Frans Francken II

Essay:

Frans Francken was known for his pictures of church interiors, biblical, historical and proverbial subjects as well as genre compositions. He was, in addition, the first artist to paint accurate views of old picture galleries. He was a pupil of his father, Frans Francken the Elder, and he is the best known and most prolific of a large family of painters. He became a master of the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp in 1605 and subsequently deacon in 1616. He married Maria Placquet in 1607. Of their surviving children three became painters in their own right: Frans III, Hieronymus and Ambrosius. He is not known to have left Antwerp his entire life.

Francken is known to have painted figures for artists like Bartholomeus van Bassen, and to have collaborated with other painters such as Abraham Govaerts, Hendrik van Steenwyck the Younger, Alexander Keirincx, Josse de Momper and Pieter Neefs the Elder.

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In one of Frans Francken's most iconic images Death plays his violin mocking the protestations of a wealthy old man. The Vanitas is also known as 'Death and the Merchant' or 'Fiddling Death', and Dr. Ursula Härting lists nine autograph versions of this image. While some are known to exist on panel, a few notable examples are painted on copper such as this picture and a version in the Wellcome Collection, London, with identical dimensions to the present work (inv. 45044i).

The subject of the piece is darkly amusing which perhaps is the reason for its popularity. Instead of remaining dignfied and joining Death willingly after a long and apparently affluent life, the old man cringes away from Death and points meekly to his gouty leg propped on a stool as if to beg leave to remain. Teasingly Death lifts its leg too, and props it on an hourglass which has run out of sand.

Provenance:

Private Collection, Italy