Browsing: Hendrick van Balen the Elder

Apollo stands at the centre with his stringed instrument while Pan turns towards him with a pan flute as mythological figures and witnesses observe the musical contest.

Diana’s world of hunting and Bacchus’s world of wine, music, abundance, and bodily instinct meet within the same crowded forest scene.

Cybele receives gifts from personifications of the four seasons within an oval mythological scene surrounded by an abundant garland of fruit, flowers, animals, and putti.

Saint Catherine kneels before the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child as saints, clerics, military figures, children, and putti witness the sacred union.

Venus and Cupid enter Vulcan’s crowded forge, where craftsmen, flames, armour, weapons, tools, and metal objects transform fire into an allegory of production and power.