Deodat van der Mont, also known as Delmont, was Rubens’ first pupil,  assistant and friend. He travelled during nine years with him, at the very start of Rubens’ career, to Italy, which explains van der Mont’s interest in mythology after his return to Antwerp in 1608. He was also active as an architect and a fortress builder. Very few paintings are known by van der Mont.

 

Our composition is an allegorical representation of the unfavourable political and thus commercial situation of Antwerp between the end of the Twelve Years’ Truce in 1621 and the end of the Eighty Years’ War in 1648: the Dutch imposed taxes and transshipment of all goods coming in and out of Antwerp.

 

The Horn of Plenty stands between Antwerp (the nude Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres) and Scaldis, the River Scheldt. But at right, Vulcan, god of fire and metalworking, looks unhappy and Mercury, god of commerce tries to grasp our attention, for at left a strong, young Dutchman is pointing his trident to the waters of River Scheldt. 

 

 

Flemish painter and architect

Sint-Truiden 1582 – 1644 Antwerp

 

Also known as Dieudonné or Deodati Delmont or del Monte.

 

Painter of history scenes (religious and mythological subjects) and of portraits. He was also active as architect and even as astronomer.

 

His father, Willem van der Mont, was a goldsmith. In 1587 he moved to Antwerp, Deodat was then five years old. Deodat studied in Antwerp languages, drawing, geometry, architecture, astronomy and astrology.

 

Van der Mont must have been the first pupil of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (who was only five years older) and he accompanied his master to Italy (Mantua and Rome) between 1600 and 1608.

He returned to Antwerp at the end of 1608, where he joined the local Painter’s Guild of Saint Luke as a Master. 

 

Circa 1626/27 he was painter-adviser to Count Palatine of Neuburg Wolgang Wilhelm (1578 – 1653) in Neuburg an der Donau in the Palatinate. Wolfgang Wilhelm knighted him for his “great understanding of the noble art of painting, geometry, astrology, and other branches of knowledge”.

Van der Mont also worked as fortress builder for King Philip III of Spain (1578 – 1621). Houbraken tells that he was given several privileges that, in later years, were threatened. Thanks to the king’s son and successor, Philip IV (1605 – 1655), these privileges were restored.

 

Van der Mont married in 1615 with Gertrude van den Bergh, the couple had four children: three boys and a girl. Rubens’ first wife, Isabella Brant (1591 – 1626) was godmother to a son of Deodat van der Mont. His daughter Clara (1618 – 1657) married in 1641 with Rubens’ eldest son, Albert (1614 – 1657).

 

Artus Delmont, who was probably a nephew, was one of his pupils. He had six more pupils: two in 1610/11 and four more between 1621 and 1624.

 

There are very few painting known by Deodat van der Mont: some mythological scenes and several altar pieces (Cathedral of Antwerp, Museum M of Leuven).

 

 

Our painting is an allegorical ode to the union of the city of Antwerp and its River Scheldt.

The city is represented as the Roman goddess of agriculture and fertility Ceres (the Greek goddess Demeter) at the centre of our composition. In front of her rests Scaldis, the river god Scheldt, against a pitcher from which his water flows. 

In between them Ceres’s horn of plenty, the Cornucopia, which is a symbol of abundance. It goes back to a Greek myth about the birth of Zeus, the upper god. His father Kronos devoured all his wife’s new-born babies for he was to be overthrown by his own son. Rhea secretly gave birth to Zeus, her sixth child, on the island of Crete, in a cave on Mount Ida. She mislead her husband Kronos, giving him a stone wrapped in cloth, which he promptly swallowed. Zeus was fed by the goat Amalthea. One day he broke off one of her horns, which was said to have the divine power of endlessly providing food. As to the prophesy, it was full filed: Zeus gave his father some emetic powder, Kronos vomited and out came Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon. Kronos and the Titans were overthrown by Zeus and his brothers and sisters.

 

Ceres and Scaldis represent two of the four Classical Elements: Earth and Water. The other two also appear: Air in the upper background points to Hermes (Mercury), the messenger of the gods and god of commerce, who appears behind Vulcan, who stands for Fire, metalworking and the production of precious objects.

 

The exotic shells in the foreground refer to the sea and to Antwerp’s international commerce. At the start of the Eighty Years’ War, in 1587, the Dutch Protestants had successfully taken control over River Scheldt. Until 1795 they imposed a system of taxes and the obligation to tranship merchandise on Dutch ships from Zeeland. Hence Vulcan’s unhappy face and the depiction of a Dutch youth at the opposite, left side, wearing an orange loincloth, striking the waters of River Scheldt with his trident.

 

 

Because it has such a rich content referring to the political situation of Antwerp during the second quarter of the 17th century.