The Triumph Of Melancholy - Adriaen Van Stalbemt (1580 - 1662)

Oil on panel, 38.4 x 62.2 cm
Bibliography:
U. Härting, 'Adriaen van Stalbemt als Figurenmaler,' in Oud Holland, 1981, no. 95, pp. 9-10, illustrated in
fig. 6.
Provenance: private collection, Rome.
Of the same subject taken several times by the Stalbemt of which our version first appears
in the antiquarian market, two other almost identical versions were exhaled in London; one by Sotheby's
in Old Master Painting auction, Dec. 14, 2000 lot no. 45 and one by Christie's in Important Old Master Painting,
January 25, 2002, lot no. 140.
Work viewed by Christa Nitze-Ertz curator together with her late husband Klaus Ertz (leading expert
of the painter) of the artist's catalog raisonné; Adriaen van Stalbemt (1580 - 1662) Oeuvrekatalog der Gemalde
und Zeichnungen, 2018.
Christa Nitze-Ertz confirms without any doubt the attribution of this painting to the master Stalbemt
comparing it to the paintings published in their catalog under numbers 239-241.
The first attribution of the painting is due to Ursula Härting, who in her article identifies Stalbemt
the author and also analyzes its subject.
Indeed, we can observe a procession of mythological figures and personified virtues at the center of which
we find a triumphal chariot drawn by a winged female being resting an hourglass on the head of the
god of time, he standing in front in the chariot holds a scythe with one hand and the reins of the chariot with another.
Spectators in the procession stand in the foreground

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