PIETER NEEFS THE OLD (Antwerp, ca.1578 - between 1656 and 1661). "Interior of a church". Oil on canvas. Re-inked.

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OLD MASTERS

By Setdart Auction House

Jul 14, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-07-14 06:30:00 2021-07-14 06:30:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : OLD MASTERS https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/old-masters-7202
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• Lot Description
  PIETER NEEFS THE OLD (Antwerp, ca.1578 - between 1656 and 1661). "Interior of a church". Oil on canvas. Re-inked. Signature partially erased, barely illegible. With French frame of the early eighteenth century adapted. Size: 44 x 58 cm; 65 x 79 cm (frame). Influenced by the painting of Hendrick van Steenwijk the Elder and by his son, Hendrick van Steenwijk the Younger and, through them, by Hans Vredeman de Vries, the main contribution of Pieter Neefs the Elder to the pictorial genre consisted of the representation of interior sacred nocturnes illuminated by two light bulbs, torches or candles. He also produced numerous works such as the one presented here: magnificent Gothic church interiors with soft tonalities and sophisticated transitions between the spaces of light and shadow, in which the artist places special emphasis on spatial geometry - note the checkerboard pavements on the floor, which help to effectively construct the space in perspective. In his detailed works, numerous small figures fill the space, typical of Flemish church interior painting of the Baroque period, a genre in itself. They are figures worked in great detail, perfectly identifiable by their clothes and physiognomies. Most of them are gentlemen, although we also see some ladies and children, all dressed in 18th century Flemish fashion, and even dogs frolicking in such magnificent scenery. Flemish Baroque painter specialized in the painting of sacred architectures, mainly church interiors, Pieter Neefs was the head of the family lineage of painters of the same name, in which his sons Lodewijk and Pieter the Younger stood out. Although we know little corroborated information about his biography, we can confirm that Pieter Neefs the Elder joined the St. Luke's Guild of Painters around 1610, at which time he first expressed his interest in the representation of Gothic church interiors, using stereotyped models for their execution. Although some of these churches have not been identified because they are imaginary, in many other cases they are the interiors of important temples in Flanders, as is the case of the interior of the church of St. Paul in Antwerp (a work currently preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam). Peter Neefs the Elder often collaborated with other painters, mainly with Frans Francken the Younger, with whom he signed in 1636 "Viaticum inside a church" of the Prado Museum or "Evening Mass in a Gothic church" of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, but also with his son, Frans Francken III, with Gonzales Coques or with Pieter Brueghel the Younger, who painted the figures that populate some of his compositions. The exact date of his death is not known, but it must be between 1656, the last year for which there is information about him, and 1661, when Cornelis de Bie speaks of him in the past tense in his Het gulden cabinet (Antwerp, 1661). Currently his work is preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid or in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in The Hague, among other important institutions.
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