Časopis ARS 33 (2000) 1-3

Ingrid CIULISOVÁ

Dva obrazy z dielne Fransa Florisa v slovenských zbierkach
[Two Paintings from the Workshop of Frans Floris in Slovak Collections]

(Resumé)

Slovakia's collections boast two remarkable pictures of Netherlandish provenance. Both are all but unknown in the relevant literature and as yet have been accorded scant attention, and this despite the fact that they are of irrefutable quality and have both been restored relatively recently. The works in question are a Goddess of the Sea held by the Slovak National Museum in Martin and a Crucifixion in the collections of the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava. Attention was first drawn to the former painting - the Goddess of the Sea - by Milan Togner in connection with its impending restoration. Despite the far from ideal state of the work, he identified this Martin panel as one of the variants of the female half-length figure of the "sea goddess" by Frans Floris de Vriendt (1519/1520, Antwerp - 1570, Antwerp) further observing that the true extent of Floris' portion in the work would become apparent only after restoration and detailed art-historical investigation. The restoration did indeed furnish a series of entirely fresh insights. It showed above all that the Netherlandish original (SNM Martin, inv. no. KH 526; oak, tempera and oil, 45 x 25,5 cm) was probably extended and augmented at the end of the eighteenth century in what was a radical modification. The removal of these additions and extensions revealed an original chamber painting of uncommon quality. The Goddess of the Sea at the Slovak National Museum in Martin is a one-off in the country's collections. The facts known to us shed little light on its history to date and how it came to be in the collection. The restoration documentation makes no mention of the painting's origin. Nor does the inventory docket provide any more detailed information. It is more than likely, however, that it found its way to Martin from one of the nearby seats of the noble Révay family, and did so during or shortly after the Second World War. The manor houses at Mošovce and Turčianska Štiavnička are the most likely candidates. The brilliantly painted heads by Floris which have survived served in the main as no more than a starting point for multi-figured pictures of larger format. And it was as this kind of base that the surviving scenes of the Goddess of the Sea, including the Martin example, originated. They are to be associated with the fine painting of the Banquet of the Gods (signed, and dated 1561) in the Stockholm National Museum, and specifically with the seated goddess at the forefront of the figurative composition. This link with the Stockholm Floris painting is not, then, restricted to the Martin painting, but is shared also by other chamber panels depicting the same scene: the homonymous works at the Berlin Gemäldegalerie (Staatliche Museen Berlin, inv. no. 1955; oil, oak, 52 x 36 cm), in the Grzimek collection (oil, oak, 49 x 36 cm), and the painting from a private collection in the Netherlands. It is clear even to cursory inspection that, despite undeniable affinities, the works are not those of the same artist. A closer analysis brings to light several differences in detail.

But other versions of this scene have also survived which present a cognateness with the Stockholm panel and are linked with the atelier of Frans Floris (Antwerp, Graz, Gripsholm, Potsdam, Switzerland). A comparison with all the known versions of the Banquet of the Gods associated with the Floris studio will therefore be productive in future investigation of the Martin picture. For the moment we might venture an interim conclusion that it is one a number of contemporaneous study variants of the Goddess of the Sea which probably originated, like the others we have mentioned, in connection with a Floris painting which has not survived. Its artist must be sought among Floris' numerous pupils, associates or successors. The Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava includes in its collections a number of quality Netherlandish paintings. This collection of Netherlandish painting includes a Crucifixion (SNG Bratislava, inv. no. O 4693; oak, tempera, oil, 125 x 97,8 cm). It was purchase from private hands in 1974 and was shortly afterwards classified first as the work of an unknown Netherlandish painter from the end of the sixteenth century and later as being by one of the pupils of Frans Floris. The opportunity for a more detailed and global ascertainment presented itself in 1995, when the panel was restored.

