Period: 17th century
Sold. Oil on canvas painting, measuring 66 x 81 cm without frame and 85 x 96 cm with frame, depicting Moses and the Golden Calf by the painter Theodor Helmbreker (Haarlem 1633 - Rome 1696). Let's recount a bit of the story of the Golden Calf: it's said that after the Jews left Egypt, while Moses was on Mount Sinai to speak with God and receive the Ten Commandments, the Israelites, believing he would not return, asked Aaron to make them a god to worship ("Make us a god who will go before us, for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him"). Aaron collected their golden jewelry and melted it down to forge a golden statue of a calf, and they worshiped it, declaring: "This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" Aaron built an altar before the calf and proclaimed that the next day was a feast dedicated to the Lord. The next day, everyone got up early and "offered burnt offerings and presented peace offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, and then rose up to play." God told Moses what the Israelites were doing down at the camp, "they have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them! Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you." Moses pleaded with God to spare the Israelites and forgive them, and the "Lord relented of the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people." Later, Moses came down from the mountain, but seeing the golden calf, he was angry, threw the tablets of the commandments to the ground, shattering them, and severely reprimanded Aaron and all the Israelites. Then he burned the calf in the fire, reduced it to powder, scattered it in the water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. The composition is very harmonious and skillfully dosed in colors, of great quality especially in the form, while the scene depicted here undoubtedly falls within the quintessential theme of religious paintings of that period. A typical characteristic of Helmbreker in his works is the so-called 'lumetto' brushstroke, which are small touches of white that make the depicted objects more luminous, and we can recognize it in the objects and draperies depicted here. The painter, a great exponent of the Bamboccianti painting style, gives us the image of a self-assured, brazen artist, free from pre-prepared schemes; indeed, he develops a new way capable of highlighting the taste for tactile values. In these paintings, we notice how sinusoidal draperies touch peaks of mimicry worthy of a specialist and invade the scene with skillful mastery, so much so that he had considerable success in his lifetime and worked for important commissions both in Italy and the Netherlands, thanks to his ability to merge the Flemish style with the Italian one and perfectly blending the concept of landscape painting and genre painting. I can add that the authorship of these works to Theodor Helmbreker does not only reside in the drafting of the work, in its colors, and in its representation, but finds confirmation in numerous works by the artist himself where, however, his imprint is known; we can find the same artistic sense present here in other works by the painter himself such as the Charlatan which is located in the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel and the Saltarello exhibited in the exhibition Nature Morte, landscapes, bambocciate and caramogi from the Medici collections, held in the Medici villa of Poggio a Caiano. The paintings and art objects published here are my exclusive property and are therefore always available to be viewed in person, by appointment, at my exhibition venues located in Sanremo and Brescia. The work, like every object of ours, is sold with a photographic FIMA certificate of authenticity and lawful origin; this document identifies the object, adding value to the article. We personally handle and organize the packaging and shipping of works of art with insurance worldwide. Dr. Riccardo Moneghini Art Historian