Attributed to FRANS FRANCKEN III (Antwerp, Belgium, 1607 - 1667).
"Fall of Christ on the Way to Calvary".
Oil on copper.
Size: 43,5 x 33,5 cm; 59 x 69 cm (frame).
The fall of Jesus is represented here on the way to Calvary, overcome by the weight of the cross. He is attended to by Simon the Cyrenian, who helps him to carry the cross again. The figures are crowded around Christ, who gazes at the Virgin, accompanied by Mary Magdalene. The scene is completed by peasants who also seem to want to help, while the soldiers remain half-hidden in the background. In contrast to Baroque representations, in this composition the emotions are restrained: the Marys contain their grief, the soldiers are not aggressive as is often the case in other representations of this Passion scene. The gestures are restrained, thus adopting a late Renaissance language, still far removed from Baroque dramatism.
Devotional painting showing the fall of Christ on the road to Calvary This painting follows the influences of the work in the Chapel of San Hermenegildo in Seville Cathedral, a work attributed on good grounds to the Flemish painter Frans Francken III.
The Flemish painters of the Mannerist and Baroque periods treated biblical themes with great freedom and as an excuse to depict the customs and people of their own time.
His style can be related to the circle of Frans Francken III. The son of Frans Francken II, he was the last member of the important family of painters of this surname. After completing his training he joined the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp, his native city, in 1639 and became dean of this institution in 1656, a post he held for one year. Francken III developed an oeuvre that was heir to that of his father and in fact his paintings are often confused due to the fact that they both used the same signature. His oeuvre reveals the influence of Jan Brueghel de Velours and his predecessors in the Francken family, as well as debts to Mannerism and 16th-century painting, evident both in the structure of the compositions and in the rhythm and expression of the figures. Furthermore, as in his father's work, his figures include evident allusions to the work of Italian artists such as Raphael, Veronese and Zuccaro. However, his son's works are characterised by a less emphatic manner and a softer execution than those of Francken II. The reuse of specific motifs from the father's paintings is frequent in the son's work, and he also borrowed from a number of Dutch works. His principal works are based on the incorporation of figures in the paintings of Flemish church interiors by Ludovicus Neefs, of which the two paintings in the Museo del Prado, executed around 1646, are a brilliant example. Frans Francken III was the teacher of Carstian Luyckx and Jan Baptist Segaert. He is now represented in the Museo del Prado, the Royal Belgian Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Doornik (Belgium), the Residenzgalerie in Salzburg and other important museums and collections.