The Death of Adonis - Denis van Alsloot and Hendrick de Clerck

Oil on canvas

The rolling craggy landscape of the present work, closed off typically with Brueghellian serpentine trees to left and right, provides the setting for the Death of Adonis, an episode taken from Ovid's Methaporphoses. The lover of Venus, Adonis was gored to death by a jealous Jupiter, who turned himself into a boar to kill his rival whilst Adonis was out hunting.
In the present canvas Pijl notes Alsloot's execution of the landscape 'in a typical Flemish colour scheme: brown, green, blue adding significantly to the suggestion of depth in the composition, structured by several stone bridges with torrents beneath and a castle atop the outcrop dominating the scenery.' The smoothness of the flesh of the figures depicted is typical of the handling of de Clerck, giving them a refined, enamel-like finish.

Provenance:
Private Collection, France.
Art market, France.

We'd like to thank dr. Luuk Pijl for confirming the attribution of the present picture to Denis van Allot, with figures by Hendrick de Clerck. (January 2022)