this painting may be the one listed in the estate inventory of the artist's daughter, Cornelia van Wtenbrouck, as Een heydense offerande, or as translated, A pagan offering.  As many Pre-Rembrandtist history paintings are recorded with this title in inventories and auction catalogues, the identification of the painting in Cornelia's collection may never be fully certain. 

1. For example, see Jacques de Gheyn's drawing of the Witches' Sabbath in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/335532