Provenance

Thomas Baring

British, 1799 - 1873

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A young, smiling man bursts through the door of a dimly lit bedroom occupied by three women in this vertical painting. All four people have pale skin. The arched door is to our right and the man faces our left with his arms spread wide. He leans slightly forward as he holds the wide brim of his hat out by his left side, to our right. Shoulder-length chestnut-brown hair frames his face, and he wears a velvety brown jacket trimmed with tan stripes and pompoms down the front and along the sleeve we can see. A broad sash crosses his chest and tassels hang from his wide, white collar. Between us and him, a wooden chair is draped with a crimson-red cloak trimmed with white fur and bands of gold. A pewter pitcher and candlestick rest on the pine floor in front of it, near the lower right corner of the painting. The man is stopped at the door by a woman wearing a sable-brown gown with a tight-fitting bodice and a white cap on the back of her head. Her body faces the man as she leans toward him with her outstretched right hand resting on his shoulder, and she turns her smiling face back over her shoulder. Light from an open window on the left illuminates the woman in the center, who steps down from a bed enclosed by forest-green, velvet curtains trimmed with gold fringe and tassels. The curtains are parted behind her to reveal white pillows. She wears a long, gleaming white satin skirt topped by a tight-fitting coral-red bodice stitched with thin lines of gold. A white neckerchief covers her shoulders and is partially tucked into the bodice. Her head is covered by a white kerchief knotted under her chin. Her body faces us with one foot on a step stool, and the other foot reaches down to a gold and red shoe on the floor. Its mate lies nearby, pointing away from us. Her head is turned to our right to look at the man. She has a thin face with a high forehead, and small mouth is closed or pursed. Closest to us and near the lower left corner of the painting, the third woman sits alongside a small table under the open window. She wears a long, pine-green jacket trimmed with white fur over a brown skirt. Her auburn hair is partially coiled around her head, while some locks fall in bunched curls. She sits facing our right in profile with her back to the window, so her smiling face is mostly in shadow. Her left arm rests on the table, which is draped with a red and copper patterned cloth, and she holds a white comb in that hand. A mirror and round silver box sit on the table next to her. A small brown and white dog stands by her feet, its head tilted up to look at the others. The far wall of the room is covered with a faint pattern of golden brown vines and leaves against a forest-green background. The artist signed the painting on the face of the step leading up to the bed, “G. Metsu.”
Gabriel Metsu, The Intruder, c. 1660, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.57

The Intruder

Gabriel Metsu · c. 1660 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.57

This horizontal painting shows a tapestry being unfurled and held up by winged, baby-like putti against a structure with gray and gold columns, seen at the edges of the composition. Taking up most of the composition, the tapestry shows two ranks of men, women, and children gathered behind two central men, who meet at the center. All the people have light or tanned skin, and the bodies we can see are muscular. In the central pair of men, the one to our left, Abraham, faces our right in profile as he holds two loaves of bread. He has a brown beard and short, wavy hair, and dark brows over a prominent nose. He looks at the other man with dark eyes and leans toward him, to our right. Abraham wears an armored breastplate over silver chainmail edged with gold, which falls to mid-thigh. A crimson-red cape wraps around his shoulders and swirls around his back. A sword hangs by his hip, and tan sandals cover his heels and shins. Behind him are seven men and one brown horse, who gnaws at its foreleg. Most of the men are bearded and five wear armored helmets. A cleanshaven man wearing a lavender-purple tunic stands with his arm slung over the horse’s neck, holding the rein between thumb and forefinger. The man to our right, Melchizedek has a long white beard and short white hair. His red cap is encircled with a wreath of dark green leaves. He wears a long-sleeved, waist-length, aquamarine-blue garment over a white skirt. A heavy, golden-yellow cape with a broad, white fur collar and lining drapes over his shoulders, and is supported by at least one attendant. Behind and around Melchizedek are eight men, women, and children, standing near stone, gray ruins. Behind Melchizedek, one portly person wearing a dark pink mantle reaches into a basket of bread held across the shoulders of a blond, bearded, bare-chested man. Closer to us, in the lower right corner of the tapestry, one man wearing a green toga and another wearing blue kneel and sit, holding oversized silver and gold urns, the size of their torsos. The man in blue, to our right, turns to look at us over his shoulder. A third large urn sits near the other man. A view into the landscape with a low, green hill and a pale blue sky is glimpsed between the groups. The tapestry showing this scene curls over at the edges where the pudgy angels lift the top edge. The top right corner of the tapestry wraps around the edge of an unseen feature of the building, next to a gray column that rises the height of the painting up along the right edge. The border of the tapestry is rose pink with stylized gold designs. One putto with brown hair holds up the left corner, and one with light gray hair holds up the middle one arm slung over the front of the tapestry. The third putto, with blond hair, hooks an arm over a leafy garland with fruit that hangs from the cornice near the top center of the composition.
Sir Peter Paul Rubens, The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, c. 1626, oil on panel, Gift of Syma Busiel, 1958.4.1

