JAN BOECKHORST Münster ou Rees, 1604 - 1668, ... Lot n° 27

Allegory of the Orient Oil on canvas. Height : 126 cm - Width : 106 cm PROVENANCE Piasa sale, December 12, 2007, n°45. A painter considered Flemish but of German origin, Jan Boeckhorst was born in Münster or Rees. A canon at the age of 17, he was never ordained a priest, and nothing predestined him for painting. But probably, and without any explanation to justify this change, he entered the Antwerp workshops of Jordaens (1593 - 1678) and Rubens (1577 - 1640) as an apprentice in 1626. Some time later, sources indicate that he became Master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke between 1633 and 1634, continuing a close collaboration with his second master. Completing his training, he spent time in Italy between 1635 and 1637, returning to Rome two years later to perfect his knowledge of the Old Masters. When Rubens died in 1640, his widow entrusted him with the work begun by the master, which he had not had time to complete. A painter of the Counter-Reformation, Boeckhorst also pursued a career of his own, working on a vast altarpiece depicting the Conversion of Saint Hubert for the Church of Saint Michael in Ghent. Wishing to illustrate regions on the edge of his own world, Boeckhorst personifies the Orient, which he imagines in the guise of a man dressed in a thick, warm-toned garment, an ample blue cloak, topped with an Ottoman turban and lifting a finely-worked censer. An allegory of the Orient, our painting can be linked to an Allegory of Africa (Fig. 1), one of whose versions is held in the Hohenbuchau collection (Liechtenstein). With regard to the iconography of Africa, Elisabeth McGrath, in one of her books devoted to the painter1, suggests sources of inspiration including the engravers Aegidius Sadeler II (1570-1629) and Abraham Bosse (c. 1601 - 1676). We can assume that he did the same for the Orient, probably drawing inspiration for the dress from a representation similar to that of Mechti Kuli Beg, Persian ambassador to Prague, engraved by Sadeler in 1605 (Fig. 2); for the posture and censer, from a representation of Asia by Bosse (Fig. 3). Having perfectly integrated the art of his master and collaborator in the first part of his career, Boeckhorst now also drew inspiration from that of Van Dyck (1599 - 1641), whom he worked alongside as a colleague and friend. In a tight frame, the artist presents the bust of a man in a three-quarter twist, lending monumentality and dynamism to the figure. Out of the darkness, the man-chimer emerges, illuminated by a beam of harsh light enhanced by earthy, ochre hues. While he owes Rubens the monumentality of the powerfully constructed figure, the body's movement and the rapid brushstrokes, Boeckhorst also learns from his friend's taste for color contrasts, borrowing from him a more subdued atmosphere. 1. Elisabeth McGrath, Sibyls, Sheba and Jan Boeckhorst's "Parts of the World", in: Florissant : bijdragen tot de kunstgeschiedenis der Nederlanden (15de - 17de eeuw): liber amicorum Carl Van de Velde, Brussels 2005, pp. 359 - 366.