Pieter NEEFS I (Antwerpen °1578-1656)

Signed ‘PEETER NEEFS’
Oil on wood : 75cm x 107cm.

Pieter Neefs I (Antwerpei c. 1578 after 1656) The interior of Antwerp Cathedral with figures in devotion and other figures conversing signed 'PEETER NEFFS' (lower left) oil on panel c. 75 x 107 cm. Provenance: with Kunsthandel St. Lucas, The Hague, 1967. Pieter Neefs I is considered to be one of the pioneers in the genre of architectural painting in the Low Countries. He is thought to have studied with Hendrik van Steenwijck I (Kampen c. 1550 1603 Frankfurt am Main), since their styles are similar. Neefs' earliest dated picture is an Interior of a Gothic Church in the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, which is signed and dated 1605. In 1609-10 he was enrolled as a master in the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp. His latest known pictures should be dated in the early 50's of the 17th Century, for instance an Interior of Antwerp Cathedral in the Indianapolis Museum of Fine Art. He probably died shortly after 1656, when he was mentioned for the last time. Cornelis de Bie, who wrote some lines on the master in his Gulden Cabinet of 1661, speaks of him by then in the past tense.

The monumental, seven bay Cathedral of Antwerp, a beautiful example of late Gothic architecture in the southern Netherlands, was one of the buildings most frequently used for Neefs' compositions. The present picture is a very fine example. Other architectural views by the artist that use the characteristics of Antwerp Cathedral as the point of departure can be found in de Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten, Bruxelles, the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt and the Prado, Madrid (see H. Jantzen, Das Viederländische Architekturbild, Braunschweig, 1979, pp. 227 30). Neefs and his Antwerp colleagues, like his own son Pieter Neefs II (Antwerp 1620¬after 1659) and Hendrick van Steenwijck II (Antwerp c. 1580 1649 The Hague or Leiden), produced many variations on the theme by changing the staffage figures and the detailed decoration of the church, as well as the vantage point and the time of day.

It is assumed that none of the depictions of Antwerp Cathedral shows a fully topographical correct representation of the actual building (see J. Giltaij and G. Jansen, Perspectiven: Saenredam en de architectuurschilders van de 1 7e eeuw, Rotterdam, 1991, p. 79). However, unlike his predecessor Van Steenwijck I and his own son Pieter II, at times Neefs I does appear to have recorded the art in his interiors with rather consistent accuracy. For instance, here the first altarpiece visible on the right side of the nave can be identified as Wenzel Coebergher's painting of 1601, representing St. Sebastian. It was commissioned for the altar of the Archer's Guild and is now in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Nancy (see C. Lawrence, "Interior of Antwerp Cathedral by Pieter Neefs I", in: Perceptions, 2-1982, pp. 20-21).

The staffage figures were often added by a different hand, as is most likely the case in the present picture. Specialized artists, like Frans Francken II and David Teniers II, were often called upon by Neefs, but it is still open to debate, which artist was responsible for the figures in the present work. Gonzales Coques (Antwerpen 1614¬1684) could be a candidate. The deployment of elegant ladies and gentlemen, a priest saying mass and the beggar in the foreground in a light flooded interior is typical of this type of painting. For example, the company attending mass in the centre of the composition can be found in the aforementioned picture with The interior of Antwerp Cathedral in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt (see J. Sander and B. Brinkmann, Niederlandische Gemalde vor 1800 im Stãdel, Frankfurt am Main, 1995, p. 43, plate 63).

The panel is signed 'PEETER NEEFS' in block letters on one of the graves in the left foreground: this signature strongly supports an attribution to Pieter Neefs I and not to his son, Pieter II, who signs with a more calligraphic signature, for instance in a later Antwerp Cathedral composition in the Mauritshuis, The Hague. Pieter I signed the aforementioned Interior of Antwerp Cathedral in the Indianapolis Museum of Art in the same way as the present picture (see C. Lawrence, op. cit., p. 17).