The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek

Sir Peter Paul Rubens · c. 1626 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1958.4.1

A pale-skinned man sitting hunched over as he draws on a tablet and a bull lying at his feet fill this vertical painting. The man faces our right in profile, and he looks down at the book. He has a lined forehead, a bumped nose, and wrinkles around his nose. He has lanky, chin-length hair and a curly, unruly beard. He sits with one leg pulled up so he can partially brace the tablet on that knee. He holds the inkwell and clutches the top of the tablet with one hand and draws using a feather quill with the other. His other leg stretches down, and the ball of the bare foot is perched against the edge of the low platform on which the man sits. His garment has a white collar over a tunic that shimmers from plum purple to moss green. Extending from under the tunic’s short sleeves are long sky blue and pale laurel green sleeves. A golden yellow robe drapes over one shoulder and wraps around his lap. The gray bull, which is shown in about half the scale of the man, sits with one front leg tucked under his body as he looks over to our right. The floor is pale mauve purple, and the background is dark green, almost black. A glimpse of a work of art showing a woman holding a baby is visible near the top left corner of the painting.
Giorgio Vasari, Saint Luke, 1570-1571, oil on panel, Gift of Damon Mezzacappa in Loving Memory of Elizabeth Mezzacappa, 2012.79.2

Saint Luke

Giorgio Vasari · 1570-1571 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2012.79.2

A pale-skinned, muscular man sitting and reading a book as a lion rests at his feet fills this vertical painting. The man’s knees are angled slightly to our right but his torso twists back to the left. His head follows that direction so he’s almost in profile as he looks at the book, which he holds up to our left. His brows are deeply furrowed, and he has a bumped, blade-like nose. He has short, copper-red hair and a squared beard. He wears a tunic and knee-lengths pants that shimmer in shades of topaz blue and pearly white under a carnation-pink cloak that drapes from his shoulders and across his thighs. A round, gold pin holds the cloth in place on his left shoulder, to our right. His lower legs and feet are bare. He rests the heel of one foot on a rounded plinth and lifts the toes so they come at us. The other knee bends deeply and the toes of that foot perch lightly behind the first leg. The man leans to our right to look at the open book, which he holds in both arms to the left. Visible text on the far page reads, “ANGELVS DESCENDIT EVO.” He braces a black inkpot and spindly white feather quill in one hand and holds a pair of pince-nez glasses with the other. The lion is small in comparison to the man and has a curly mane and translucent gray wings. The background is dark except a strip off-white floor along the bottom edge.
Giorgio Vasari, Saint Mark, 1570-1571, oil on panel, Gift of Damon Mezzacappa in Loving Memory of Elizabeth Mezzacappa, 2012.79.1

Saint Mark

Giorgio Vasari · 1570-1571 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2012.79.1

Bibliography

1889

  • Northbrook, Francis Goerge Baring. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Paintings Belonging to the Earl of Northbrook. London, 1889.