Object data
oil on panel
support: height 73.5 cm × width 104.5 cm
outer size: depth 8 cm (support incl. frame)
Simon Flocquet (attributed to)
Northern Netherlands, c. 1645
oil on panel
support: height 73.5 cm × width 104.5 cm
outer size: depth 8 cm (support incl. frame)
…; ? collection P. Frenkel [Ph. Frenkel, Utrecht];1 from whom acquired by Daniel Francken Dzn (1838-98), Amsterdam and Le Vésinet, Paris; by whom bequeathed to the museum, 1898; on loan to the Kunsthistorisch Instituut, Utrecht, April 1923; returned at an unknown date
Object number: SK-A-1752
Credit line: D. Franken Bequest, Le Vésinet
Copyright: Public domain
Simon Flocquet (active Antwerp 1633/34 - after (?) 1672)
An obscure Antwerp figure painter, Simon Flocquet was one of three sons, and probably the pupil, of the artist and dealer Lucas Flocquet I (whose widow died in 1638).2 He became a master in the Antwerp guild of St Luke in 1634/35.3 Only one signed painting by him is known, consequently his attributable oeuvre is small, consisting in some sixteen paintings of which thirteen are panels decorating a small cabinet.4 Apart from his extended family, archival records published by Duverger give an idea of his social milieu in Antwerp. He was early an associate of the dealer Herman de Neyt I to whom he owed money at the time of De Neyt’s death in 1642;5 he stood as godfather to the son of an erstwhile dean of the Oude Handboog guild, Cornelis de Cleijne I (d. 1669),6 and was an acquaintance of the engraver Pieter de Jode II (1606-1674)7 and Paulus Pontius (1603-1658), of whose daughter he was named as guardian in 1658.8 His activity is to some extent documented in the accounts of the dealers Musson and Forchondt who handled his work, but the intermittent later mention of his surname need not refer to him as both his brothers were artists. They died in 1666/67;9 in the previous year a son or nephew, Bartholomeus, became a member of the guild of St Luke.10 Denucé suggests that an invoice of 1667 was due to Simon,11 but payments from 1668-7212 could have been either to Simon or Bartholomeus. So the duration of Simon’s activity remains uncertain, but it could have extended as late as 1672; unlike his brothers, the date of his death and burial are unknown. The Musson and Forchondt accounts are chiefly for religious pictures of low value.
In the centre the naked goddess Fortuna stands on a sphere placed on a column decorated with an antique relief of a sacrifice. A white man pushes away a black man from his favoured position at her feet. The goddess scatters valuables to her own right – coins, a purse, a winged slide trombone, a lance, a tazza and a goblet. Below the lucky ones rejoice, while some gather up her gifts. At the base of the column are a cittern, lute and music scores. To her left are the unlucky ones bemoaning their fate beneath a burning castle on a hilly outcrop.
Although acquired as by the Dutch artist Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne (1589-1662) – an artist in whom the owner Daniel Francken (1838-1898) took a particular interest – and attributed by him to either of Adriaen’s sons, Hubert or Pieter,13 the present painting was assigned in the 1903 catalogue to an anonymous Dutch master. Only in 1992 was it correctly described as being Flemish, being then attributed to Cornelis de Baeilleur (sic) (active 1625-d. 1671). But the facial types seem not to be those of this Antwerp master.14 The artist would rather appear to be the same as that responsible for the paintings decorating the small cabinet acquired by the North Carolina Museum of Art in 1999.15 And indeed another painting by the same hand was on the New York market in 2014.16 The landscapes in these works appear to be by different collaborators.
It was Sutton who attributed the paintings decorating the cabinet to Simon Flocquet,17 by whom only one signed painting is so far known.18 In the Rijksmuseum painting, however, the landscape is differently handled, and the faces and bodies are more delicately rendered.19 The style is reminiscent perhaps of Adriaen van Stalbemt (1580-1662)20 whereas in the paintings decorating the cabinet it is akin more to that associated with Willem van Herp (c. 1614-1677),21 who joined the guild three/four years after Flocquet. But Sutton’s proposal may well be correct. It seems best, as Sutton himself recognized, to qualify the attribution, especially as it is made on the basis of a comparison with only one painting. Hence the Rijksmuseum painting is given the same appellation, ‘attributed to Simon Flocquet’, while it is recognized that the landscape is the work of another hand.
Some details in the costumes suggest a date of execution of the present painting of about 1645. The flat, linen collars worn by the man comforting the woman, bottom right, and by the man grasping the legs of the goddess as well as their circular, buff-coloured hats appear in paintings by David Teniers II (1610-1690) of 1643 and 1644.22 The support of west German or Netherlandish oak would have been ready for use from 1628 or more plausibly from ten years later.
The composition bears some resemblance to the small, upright copper in the centre of the North Carolina cabinet showing the Triumph of Cupid, in which the god stands atop a column with prostrate humans beneath. Thematically related are the print by Jan Harmensz Muller (1571-1628) of 1590 after Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem (1562-1638),23 and the painting by Frans Francken II (1581-1642) at Compiègne of circa 1615.24 In fact the print must have been known to the artist as the gifts, scattered by Fortuna and the child on the mother’s shoulders, left, are directly derived from it.25 The Francken also includes the motif of burning buildings on the unlucky right-hand side of the composition. The goddess is depicted, following convention, standing on a sphere, her veil billowing in the wind.26
The configuration of a white man roughly disposing of a black man for a privileged place close to the goddess is, however, exceptional. This motif may display a particular social context. The contest would appear to be echoed by the hound warning off the swan in the foreground. Sources for these central components of the composition have not been identified.
Gregory Martin, 2022
E.K. Grootes et al., ’t Kan verkeren: Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, 1585-1618, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 1968, no. 26
1903, p. 11, no. 100 (as anonymous Dutch school, first half of the seventeenth century); 1918, p. 11, no. 100; 1976, p. 660, no. A 1752 (as north Netherlandish school, c. 1630); 1992, p. 40, no. A 1752 (as attributed to Cornelis de Baeilleur [sic])
G. Martin, 2022, 'attributed to Simon Flocquet, The Goddess Fortuna Bestowing her Gifts, c. 1645', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4795
(accessed 10 November 2024 01:10:37).