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Description: | An interior with sixteen figures. At the left, viewed from the side, is a fireplace with brass firedogs and beside it a cabinet with gold and glass drinking vessels laid out on it. A boy pours wine into a glass from a decanter and a brown and white dog lies beside the fire in the foreground. The company are arranged around a table, the centrepiece of which is a swan pie. The figures are divided into two groups; at the left are five people, including a seated lady, who has her back to us, and a man who doffs his hat to another woman. The larger group at the right of the composition comprises a man in plum-coloured doublet playing the bass-viol and facing him, a lutenist, who also appears to be singing in the direction of the seated lady on his right, who is strikingly dressed in blue and yellow and provides the chief focus of the scene. On the table to her right is an open music score and a bow. Leaning against the table is another lute.
Behind them a man playing the violin bends in flirtation over a blond-haired woman who is reading and other figures engage in conversation. The furniture in the room includes a covered four-poster bed, a "kast" on top of which is an equestrian statuette and, on the walls, two portraits in octagonal frames flanking a large rectangular landscape. The paintings are too badly rubbed to be identifiable, but the equestrian statuette on the "kast" has been recognised by Peter Sutton (Philadelphia Museum of Art) as being based on Hendrick Goltzius's (1558-1617) engraving of Marcus Curtius [1586] from the "Roman Heroes" series. The drinking vessels ceremoniously laid out on the sideboard may imply that the scene represents a wedding reception.
The work employs many of the motifs and figural arrangements that are commonly found in Palamedes's work, such as the boy pouring wine and the musician seen from behind.
Virag 12/12/2004, Between 1984 and 1985, a research assistant, Dr. Brendan Cassidy, was employed by Nottingham Castle Museum to research and write a catalogue of the foreign oil paintings in their collection. The catalogue never materialised, but drafts and notes relating to Cassidy's research can be found in the Artist Files and in the Archive at the museum. All references to Cassidy relate to these documents.
Peter Sutton of the Philadelphia Museum of Art has confirmed the attribution to Palamedes and has suggested a date of "c.1634-40". (Letter dated 13 July 1984, to Cassidy)
On the front:
The inscription at lower left is painted in white.
There is cracking in various areas of the panel, the worst of which are at lower left and from left to right at upper centre.
The panel has been overcleaned, especially at upper left.
On the reverse:
There is a cradle on the reverse of the panel with ten horizontal and fourteen vertical bands.
1. NCM accession number
2. White label at lower right: "184"
The painting was cleaned, re-touched and revarnished by Cowell Restorations, Burton-on-Trent in 1984. In summary, the report found NCM 1904-95 to consist of two planks glued horizontally which were found to have been considerably thinned. The join had at one time been split and re-glued. Another split was noted near the lower edge. A small piece of loose panel in the lower left corner was re-adhered. The panel was found to have considerable overpainting and re-touching. This was not confined to the obvious damage along the old repaired joins but was excessive to the background and left side, where the bulk of the overpaint was found to be covering up areas of "overcleaning".
Virag 12/12/2004, Collection of Richard Godson Millns
Accession number: NCM 1904-95 | Subjects: | costume (men's) food and drink interiors pets musical instruments costume (women's) figures furniture social occasions dance | Source: | Nottingham City Museums and Galleries | Creator: | by PALAMEDES/Anthonie (1601-1673) | Identifier: | http://media.culturegrid.org.uk/mediaLib... | Go to resource |
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