Bartholomeus van Bassen was the very first Dutch architectural painter. He was also active as an important architect. Van Bassen, just like most other 17th century so-called perspective painters, used staffage painters who added the figures in their compositions. In our painting the figures were probably painted by Jan Martsen de Jonge. 

 

The rare historic subject goes back to a late 5th century BC Greek play by Euripides: King Agamemnon tells his wife that he has decided to sacrifice their eldest daughter in order to please the goddess Artemis for a safe journey of the Greek fleet to Troy.

  

 

Dutch painter

Possibly born in Antwerp circa 1590 – 1652 The Hague

 

Painter of architectural scenes and architect.

It is not known whom van Bassen studied with.

He was actually the first Dutch painter to specialise in the genre of architectural painting.

 

Van Bassen is first recorded in Delft in October 1613, when he was accepted as a master painter in the local guild. It was then specified that he was not an inhabitant from Delft, so that he had to pay a higher fee. It is not known where exactly he was born. 

Some sources suggest he came from Antwerp, as his two earliest known paintings, dated 1614 (Sotheby’s New York 27/01/05) and 1616 (a painting that I sold recently) both represent the interior of a Catholic, Flemish, Gothic church decorated with altars and populated with figures. In their accomplished single-point perspectival construction, in their treatment of light and in the carefully rendered details both paintings do indeed show the influence of the Flemish perspective painters Hendrick van Steenwijck I and II of Pieter Neeffs I. 

Throughout his career van Bassen specialised in imaginary architectural spaces of church interiors and lavishly decorated palace interiors.

 

Our painter joined the guild at The Hague in 1622 and remained there until his death thirty years later. The Hague offered, as the residence of the Stadtholder and of the States of Holland, the possibility of richer patrons. 

 

A church interior from 1624 (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) was co-signed by van Bassen and the Antwerp figure painter Frans Francken II. According to Marijke de Kinkelder this is no further proof of his Antwerp origin; it might well be that the client whom the painting was made for wanted this specific artist to paint the staffage. This painting belonged by 1632 to the collection of Stadtholder Frederick Henry.

 

Van Bassen was also active as an architect:

- at the end of the 1620s he drew the plans for the Royal house in Rhenen for Frederick, the exiled Elector Palatine and the so-called Winter King of Bohemia; he was a nephew of Stadtholder Frederick Henry;

- he made designs for the construction of several palaces for the Stadtholder, such as Huis Honselaarsdijk and Huis ter Nieuburch;

- in 1634 he drew plans for the restoration of the town hall of Arnhem;

- from 1638 onwards van Bassen served as the town architect and controller of the building sites and of the worksmen at The Hague. In fact The Hague remained officially a village until 1811 when it received the title of town. He built some twenty bridges, restored its town hall and supervised the construction of the New Church (the first church of The Hague specially built for Protestants) after the design of Pieter Noorwits.

 

Bartholomeus’ only son, Aernout Ernst, did not become a painter; he was a lawyer at the Court of Holland. He married a daughter of the Utrecht painter Cornelis van Poelenburch in 1651.

 

Gerard Huckgeest, Jan van der Vucht and possibly Dirck van Delen were pupils of van Bassen.

 

 

Our painting represents one of the most dramatic, but rarely depicted stories of the ancient Greek world: King Agamemnon telling his wife Clytemnestra that he has decided to sacrifice their daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis, so that the Greek fleet will finally be able to sail safely to Troy. This thrilling episode was described in Euripides’ last tragedy “Iphigenia in Aulis”, written between 408 BC and 406 BC, shortly before the great Athenian author passed away.

 

In van Bassen’s composition we see at right King Agamemnon. Three women are kneeling in front of him: his wife Clytemnestra, her maid and Iphigenia.

At left, seated behind a table, we see two important Greek leaders: Menelaos and Odysseus.

In the right foreground stands Achilles with his friend Patrocles.

 

Following the abduction of Queen Helen (wife of Menelaos of Sparta) by the Trojan Prince Paris, her husband’s brother, King Agamemnon, calls all Greek heroes to come to the sandy beaches of Aulis in Boeotia to sail to Troy. The continuous lack of wind is explained to Agamemnon by the seer Calchas: the goddess of the Hunt, Artemis, is blocking all winds, because the king’s men have killed a sacred stag. The goddess will only be appeased if the king sacrifices his eldest daughter, Iphigenia to her.

In a message to his wife Clythemnestra, Agamemnon asks her to send their oldest daughter to Aulis under the pretext of her marrying the Greek champion, Achilles. Menelaos and Odysseus are involved in the awesome development of the plot, so is Achilles, who is unaware of his role in the sudden arrival in Aulis of Queen Clytemnestra and Princess Iphigenia.

 

Architectural painters regularly used a specialist to add the staffage in their paintings. According to Axel Rüger and Rachel Billinge (2005, P. 29) “van Bassen never seems to have painted his own figures”. Sadly the role of staffage painters in perspective painting has scarcely been studied. Van Bassen was probably assisted by the following well-known, important painters, who occasionally painted the staffage in his architectural scenes: Cornelis van Poelenburgh, Jan Martsen de Jonge, Jan Martsen’s uncle Esaias van de Velde and after his death Anthonie Palamedesz.. The figures in our painting were probably painted by Jan Martsen de Jonge, a specialist of cavalry battle scenes. 

 

Our subject was rarely painted, as artists preferred to depict the strongly emotional, melodramatic sacrifice itself. Van Bassen has created a grand, monumental interior, while his staffage painter has chosen for an exotic blend of Turkish and Western figures. This must have been a special assignment for van Bassen.

 

 

Because it is a highly original composition and subject by van Bassen.