Twee schilderijen van Peter van Lint over Liefde en Vruchtbaarheid

Abstract

Two paintings about love and fertility by Peter van Lint. The collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid contains two pendants painted by the Antwerp artista Peter van Lint: a Triumph of love and a Triumph of fertility. They are on copper supports and are currently on permanent Ioan in Rome and on Mallorca. Fresh light has been shed on them by the discovery of two small and virtually identical panels. The paintings may have been commissioned from Van Lint by a patron who had a specific iconography in mind. This may be indicated by the large size of the copper plates, as well as the unusual subject combination of love and fertility. The Prado paintings are far more detailed than the small panels, and it is posible that the latter were made in preparation for the larger ones, possibly to secure the patron's approval. One remarkable modification in the shape of a woman in contemporary dress may have been included at his request. Regular trade with Spain in this period, where Van Lint's work was greatly appreciated, explains why the pictures have been in Spanish possession for so long. The scenes on the pendants have been given a new iconographic interpretation, and it turns out that the subjects of love and fertility como from two different sources. The Triumph of love is found in the visual arts not only in series with the Triumphs of Petrarch but also as a subject in its own right. The Triumph of fertility is not as common, mainly being found in series of the Four Elements in which Cybele symbolizes Earth. There is no evidence taht teres was a market for pendants illustrating love and fertility, so the provisional conclusion is that seems to be a unique combination in the visual arts.