| Hendrik van Balen is a notable representative of the Italianate style popular in Flanders in the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth centuries. Never aiming for the grandiose, van Balen preferred instead to produce charming, decorative mythologies, often on copper, which look back to Italian mannerist traditions and forward to the rococo. Van Balen is also important for his many collaborative efforts with such artists as Joos de Momper, Jan Wildens, Lucas van Uden, and Frans Snyders. According to van Mander, Hendrik studied with Adam van Noort (Rubens's teacher) in Antwerp - an apprenticeship which must have taken place in the late 1580s. Rubens's senior by two years, van Balen became a master in the Antwerp St. Luke's Guild in 1592-93 and it is suggested that shortly thereafter he must have gone to Italy, returning by 1602, when Antwerp guild records mention him with regularity. Van Balen married in 1605, became dean of the St. Luke's Guild in 1609, and dean of the Romanists' Guild in 1613. Typical of van Balen's histories is his St. John Preaching (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten). Filled with onlookers whose faces and attitudes reflect such sources as Lucas van Leyden and Hendrick Goltzius,* van Balen's St. John has its conceptual origins in Italian painting. The St. Jacob Church at Antwerp has several van Balen altarpieces, including a Resurrection and an Adoration of the Magi. Besides large histories, mostly from his earlier years, van Balen is credited with numerous small mythological scenes - cabinet pictures painted on panel or copper for private collectors. A typical example is his Pan and Syrinx (London, National Gallery). These pictures were hugely popular and represent a more diminutive and attractive alternative to the grand manner of baroque painting. Numerous examples are preserved in European and American museums. Van Balen's Rape ofEuropa (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) is a humorous and somewhat tame interpretation of Titian's famous version now in Boston, while Pluto and Persephone (signed, Brighton, Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery and Museums) shows van Balen's later absorption of Italian baroque masters such as Pietro da Cortona.* His Naiads Filling the Horn of Plenty (The Hague, Mauritiushuis) anticipates, in some respects, the paintings of Boucher. Besides van Dyck, Hendrik's pupils included his son Jan and Frans Snyders. |
