Erasmus Quellinus the Younger

Quellinus was a very versatile artist who worked in various genres. He received numerous commissions for altarpieces depicting Counter-Reformation themes for churches and monasteries throughout the Southern Netherlands. He also received many civic commissions which allowed him to show his learning in the depiction of scenes from ancient history and mythology and allegorical compositions.[4] In addition, he produced portraits, battle scenes and designs for tapestries.[2] Like Rubens, Quellinus was a pictor doctus with a strong grounding in ancient history and philosophy. He had built an extensive library and art collection. This learning is reflected in the subject matter of his work.[1]

Even while he was a frequent collaborator with Rubens' workshop in the 1630s, Quellinus developed a personal style distinctive from that of Rubens. This style is reminiscent of the Antwerp followers of Caravaggio such as Theodoor Rombouts and Gerard Seghers. Characteristics of this style are the strong modeling of forms achieved through a sculptural use of light. Quellinus' oldest known work is the 1634 Adoration of the Shepherds (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), which is in this Caravaggesque mode.[4]

Achilles with the daughters of Lycomedes

From the 1640s, his style took on a classicizing aspect and a sculptured look. Erasmus never travelled to Italy so this stylistic development was likely influenced by the work of his brother Artus, who introduced his own style of classicizing Baroque in Flemish sculpture after returning from Rome in 1640. Both brothers depicted similar idealizing Antique figures in their work in this period. His Adoration of the Holy Sacrament (1646) was painted in this style.

From c. 1650 this classicism in his work became rigid and his compositions from this period made use of a limited number of stereotyped and idealized figure types. This stylistic development is evident in the interior decorations he made for the new City Hall of Amsterdam, which he executed in collaboration with his brother Artus. The brothers achieved stylistic agreement in this commission: the Judgement of Solomon, which Artus sculpted for the Council Chamber, is repeated in a painting by Erasmus. This development towards classicist rigidity may reflect the influence of French art with its preference for classicism.

Birth of the Virgin

Erasmus' work also gained a theatrical aspect as reflected in the 1652 painting Artemisia (Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow). The painting has a theatrical background like a park. This tendency became more evident in the 1660s when his paintings started to include grandiose scenery with flamboyant architecture. This is clear in the Let the Children Come to Me of 1664 (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels). These later compositions possible reflect an influence by the early work of his son Jan-Erasmus Quellinus.

As was common in Antwerp at the time, Quellinus collaborated with other painters. He worked with still life specialists on still lifes and portraits. Many of the still lifes fall into the category of 'garland paintings'. Garland paintings are a special type of still life invented in Antwerp and whose earliest practitioner was Jan Brueghel the Elder. These paintings typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait. Garland paintings were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter.[6]

Quellinus collaborated on garland paintings with still life specialists, such as his brother-in-law Jan Philip van Thielen, Daniel Seghers, Jan Pieter Brueghel, Frans Ykens, Peter Willebeeck and Jan Anton van der Baren. These collaborators painted the flower garland while Quellinus painted the figures and architectural setting. An example is the Holy Family in a Wreath of Flowers in the Hermitage Museum, a collaboration with Frans Ykens. Quellinus further collaborated with the animal and still life painter Jan Fyt on portraits such as the Portrait of a young boy (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) of c. 1650. Quellinus also collaborated with animal painters Peter Boel and genre painter Jan van Kessel the Elder.[7]

Quellinus executed various tapestry designs. In 1649 he produced the designs for a tapestry series depicting the History of the Thurn and Taxis Family (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels). These designs are executed in his classicizing style.[4] He also made a series of 8 sketches with battle scenes for another tapestry series also kept in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.[8]

Holy Family in a wreath of flowers

In addition to the frontispieces he produced for the Plantin Press, he made designs for various publications for the Antwerp publishers. This includes his designs for the Den methamorphosis ofte Herscheppinge van P. Ovidivs Naso: verdeelt in XV boecken, versiert met figueren, a translation into Dutch of Ovid's Metamorphoses by Seger van Dort. For this book, which Geeraerdt van Wolsschaten published in Antwerp in 1650, Erasmus made the designs for the illustrations which were engraved by Pieter de Jode II. He also contributed a poem to the introduction of the publication.[9]

Quellinus came from an artistic family whose predominant activity was the design and execution of sculptures and architectural decorations. His father, older brother and cousin as well as his brother-in-law Pieter Verbrugghen I were all prominent sculptors who worked for a local and international clientele. It is therefore no surprise that Erasmus was a prolific designer of sculptures and decorative projects. The inventory of his estate lists hundreds of drawings, of which at least 43 are for architecture, which would have included altarpieces and large-scale sculptures as well as others for sculpture and decoration. He is believed to have contributed designs for the organs in the Antwerp cathedral and Saint Paul's Church in Antwerp, as well as several altarpieces, executed by his brother-in-law Pieter Verbrugghen I. A drawing by Erasmus has been identified as being a study for a group of three music-making angels on one of the organs, although none corresponds exactly to the angels now on the organs. It seems that in these designs he did not attempt to create a precise three-dimensional model to be followed by the sculptor but rather an outline from which the sculptor executing the sculpture could work freely.[10]