Otto Naumann Ltd.

Once praised by Karel van Mander as an “excellent painter” and “one of the best colorists” that Antwerp has ever known, Jacob de Backer remains an elusive figure in late sixteenth century Netherlandish painting. As Eckhard Leuschner notes, none of the pictures ascribed to him in the Schilder-Boeck can be securely identified; the works attributed to him do not bear authentic, nor consistent signatures; and, despite the efforts of Justus Müller Hofstede¹ and Leen Huet,² scholars disagree on both the parameters of his artistic activity and the full range of his oeuvre.³ De Backer was never recorded in the Guild of St Luke, and is perhaps better classified as a workshop head rather than a master. According to Van Mander, he stayed in the service of Antonio van Palermo and Hendrick van Steenwijck for “a number of years.” It is generally assumed that he died around 1590-1 in Antwerp.

The present work reflects the relief-like qualities expressed in grisailles of the Renaissance. De Backer used a marble gray color, heightened with touches of elegant white highlights, to give his figures the illusionistic appearance of sculpture. Their highly emotive gestures, in addition to the dramatic composition, draw the viewer’s attention to the beautiful young woman seated in the center of the scene. A putto holding a blank tablet flies above, while a winged messenger presents a mirror to the woman, reminding her that she will one day become the skeleton in the background.

Our grisaille is related to a larger painting on canvas by the artist, recently on the art market in New York (figure 1)⁴, in addition to a print by Hieronymus Wierix (figure 2).⁵ As Leuschner notes, given the parallels in format and composition, our work is more closely related to the painting than to the Wierix print. Yet, the function of our grisaille – whether it was a compositional sketch or a ricordo for the production of future replicas – is still not entirely clear. It is also unknown if the print reproduced another, unknown version of the painting, or if it served as the precedent that inspired all of De Backer’s subsequent variations of the scene.⁶

The same mystery prevails for De Backer’s grisaille of the Madonna and Child with Saint John in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is closely related to several other compositions by the artist and may have served as a preparatory study, a record of a panel or canvas after it had left the workshop, or a finished painting that was sold to a collector.⁷ Nevertheless, despite difficulties in clarifying their functions, Jacob de Backer’s grisailles, such as our work and the Metropolitan sketch, represent an interesting aspect of sixteenth century workshop practice.

¹ Justus Müller Hofstede, “Jacques de Backer: Ein Vertreter der florentinisch-römischen Maniera in Antwerpen,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 35 (1973), pp. 227-60.

² Leen Huet, “Jacob de Backer pictor olim famosus: Leven en wercken,” MA thesis, University of Leuven, 1989.

³ Eckhard Leuschner, “A Grisaille Oil Sketch from the ‘De Backer Group’ and Workshop Practices in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 43 (2008) p. 99.

⁴ Formerly with Jack Kilgore & Co., Inc.

⁵The print was published by Gode van Haecht. This relationship is discussed further by Eckhard Leuschner, “Defining De Backer: New Evidence on the Last Phase of Antwerp Mannerism Before Rubens,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 137, n. 1587 (2001), pp. 167-192. The same print appears to have been the source for an Allegory of Vanity by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, of which three slightly different versions survive in Ottowa, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. (see P.J.J. van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem 1562-1638. A Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné, Ghent 1999, cat. no. 207, fig. 330.)

⁶ Private Correspondence, 29 May 2010.

⁷ Eckhard Leuschner, “A Grisaille Oil Sketch from the ‘De Backer Group’ and Workshop Practices in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 43 (2008) p. 101.