The Crucifixion scene was in fact a staple of the Floris atelier and its employment is confirmed by several of its surviving works. Those showing the closest affinity with the Bratislava panel are probably a Crucifixion from Wiesbaden and one very closely associated with it, a Prague drawing of the scene. The Bratislava panel is, like the Wiesbaden panel, rectangular in shape and is of similar dimensions. As yet no information has come to light which would suggest that it originated as part of an altar. We know that after the apprentice years that Frans Floris passed in the atelier of Lambert Lombard, he spent - now an independent master in Antwerp - a period of some length (1541 - 1545) in Italy. On his return, from 1547, Floris' work began to feature monumental, largely routine, painted religious scenes inspired above all by Michelangelo and - which is relevant here - Tintoretto. This has been recently confirmed by the research of W. Berth Meijer. It is in Tintoretto's Crucifixion in Venice's Galleria dell'Academia that this scene with the three Roman soldiers casting lots for Christ's clothes is to be found. The artist of the Bratislava painting retained the essential composition of the Tintoretto source in positioning the trio of men in the lower right corner in such a way that the viewer is actually an engaged witness of the throwing and is even able to check for himself its outcome. The types of male head used for the dice-throwing soldiers by the painter of the Bratislava picture are typical for the output of the Floris atelier at the beginning of the 1560s and have their counterparts. That Tintoretto's Crucifixion was the inspiration for this artist is also indicated by the interplay between the figures of the three Mary's below the cross. The affinity of the contrapposto of the two Mary's supporting Christ's mother, and above all of the Mary with her face turned away, or the similar type of oval female head with light, upswept hair intertwined with gold, pearl-encrusted headgear. Although the influence of Michelangelo is also not to be denied, the Tintoretto inspiration was also crucial for the Prague drawing and the Wiesbaden panel. In this case, however, it was rather the Tintoretto Crucifixion in the church of Santa Maria del Rosario in Venice. The role played by the Crucifixion from Santa Maria del Rosario in Frans Floris' Antwerp workshop is also evident from comparison with another Crucifixion from the Floris circle, namely that which constituted the central panel of the Calvary triptych in Arnstadt. The artist of this work has even respected the shape of Tintoretto's panel, with its bowed termination in the upper part. In connection with the Bratislava work treated here, one further detail is important which distinguishes it from all the analogies we have mentioned. The artist of the Bratislava painting has no longer rendered the distraught mother of Jesus, supported on both sides, with a theatrical expression and as a helplessly supine woman whose suffering has induced a fainting fit. Unlike the Tintoretto picture, but also unlike the Wiesbaden and Arnstadt Crucifixion and the Prague drawing, Mary in the Bratislava panel merely sits grieved. Bratislava work is entirely bereft of the dramatic tension and expressiveness characteristic of the Tintoretto works to which we have alluded. We emphasise this aspect above all because both the Prague drawing and the Wiesbaden panel most likely originated during or immediately after the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563), which made a crucial contribution to the modification of the Christian iconography used thitherto, including that of the Crucifixion. What holds the Bratislava painting together is the colour. The warm atmosphere built on a reciprocity and richness of warm brown and red tones is transfused by a soft light which comes from the front and directs the viewer's gaze to the epicentre of the action. Colour and light here completely balance each other and enhance form.

Although the Bratislava painting is unsigned, there would seem to be no reason to doubt its origination in the studio of Frans Floris. Although there can be no contesting the admirable quality of the Bratislava Crucifixion, a certain degree of schematism is, nevertheless, in evidence. The Bratislava instance lacks the bravura of draughtsmanship of Floris' own works and the vividness of expression of the individual figures achieved with the luminism characteristic for Tintoretto. Also absent is the virtuoso handling of anatomical shorthand within a dynamised composition which Floris acquired during his sojourn in Italy. Perhaps this is most apparent from a comparison of the wasted body of the crucified Christ of the Bratislava picture with its athletically taught counterpart in the Wiesbaden panel.

In connection with the Bratislava Crucifixion it is interesting a remainder by Carel van den Mander. When Frans Floris died, in 1570, he left, according to van Mander, a large unfinished altarpiece, commissioned by the Grand-Prior of Spain. The main part of this altar was the table with Crucifixion. Perhaps by Floris' last will was this altar completed by Frans Pourbus the older and Crispinus van den Broeck. The Bratislava Crucifixion really appears to be stylistically related to works ascribed to van den Broeck. For instance we can see similar types of female and male heads in the Crispin van den Broeck paintings with Jesus in the House of Simon (formerly E. Schweizer - collection, Berlin) and Crossing of the Red Sea (collection of Museum Molins de Rey in Barcelona). As well as the Bratislava Crucifixion illustrates a close affinity with the engraving Christ on the cross between the two thieves by Jacob de Gheyn II after Crispin van den Broeck. The next work interesting for comparison with the Bratislava panel is the engraving with Crucifixion by Marten de Vos. No doubt its research merits greater attention in the future. For the moment we can attribute this - little-known - Bratislava Crucifixion to one of Floris' pupils - probably to Crispin van den Broeck - and date it to the begging of 1570s.