Allegory Of Touch. Otto Van Veen (1556-1626) And Workshop

Allegory of touch in the guise of a young woman pinched by the beak of a parrot. Oil on oak panel Period frame in carved wood with its original gilding Total dimensions with frame: 50 x 42 cm.
This allegory of touch is painted in the guise of a young and very pretty lady of quality, richly dressed in a golden yellow dress under a vermilion red coat.
She wears a large fluted ruff and a large gold cross set with stones and embellished with pearls. It leans on an entablature against a landscape background.
In his right hand a parrot that can be found on many paintings with the same subject.

Otto van Veen, known as Otto Venius or Otto Vaenius, he was born in Leyden in 1556 and died in Brussels on 6 May 1626. He adopted the Mannerist style and became a Flemish art theoretician. Working first with the Leydois Isaac Claesz van Swanenburgh, then in Liège, in 1574, with Dominicus Lampsonius, Otto van Veen then visited Italy for a long time (from 1577 to 1582) to remain forever a "Romanist" and a humanist too. fervent than cultivated, admirer of Correggio in Parma, and directly influenced by the Zuccari in Rome… After a short stop in Munich, he returned to the Netherlands in 1583, first to Liège in the service of the prince-bishop, then to Brussels as court painter, to Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma (died 1592). Around 1588-1589, he settled in Antwerp where he was soon received as a free master (1594) and where he married. One of his main claims to fame remains to have been Rubens' master and patron in Antwerp for a long period, from 1594 to 1598, fruitful years of apprenticeship which soon turned for Rubens into a flattering and effective collaboration. . Highly regarded - the Archduke appointed him, in 1612, guardian of the currency - Vaenius then settled in Brussels where he became, in 1620, a member of the guild of painters... Excellent state of preservation. Sold with invoice & certificate.