Hendrick Van Steenwijk

HENDRICK VAN STEENWIJK the Younger (Antwerp, ca. 1580-1640).
"Banquet."
Oil on panel. Cradled.
It presents restorations on the pictorial surface and faults in the frame.
Measurements: 77 x 106 cm; 118 x 146 cm (frame).
In this work a costumbrista scene is represented, starring a great multitude of characters, whose majority seem to belong to the high society, judging by the situation and their elegant clothes, eating in a sumptuous interior, adorned with sculptures, and accompanied by several servants. The setting is clearly described, within the naturalistic and narrative language of the Dutch Baroque, and in fact there are anecdotal elements in the first terms, which seek to create an illusionism and confusion between real and pretended space. At the compositional level, the rigor and classicism of the structure stands out, closed on one side and open to the landscape on the other, with an important presence of architecture and a three-dimensional construction of space reinforced by the wise use of light. This type of hedonistic scenes, which reflect with an almost documentary spirit (although without neglecting the decorative aspect) the daily life of the time, are themselves a genre born in the seventeenth century in the Netherlands, which enjoyed a great development thanks to the good reception it received from the bourgeois public, who liked to see themselves portrayed. Beyond this representation, the scene also invites allegorical reflection, since the author proposes in the same scene different actions that directly allude to the senses, such as sight, taste and touch. This interest in such representation is very much reminiscent of the works of the five senses by the painter Rubens and Brueghel, which today are in the Prado Museum and which, as in this particular case, show a composition that stands out for the abundance and precise detailing of all the elements that make up the scene.
Hendrik van Steenwijck II was a Baroque painter, mainly of architectural interiors, but also of biblical scenes and still lifes. Van Steenwijck was born in Antwerp. His father, the Dutch painter Hendrik van Steenwijck I, was one of the originators of the genre of interiors, moved the family to Frankfurt am Main in 1585, where he trained his son. Upon his father's death in 1603, Van Steenwijck the Younger took over the Frankfurt workshop, but from 1604 to 1617 he was active mainly in Antwerp, where he collaborated with Flemish early Baroque painters such as Frans Francken I and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Van Steenwijck is best known for the numerous imaginary interiors based on the cathedral of Our Lady of Antwerp, which immediately influenced the paintings of Pieter Neeffs I. After settling in London in 1617, he painted backgrounds for Anthony van Dyck and Daniel Mytens the Elder. Van Steenwijck moved to The Hague around 1638, where he was court painter. His wife, Susanna van Steenwijk, was also an architectural painter and moved to Leiden around 1642.