Old Masters & 19th Century Art

The present Lot will be on view at Freeman's Upper East Side galleries located at 32 E. 67th St in New York, May 6-11, 10am-5pm weekdays; 11am-5pm Saturday, May 9; closed Sunday, May 10.

We are grateful to Dr. Christina Pucher for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs, which is included in her catalogue raisonné of the paintings by Franz Christoph Janneck, as no. WK N247.

Provenance:

Arthur U. Newton Galleries, New York

Senator Simon Guggenheim

Olga Guggenheim, wife of the above, by inheritance

Ernest M. Lundell, Jr., Connecticut, gift from the above

Thence by descent to the present owner

Private Collection, Virginia

Lot Essay:

Mythological themes constituted only a small amount of the Baroque artist Franz Christoph Janneck's oeuvre, who is best known for highly finished, jewel-like genre scenes. His patrons came from the nobility, the court, and the clergy, and his panels primarily adorned their private art cabinets, which were characteristic of the Rococo lifestyle and intended to showcase the erudition and artistic sensibility of the collectors. Interestingly, to date only this version of The Transformation of Medusa by Janneck is known. He usually depicted themes from Greek and Roman mythology in pairs or as a series of paintings. Apart from the almost identical format of the copper plate, which matches that of the present work, a stylistic similarity can be observed with another painting by the artist, namely The Education of the Bacchus Boy, which was part of the Schäfer Collection in Schweinfurt, Germany, until 1999.

Painted circa 1740-1750, Janneck depicts Medusa’s origin story as told in Ovid’s Metamophoses. Medusa in Ovid’s version is a beautiful mortal priestess of Athena who is defiled by Poseidon in the goddess’s temple. As punishment, Athena turned Medusa into a winged Gorgon with snakes for hair. Medusa was subsequently exiled with a gaze that transformed onlookers to stone, until she was slain by Perseus. The composition depicts this moment of transformation. At left, Poseidon, god of the sea, is identifiable by his trident in the foreground and the hypocampi in the mid-ground. Athena, at upper center and recognizable by her armor, shield and spear, is on the verge of changing Medusa, as we see her hair turning into snakes. Medusa is portrayed by Janneck as a beautiful young woman in despair as Poseidon attempts to free her from Athena's grasp. 

In his characteristic style, Janneck constructs this scene as if it was a stage set, with the figures embedded in a meticulously detailed natural backdrop that guides the viewer toward a sweeping vista of the sea. The artist excelled at painting on copper and his mastery of color, composition, use of light and precise brushwork – with its nuances and iridescence - here attains a surface akin to enamel.