The Children of the Planet Mercury

Entry

This picture, unattributed in the 1976 museum catalogue, is a version of two others, which are both signed by Jan Brueghel II¹⁵ and there is no reason to doubt that much of it was also executed by him. Although the two versions and other works executed at this period are signed in full with a cursive hand, it is possible that the initials ‘IB’ on the side of the bale are indeed Brueghel’s and not intended as a merchant’s identification mark, which they might be taken to be. If that is the case, then the initials ‘IV’ on the front of the same bale could be those of another artist. The question then arises as to whether two hands can be detected as having executed the painting. The figures in Brueghel’s later compositions, many of which are signed, are independent of his father’s and his own early style but are by no means homogenous. While the landscape, buildings, animals and objects in the present work may be confidently assigned to Jan Brueghel II, the figures may not be his; indeed they could be the work of a collaborator with the initials IV. However, to whom the initials refer remains to be established, and it has to be said that no such initials have been recorded on other comparable works. Mercury is differently handled in the style of Willem van Herp I (? 1614-1677).

The style of the collars worn by the children seems to be of the mid-1640s. Ertz dated the signed versions to the late 1640s.¹⁶ Relevant may be the fact that the series of the Planet Children by Maerten de Vos (1532-1603) was published in a second edition in 1645.¹⁷ No rendering of the Planet Children, the subject depicted here, is listed in Brueghel’s very intermittent record of paintings completed up to 1651.¹⁸

The 1976 museum catalogue describes the subject as The Apotheosis of Commerce and Trade, while Ertz called it An Allegory of the Topsy-Turvy World.¹⁹ De Tervarent in 1946 correctly identified one of the signed versions as depicting the children of the planet Mercury.²⁰ In the sky is depicted the god Mercury identifiable by his winged hat (petasus) and the caduceus he holds; nearby are the pertinent signs of the zodiac – now faint because abraded – of Virgo and Gemini.

Brueghel probably painted more than one series of the seven planet children, i.e. Sol, Luna, Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter, although no rendering of the children of the two last planets is extant. Of the extant paintings, a provisional count of six are on canvas (of which three, including the present picture, are of Mercury’s children) and measure approximately 75 by 95 cm, five are on copper with dimensions of approximately 70 by 80 cm and one is on panel, 78.7 by 95.2 cm.²¹ On the assumption that any one series would consist of works on identical supports and similar sizes, it is possible that the present picture may have been one in a series of which a Saturn’s Children, offered in an Amsterdam sale in 2004, was also part.²²

Brueghel’s treatment of Mercury’s children is unusually comprehensive, as De Tervarent pointed out, even when compared with those depicted probably by Georg Pencz (c. 1500-1550)²³ or by the late-fifteenth-century Housebook Master.²⁴ The same cultivated impetus, perhaps relying on literary sources (as did the Housebrook Master) seems to have inspired Brueghel’s treatments of the children of Saturn, Sol and Luna; those of Venus are less elaborate or informed (although in one version the main protagonists were inspired by Anthony van Dyck (1591-1641). If these compositions are Brueghel’s invention, it points to a degree of sophistication not usually associated with him, or to an intellectual collaboration with a man of culture.

As had previously been the case with Maerten de Vos, the main emphasis in the present work is on children learning (even if the standing child’s activity remains unclear). The squirrel nearby is a symbol of diligence.²⁵ For the scenes in the loggia showing an artist at an easel in a studio and men of science round a library table, Brueghel would have found precedents in Pencz’s print. This has a legend which provides the key to the basic characteristics of the children: ‘Mercury’s children are full of art, and no one is their equal in dexterity…’ (Mercurius kind sind künstenreych- an behandigkeyt ist ihn nyemandt gleich…). That on a tapestry, inspired by the print and woven not long after it was published, was more expansive: ‘My nature is ardent as my appearance shows. My children are handsome and clever, and every occupation is fulfilled with passion’ (Feurig ist meine Natur wie Euch Erscheinung zeigt. Meine Kinder sind hübsch und geschicht und alles, was sie beschäftigt, erfullt sie mit Leidenschaft).²⁶

