anticSwiss 02/10/2021 02:46:20 http://www.anticswiss.com

Dirk Helmbreker, Convivial interior, 17th century painting

FOR SALE ANTIQUE DEALER Period: 17° secolo -1600 Ars Antiqua srl Milano Style: Altri stili +39 02 29529057 393664680856 Height:95cm Width:134cm Material:Olio su tela Price:5000€

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

Attr. to Dirk Helmbreker (Haarlem, 1633 - , 1699) Interior scene Oil on canvas, 95 x 134 cm - with frame 122 x 160 cm

The convivial scene examined is due to the hand of Theodor Helmbreker (1633- 1696), Dutch artist active for a long time in Italy, among the most successful exponents of the Roman world of the so-called "". Since his arrival in Rome in 1654, the artist met with great success, as the sources attest and, above all, the long biography that Baldinucci dedicates to him. As well as in Rome, he also worked in and Venice, where he stayed for a certain period. Helmbreker created complex compositions with different anecdotal scenes and figures. Emphasizing undemanding themes, he also often devoted himself to religious scenes on backgrounds consisting of landscapes with ruins of Roman buildings, thus highlighting the end of the distinction between landscape and , blending Flemish and Italian styles, originating from the knowledge of examples by , and . The scene takes place in an interior whose details, described in a summary way, lead back to the environment of an inn: all attention is paid to the figures and gestures of the characters rendered with a loose and flexible brushstroke. A significant feature of Helmbreker is that of focusing on scenes capable of providing pretexts for theatrical exploits, with a playful tone and a goliardic character. This is how the painting is distinguished mainly by the two grotesque characters who enter the scene from the door. Their representation is caricatured in the pose, in the facial expressions and also in the features that characterize them: a pair of glasses - rare in figurations of this genre - and grilling tools in the hands. The different iconographic elements recurring in Helmbreker's pictorial production should be highlighted: the two dogs in the foreground and the scene with the children intent on playing, protagonists of Antonio Amorosi's pictorial production certainly known to Helmbreker. The figurative structure of the painting is also attributable to the manner of the Flemish master: the subjects occupy the whole scene following a diagonal trend that

1 / 3 anticSwiss 02/10/2021 02:46:20 http://www.anticswiss.com leads the observer's attention directly towards the door and therefore towards the scene with a playful tone, the focal center of the representation. . The painting is structured in four different scenes, distinct in the actions performed by the subjects but at the same time connected by a main aspect: the amazement due to the entry into the tavern of the two extravagant characters. Each group, starting from the women who cook, to the men intent on drinking and eating at the table and the two children playing, contains at least one subject whose gaze was captured by the arrival of the two men, greeted with a histrionic gesture by the seated drinker at the table. Also attributable to the Helmbreker is the color scheme played on the low tones ranging from black to brown and earth tones, lighting up in sudden flashes of red that charge the painting with light, inducing an atmosphere of warm winter warmth, up to shades of green. and the blues of the clothes. The provenance of the work from a private Parisian collection is a further evidence of the attribution, as the presence of Helmbreker is recorded for a period of three years in the aforementioned area. In fact, in 1678 the painter moved to Paris, where he worked with Frederik de Moucheron. Returning to Italy, he had commissions in , Florence and Rome, where he resided until his death in 1696. Unequivocal terms of comparison can be inferred by comparing the work with others already assigned to the artist which appeared on the auction market (Scena of dance and market scene, Bonham's, 2017) and in exhibitions on Italian territory (The saltarello - peasants' dance, in the exhibition: "For the Grand Prince Ferdinando. Still lifes, villages, bambocciate and caramogi from the Medici collections", Villa medicea by Poggio a Caiano, 2013). https://www.anticswiss.com/en/fine-art-antiques/dirk-helmbreker-convivial-interior-17th-century-painting-23199

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