ALLEGORY OF TIME. OIL ON BOARD. CIRCLE OF JACOB DE BACKER (ACT. 1571-1585).

Allegory of Time. Oil on panel. Circle of Jacob de Backer (act. Antwerp, 1571-1585). Exhibition: “Reality, time and artifice. Still life and vanitas in baroque culture” (October 21, 2021 to January 30, 2022), Caja de Burgos Foundation, Cultural Cordón (Palacio de los Condestables de Castilla), Burgos. Bibliography: brochure and catalog of the aforementioned exhibition. Oil on panel showing, in the foreground, a naked child figure and a scene in the background to the right, with a landscape of trees and rocks only partially visible. The child is sitting on a pedestal, protected with a cloth, and carries a branch in his right arm, which is resting on an hourglass; rests his right foot on a skull; The left arm is held outstretched, leading the viewer's gaze towards the scene. This has Christ silhouetted on a rocky form, semi-naked and with a nimbus; Below, several male characters appear (some reclining, others barely visible), among which the one standing with his back to the viewer stands out, a soldier who covers his face with his own shield. Both the hourglass and the skull are common elements in allegories related to the passage of time since the Renaissance, usually reinforced with some Christian scene or allusion (here, the Resurrection to the right). Thus, the meaning provided would be very close to a very common and well-known genre of the Baroque such as the “Memento Mori” (remember that you are going to die), shown both in the form of allegories and still lifes. Compare the child figure with the Saint John from “Madonna with Child and Saint John” from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, dated between 1590 and 1600, to see similarities and differences. Also the figure of the Risen Christ with the engraving by Hieronymus Wierix after Jacob de Backer that was published by Hans van Luck around 1580-1590 (British Museum, London). Jacob de Backer or Jacques de Backer was a Flemish painter active in Antwerp between 1571 and 1585, who is believed to have trained with Antonio van Palermo and Hendrik van Steenwijk and who shows a marked influence of Vasari's High Mannerism, despite not having traveled to Italy. Despite the little that is known about his life, the engravings that emerged from his works always stand out, production that was focused on religious matters and allegories. His work is preserved in institutions such as the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, the Hermitage Museum, the Royal Monastery of El Escorial (Madrid, Spain), the Getty Center (Los Angeles, USA), the Leuven Museum (Belgium), the Museum of Fine Arts. of Houston (Texas, USA), National Museum of Warsaw (Poland), etc., and some notable private collections.

· Size: 57x6x73 cms.int; 43x57 cms.