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Lot Essay
According to Ovid’s Metamorphoses (I, 583; IX, 687), Zeus fell in love with Io, daughter of Inachos and a priestess of Hera, Zeus’ wife. In an effort to conceal his relationship and protect Io from Hera’s wrath, Zeus transformed her into a beautiful white heifer and himself into a bull. Aware of his strategy, Hera then demanded the heifer Io as a present and put her under the watch of Argus, her shepherd. Zeus, in return, commanded his son Mercury to disguise himself as a shepherd and lull Argus to sleep with the music from his enchanted flute. In the guise of a shepherd commanding a flock of stolen sheep, Mercury infiltrated Argus’ camp, played his music and, after Argus had fallen asleep, chopped off his head.
The present painting is one of four documented versions of this composition by Adriaen van de Velde, one of the leading animal and landscape painters in Amsterdam in the middle of the seventeenth century, between 1663 and 1666. The earliest painting, once dated 1663, is today in the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein, while a version dated 1666 was formerly in the exceptional collection formed by Jules Porgès (1839-1921) in Paris. Taken together, these paintings constitute a rare instance of autograph repetitions in van de Velde’s work, perhaps an indication of the immense success this composition enjoyed with contemporary collectors. As was typical of van de Velde’s working process, this painting was developed through drawn studies, the various motifs of which were arranged into a compositional drawing, which is today in the Prentenkabinet der Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden. The reclining white cow and sheep in the central foreground likewise feature in a drawing dated 1662 in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, as well as the painted Pastoral scene (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid), which is dated 1663, the same year as the earliest example of this composition. A few years later, the reclining cow would again reappear in the Landscape with horses and other livestock of 1669 (Fondation Custodia, Paris) and van de Velde’s masterfully composed Hut of 1671 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
The present painting is one of four documented versions of this composition by Adriaen van de Velde, one of the leading animal and landscape painters in Amsterdam in the middle of the seventeenth century, between 1663 and 1666. The earliest painting, once dated 1663, is today in the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein, while a version dated 1666 was formerly in the exceptional collection formed by Jules Porgès (1839-1921) in Paris. Taken together, these paintings constitute a rare instance of autograph repetitions in van de Velde’s work, perhaps an indication of the immense success this composition enjoyed with contemporary collectors. As was typical of van de Velde’s working process, this painting was developed through drawn studies, the various motifs of which were arranged into a compositional drawing, which is today in the Prentenkabinet der Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden. The reclining white cow and sheep in the central foreground likewise feature in a drawing dated 1662 in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, as well as the painted Pastoral scene (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid), which is dated 1663, the same year as the earliest example of this composition. A few years later, the reclining cow would again reappear in the Landscape with horses and other livestock of 1669 (Fondation Custodia, Paris) and van de Velde’s masterfully composed Hut of 1671 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).