That the loggia is to be associated with Mercury is indicated by the weight-driven chamber – or lantern – clock designed to hang high on a wall and here displayed against the column, as Mercury was the patron of clockmakers.²⁷ Linked with the men of science within, who have the use of (?) terrestrial globes are the astrolabe and, to the right, the sector in the foreground. The use of the astrolabe with its applications for astronomy, astrology, geography, navigation and surveying was in decline by the early seventeenth century.²⁸ The sector, developed in the late sixteenth century, was a surveying instrument used by navigators and military architects.²⁹ The latter purpose is borne out by the inscriptions on the two sheets of paper on the floor of the loggia, which read ‘Fortificaci’, that is the study of fortifications, the other – the related science – ‘Gomete’ (sic), geometry. The development of bastions, linked by low walls round towns, and protected by outworks of crownwork, ravelins, and hornwork – generally known as ‘trace italienne’ – against besieging troops, was the great military innovation of the sixteenth century.³⁰

Beneath the loggia are three monkey alchemists. Substances are being melted on an open coal fire while an athanor – an alchemical furnace, here topped by a retort – is being stoked by bellows. The inscription on the label of the bottle cannot be properly deciphered but the word ‘prep’ suggests that it is the name of a liquid agent. The ancient science of alchemy, derided by both Pieter Brueghel I (c. 1525-1569)³¹ and Ben Jonson (c. 1572-c. 1637),³² was an activity still regarded as legitimate by for instance both Richard Boyle (1627-91)³³ and Isaac Newton (1642-1727)³⁴ and was frequently the subject of paintings notably by David Teniers II (1610-1690). Mercury, in the guise of quicksilver, was the ‘universal agent of transmutation’.³⁵

Whether there was any significance in Brueghel choosing monkeys as alchemists is unclear, for the animals also play backgammon and a monkey is Mercury’s assistant in his chariot. The monkey alchemists are observed by two foxes, which in another version play backgammon, and are thus unlikely to have relevance to the alchemical scene. Notorious for their wiliness and thieving nature, they were linked to Mercury as the inventor of the skill of thieving.³⁶ They were also admired for their powers of reasoning.³⁷ Cocks were consecrated to Mercury in Antiquity, thus four pull the chariot.³⁸ Of the other birds, parrots symbolized the eloquent man and could thus be thought relevant to Mercury.³⁹

De Tervarent also pointed out that Mercury was the patron of actors and comedians;⁴⁰ hence the open-air theatre in the middle distance and the carnival masquers by the ruined, Roman triumphal arch. The god was also the god of commerce, to which alludes the view of a crane on a quay in the distance, reminiscent of the Werf at Antwerp, and the two bales of merchants’ goods,⁴¹ on one of which a child is seated in the foreground.

Along with the art of painting illustrated by the painter in his studio in the loggia, music is alluded to by the lute, viola, wind instruments and music scores to the right, and also by the tambourine, violin and windpipes released by the monkey in Mercury’s chariot. Sculpture is represented by the (?) antique torso and a sculptor’s mallet. Perhaps without precedent are the games included: prominent in the foreground are two fencing swords, each buttoned (mouchetée);⁴² the backgammon board, playing cards and dice, the latter two, soon to be joined by more from Mercury’s chariot from whence also falls a top, carnival mask, tobacco pipes and a mirror (the aptness of which last two objects is unclear).

Near the children on the ground are seven books, four of which are inscribed. The volume of the works of the Roman poet Virgil is present to represent the art of poetry; his work was standard reading in a child’s education. Nearby is a book by the most celebrated of ancient writers on medicine, Claudius Galen. Seemingly only two books had been published in which his surname appeared in the title in the nominative: Galenus Pagamensus de pulsuu Trinacro … interprete, published in London in 1522, and Galenus de ossibus F. Balanio interprete, published in Lyon in 1549. Gerard Thomas (1663-1721) later included books by Galen in his interior scenes,⁴³ but it seems doubtful that Galen’s volume, here, was intended for the children to study. More likely is an allusion here to the skill of medicine with only a generic reference to Galen as physician. Harder to explain is the nearby book inscribed D. FAUSTI, that is the notorious German magician and charlatan, Dr. Faust, supposedly active in the first half of the sixteenth century who made a pact with the Devil. The book is perhaps one of the first to be published about him written by his self-proclaimed familiar Christoff Wagner. His Historia von Doct. Johan Fausti was published in 1593. In popular puppet plays Faust was urged to keep to the study of theology rather than turn to necromancy.⁴⁴ That might explain the unspecific title of the fourth book: Teologia. Faust was recorded as having made alchemical experiments, but whether this explains the presence of a book on him (rather than by him as he is not known as an author) is as yet unclear.

Gregory Martin, 2022