VENNE, Adriaen Pietersz. van de

A blind beggar carries another beggar with a wooden leg through a landscape. In helping each other to overcome their handicaps, they illustrate the commonly known proverb “The lame leads the blind.” However, here things may be going astray, since the lame beggar is pointing out directions with his hand, apparently forgetting that his companion cannot see him doing so.

Van de Venne’s monochrome oil paintings on panel are universally referred to as grisailles although in this case it is actually in shades of brown (brunaille).

Originally this panel formed part of a series of paintings consisting of five consecutive scenes, each accompanied by a saying (Poverty leads to Cunning; Cunning leads to Wealth; Wealth leads to Luxury; Luxury leads to Misery; and Misery leads to Death). Each scene shows two main figures walking, dancing or stumbling through a sketchily rendered landscape. In Poverty leads to Cunning they are two old, blind musicians, the man playing a hurdy-gurdy and the woman a rommelpot. The inscription is written on a curling banderole lying on the ground.

These monochrome oil paintings on panel are universally referred to as grisailles although in this case it is actually in shades of brown (brunaille).

The witty phrase on this panel translates in full as: What does one not do for money, said the peasant as he saw a monkey sitting on the window sill (Wat maakt men al om het geld, zei de boer en hij zag een aap op het venster zitten). While the precise meaning is no longer known, this proverb seems to have been popular in the 17th century, and Van de Venne returned to the theme on other occasions.

Van de Venne’s monochrome oil paintings on panel are universally referred to as grisailles although in this case it is actually in shades of brown (brunaille).

Van de Venne’s style was related to Pieter Brughel the Elder. He made grisailles of the destitute and maimed which have a moralizing character. However, paintings of the high life of elegant young men and their fashionable women companions - the so-called “merry company” pictures - were much more popular than those showing the predicament of the poor.

The scene, which is no longer easy to define, ridicules greed for money, a favourite theme of this artist and one which he used in a number of paintings. The saying is simply portrayed, with no attempt to point the moral beyond what is implicit in the scene itself, which is depicted with all the jovial familiarity characteristic of the genre.

Van de Venne produced substantial quantities of grisailles throughout his late career. As the decades progressed, his execution grew more refined and the works larger in format, concomitantly including more figures and a profusion of anecdotal detail.41 Bij het voick is de neering (Where There Are People Money May Be Made) is one of the most ambitious examples of his later grisailles. The panel offers a sweeping view of the renowned, annual May kermis in The Hague. However, this is not a documentary image but one swarming with caricatures of ignoble social types meant to entertain a sophisticated, knowledgeable viewer.

This painting probably had a companion piece representing a Lady at Her Toilet. Like many of the grisailles by Van de Venne, the present painting is likely to be emblematic, and a comment on wordly vanity.

During his Middelburg period, Van de Venne painted colourful landscapes in the style of Jan Brueghel the Elder. After his move to The Hague in 1625, he abandoned this painting style in favour of monochrome representations in brown or grey tints. For these grauwtjes (as grisailles were called in the 17th century) Van de Venne mainly took his subjects from the lowest social classes. The moralizing nature of his representations is often clarified by a banderole containing a saying or a pointed pun, such as this scene of beggars fighting, entitled ‘Al(l)-Arm’; this is more of a pun in Dutch, since the expression al-arm as well being a warning cry, could also mean ‘entirely poor’.

An earlier version of this composition, signed and dated 1621, is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

This allegory is a notable group portrait for in the foreground are the representatives of the Northern and the Southern Netherlands, the two regions into which the country had been divided as a result of the Revolt that had erupted in 1568. At the front is a self-assured Prince Maurice of Orange, one foot forward, his arm akimbo, the military and political leader of the Republic of the United Netherlands, with his younger half-brother Frederick Henry behind him. To the prince’s right but at a slight remove, are the highest representatives of the Southern (Spanish) Netherlands: Archduke Albert of Austria and his consort Isabella of Spain, the daughter of King Philip II. They had been jointly governing this region since 1598. The assembly of men behind them - almost all looking out of the painting - are depicted for the most part as burghers. Some of them are certainly portraits.

In this painting the artist created a wealth of portraits, still-lifes, genre-like tableaux, and allegorical scenes. The picture exhibits Van de Venne versatility.

The painting is signed and dated lower right.

Emblems expound upon abstract concepts, objects, and even proverbs through a compelling and entertaining tripartite combination of image (pictura), inscription (inscriptio), and exegetical text (subscriptio). They enjoyed enormous popularity throughout early modern Europe.

