An Allegory of Death
Frans Francken II (Antwerp 1581 - Antwerp 1642)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1601 - 1642
Materials
Oil on copper
Measurements
160 x 130 mm
Place of origin
Flanders
Order this imageCollection
Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
NT 959419
Summary
Oil painting on copper, An Allegory of Death by Frans Francken II (Antwerp 1581 - Antwerp 1642). An allegorical picture showing a violin-playing skeleton before a rich merchant counting his money. Another skeleton has approached a customer in the arched doorway in the background on the right. This painting is one of many versions of the same subject, to which the closest repetition is in the Historisches Museum, Frankfurt. Another similar version was with the dealer Johnny van Haeften, London, in 1989, having belonged to the Duke of Newcastle at Clumber and sold at Christie's.
Provenance
Possibly the ‘Miser & Death’ listed in the 1806 and 1818 inventories, within the large group of paintings in what is probably the Picture gallery (i.e. Billiard Room). Does not appear to be listed in Brockwell's 1915 catalogue of Nostell artworks. Purchased by the National Trust by private treaty sale from Lord St Oswald in 2010
Credit line
Nostell Priory, The St Oswald Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Frans Francken II (Antwerp 1581 - Antwerp 1642) , artist
References
Brockwell 1915 Maurice Walter Brockwell, Catalogue of the Pictures and Other Works of Art in the Collection of Lord St Oswald at Nostell Priory, London 1915, does not appear to be catalogued by Brockwell Härting 1989 Ursula Härting, Frans Francken der Jungere (15181 - 1642) Die Gemalde mit Kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, 2 vols. Luca Verlag Freren, 1989, no. 403, p. 359