The Judgment of Midas

c. 1640

Jan van den Hoecke

Associated Names
Jan van den Hoecke
Painter, Flemish, 1611 - 1651
Two women, four men, and a satyr, which is a creature with a man’s body and hairy goat’s legs, gather in a wooded landscape in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale, peachy skin. At the center of the group, to our left of center, a young, cleanshaven man balances on the ball of one foot as he strides toward us. He turns his head to his left so he faces our right in profile, and he looks off in that direction. He wears a ring of laurel leaves in his blond curls and his lips are parted. He holds a jeweled, golden stringed instrument, a lyre, in the crook of his right arm, on our left. He lifts his other hand to gesture toward the men to our right. He is nude except for a coral-red cloak fastened with a gold clasp at his neck. The cloak billows around his muscular body, and one bottom corner curls across his hip to cover his groin. To our left, two women sit on a rocky outcropping. The woman to our left holds a sapphire-blue robe to her chest. Her golden brown hair is pulled back, and she looks at the young man. The second woman sits with her body facing away from us, her arms resting on the rock in front of her. Her nude back faces us and she has a soft, rounded belly. She sits against a white cloth, and a light sage-green cloak pools around her hips and lies across one thigh. To our right, behind the young man holding a lyre, two bearded men sit on a rock with their bodies angled toward each other. The man to our left wears a leafy crown and holds a wooden staff. The second man wears a topaz-blue hood and robe, and turns to speak to his neighbor as he points in the opposite direction. Closer to us, near the right edge of the painting, the satyr plays a set of pan pipes. The man sitting next to him has tall, pointed, ass’s ears and a pointed, red beard. He wears a shimmering butter-yellow cloak over a brick-red tunic, and he rests one hand on the satyr’s shoulder. The entire group is enclosed by tall, tawny-brown rocks and leafy, sage-green trees. In the upper left corner, lilac-purple clouds float across a pale blue sky. The scene is painted with swirling brushstrokes that are especially visible in the clothing and background.

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With his radiant, porcelain skin and fluttering, red cloak, Apollo, the god of music, gestures to Midas, the king of Phyrigia. Midas, with donkey's ears, sits beside Pan, the wild god of shepherds and flocks, who blows on his reed pipes. A small man with legs and horns of a goat, Pan mischievously looks out at the viewer while being observed by a pair of fleshy nymphs and a group of bearded men. The intent look on the figures' faces, particularly that of the man with the laurel crown, suggests a moment of consequence.

The painting depicts a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses about a musical contest between Apollo and Pan, conflating the entire narrative into one scene. Pan audaciously challenged the god of music to the competition and blew a rustic melody on his pipes that delighted King Midas. Then, Apollo played his lyre so beautifully that the mountain god, Timolus, who judged the contest, pictured here holding a staff, declared Apollo the victor. Midas disagreed and Apollo gave Midas a donkey's ears for his "poor" judgment. In the Gallery's painting, Pan is shown playing his flute, which indicates the contest has only begun, yet Midas already has donkey ears.

This painting came to the National Gallery of Art from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, where it was once attributed to Peter Paul Rubens, partly because the figures of Apollo and the nymphs appear in other compositions by the Flemish master. However, the heavy outlining around Apollo and the blond nymph, and the brushwork resemble that of Rubens's student, Jan van den Hoecke.

Van den Hoecke was a prominent member of Rubens's studio by in the 1630s. After Rubens's death in 1640, Van den Hoecke painted a number of similarly scaled mythological scenes for which he often borrowed figures from Rubens compositions. Van den Hoecke's style is characterized by slightly angular drapery folds; large, slanted eyes; small, pointed noses; and curly-haired, slightly exaggerated heads, as seen in Apollo, Pan, and their crowd of onlookers.

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Sir John Rushout, 2nd baron Northwick [1770-1859]. Otto Mündler [1811-1870], until 1863.[1] Emile [1800-1875] and Isaac [1806-1880] Péreire, Paris; (Péreire sale, at their residence by Pillet and Petis, Paris, 6-9 March 1872, no. 148, as Apollo et Midas). Edwards, Paris.[2] C.G. Candano, Paris; purchased 1899 by William A. Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.

[1] The early provenance is according to the 1872 Péreire sale catalogue, where the first listed owner is Identified as "lord ***." This is believed to be Lord Northwick because of the mention of the Northwick collection as one of the notable sources of the collection formed by the Péreire brothers.

[2] According to Edward Dillon, Rubens, London, 1909: 221, as Apollo and Midas.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1959

  • Loan Exhibition. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art: A Benefit Exhibition in Honor of the Gallery's Centenary, Wildenstein, New York, 28 January - 7 March 1959, unnumbered catalogue, as Peter Paul Rubens.

2001

  • Antiquities to Impressionism: The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001-2002, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1890

  • Rooses, Max. L'Oeuvre de P.P. Rubens: histoire et description de ses tabelaux et dessins. 5 vols. Antwerp, 1896-1892: 4(1890):124, no. 646.

1925

  • Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part I. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 136, no. 79.

1947

  • Goris, Jan-Albert, and Julius S. Held. Rubens in America. New York, 1947: 54, no. A38, as by a Follower of Rubens.

1955

  • Breckenridge, James D. A handbook of Dutch and Flemish paintings in the William Andrews Clark collection. Washington, 1955: 40 repro., 41, as by Rubens.

2020

  • Libby, Alexandra. “From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art.” In America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and their Circles, edited by Esmée Quodbach. The Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America 5. University Park, 2020: 141.

Wikidata ID

Q46624730