The typical emblem shown in this picture is from “Proteus ofte minne-beelden verandert in sinnebeelden” published by Jacob Cats in 1627. It depicts a man, undoubtedly a suitor, watching a woman sew. In the explanatory text, we learn that this scene and its thought-provoking inscription, Post Tristia Dulcor (Sweeter after Sadness), carry amatory overtones.

Jacob Cats, a poet, humorist, jurist and politician was one of the most prolific and celebrated Dutch authors of this literary genre.

Emblems expound upon abstract concepts, objects, and even proverbs through a compelling and entertaining tripartite combination of image (pictura), inscription (inscriptio), and exegetical text (subscriptio). They enjoyed enormous popularity throughout early modern Europe.

The typical emblem shown in this picture is from “Proteus ofte minne-beelden verandert in sinnebeelden” published by Jacob Cats in 1627. The inscription is “Reperire, perire est” (To discover is to be undone).

In this painting van de Venne represented the moral superiority claimed by Dutch leaders. The painting visualizes Christ’s words to his disciples, “I will make you fishers of men,” as a contemporary contest for souls between two Reformed boats at left and two Catholic vessels at right. The orderly Dutch Protestants are more successful, catching people with the Bible and with the Christian virtues Hope, Faith, and Charity inscribed in the net. The near-capsizing Catholic monks use incense and music for lures. On the left bank, Dutch leaders are neatly aligned, opposite the less numerous Flemish dignitaries on the other side. Although the Southern Netherlandish camp is painted respectfully, their background is literally constituted by a withered tree and a Pope borne by adulatory monks.

The painting is done in grisaille like most of later works of the artist.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 13 minutes):

Arcangelo Corelli: Sonata in D minor (La Follia) op. ⁵⁄₁₂

After the death of the artist’s brother in 1625 his once flourishing printing business collapsed, and Adriaen van der Venne relocated the The Hague where he spent the rest of his long life. His production in The Hague consisted chiefly of grisailles representing the lower echelons of society. The depiction of two decrepit musicians, cryptically inscribed Fray en Leelijck (Beautiful and Ugly) is a characteristic example of van de Venne’s work of this sort.

The picture shows the frontispiece of the most popular domestic treatise in seventeenth-century Netherlands, Jacob Cats’s Houwelyck (Marriage), first published in 1625.

The picture shows an illustration for Jacob Cats’s renowned domestic treatise, Houwelyck (Marriage), first published in 1625 (and in twenty subsequent editions during the seventeenth century alone).

The artist’s brother, Jan van de Venne established a publishing business in Middelburg and dealt in art as well. His establishment with its accompanying garden became the gathering place for a cultured circle of prominent artists and poets. Adriaen van de Venne participated in the group’s activities, as he had likewise resettled in Middelburg, having married there in 1614. He worked closely with his brother, composing poetry, making political prints, and creating illustrations for books published by the shop. In this latter capacity, van de Venne designs were reproduced as engravings in some of the most popular books of the period, thus enhancing his reputation in the process. His illustrations for Jacob Cats’s Houwelyck are most extraordinary in this regard. The representation of space in these engravings, the little pictures on the wall, the lively figures, and touches of light and shadow anticipate genre paintings of future decades.

The picture shows an illustration from one of Adriaen van der Venne’s own books, the Tafereel van de belacchende werelt (Tableau of the Laughable World) published in 1635 in The Hague. This tome recounts the experiences of two peasants, Tamme Lubbert and Fijtje Goris, as they attend The Hague’s annual May kermis.

The painting was executed in grisaille.

A Summer and an unusually benign Winter, each signed and dated 1614, are paired by van der Venne. The brilliantly lit scene of ice skating, ice fishing, and ice sailing is one of fun and flirtation, since warm weather is the time when the poor work in the fields and the wealthy travel.

Van de Venne’s picture of the harbour of Middelburg is an extremely lively one: ships with their flags hoisted, mounted horsemen, dogs, children, peasants, more horses, dignified figures in black, country estates - the list is almost endless. Van de Venne depicted all this in a wealth of anecdotic detail, with Middelburg outlined against the sky in the background.

A Summer and an unusually benign Winter, each signed and dated 1614, are paired by van der Venne. The brilliantly lit scene of ice skating, ice fishing, and ice sailing is one of fun and flirtation, since warm weather is the time when the poor work in the fields and the wealthy travel.

This small signed panel depicts a winter landscape with elegant figures on the ice before a town. Some of the well-characterised figures may have been portraits of contemporaries.

This panel is one of Van de Venne’s earliest works, it likely precedes his first dated paintings, completed in 1614-15. The larger, elegantly dressed figures in the foreground were possibly painted by another contemporary hand.