Cephalus and Procris

In his mythological and religious pictures, Schalcken strongly favored subjects that should or could be rendered as night scenes. His reputation for nocturnal illumination appears to have been established early on, in the 1660s, when he was influenced by his second teacher, Gerrit Dou, and by Dou's leading disciple, Frans van Mieris the Elder. Schalcken also specialized in paintings of attractive young women in various states of undress and distress or incapacity. These aspects of form and content must have pleased the patrician and princely patrons who supported the artist in The Hague and London. However, the present picture probably dates from the 1680s, when Schalcken worked in Dordrecht.

The subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses (7.694–865). Cephalus, a handsome hunter from Athens, is married to Procris, "sister of the ravished Orithyia," but herself "more worthy to be ravished away." Inflamed by Cephalus, the goddess Aurora (who is recalled by the dawning light in the landscape) sweeps him away, but her amorous mood is spoiled when Cephalus describes his wedding and even his nuptial night. Aurora dismisses him, exclaiming, "Keep your Procris . . . you will come to wish that you had never had her." On his way home, Aurora's example makes Cephalus suspicious of his wife. This leads to unwarranted accusations, a trial separation, and eventual reconciliation, when Procris presents her husband with the gift of a spear that never misses its mark. After many years of happiness, problems resurface. One day, Cephalus is hunting in the woods. Sweaty from slaughtering animals, he begs a local breeze named Aula to cool "the heat with which I burn." An eavesdropper overhears these sensual entreaties and reports them to Procris, who jealously spies upon her husband during the next day's outing. When again he calls out to Aula, there is a groan and a rustling in the brush. Cephalus hurls the spear (seen here, blood-tipped, on the right) and, a moment later, hears the cry of his mortally wounded wife. Parting words are spoken as Procris sinks in her husband's arms.

Dozens of Dutch artists depicted the story of the ill-fated couple, often less effectively than here. In Schalcken's day, viewers still drew edifying conclusions from mythological tales, as did Karel van Mander in his influential Wtlegghinge op de metamorphosen (Interpretation of the Metamorphoses, 1604). The main appeal of Schalcken's interpretation, however, was probably its literary flavor and sophisticated style. Some contemporaries would also have recognized that a tree entwined with ivy, like that highlighted on the right, was a symbol of marital fidelity.

[2016; adapted from Liedtke 2007]

Support: The painting is on a canvas support, probably made from a bast fiber such as linen. It is a plain weave fabric and the thread count, according to automated thread count software,[1] consists of an average of 12.84 vertical threads/cm and 14.09 horizontal threads/cm. Cusping of the canvas, caused by the original stretching of the canvas onto a strainer, is visible along all four edges in the x-radiograph (see fig. 1 above).

Preparation: The canvas is primed with a gray/brown ground, which contains coarse-grained lead white and quartz, as well as black, brown, red, and yellow particles, the latter three of which are most likely iron earth pigments (fig. 2). The ground also contains zinc, though this is a trace component.

Paint Layers: No evidence was found to indicate whether Schalcken made an initial sketch or drawing on top of the gray/brown ground. It is clear, however, that the artist thoroughly worked out his design ahead of time, as there is no evidence of changes to the composition during the painting process.

Schalcken painted the scene’s wooded setting over the gray/brown ground using thin and relatively loose brushwork, and he used the dark-colored ground to fill in the forest canopy by leaving it visible between many of the leaves and branches in the trees. To paint the green foliage, Schalcken mixed the costly pigment ultramarine blue with an organic yellow lake pigment (fig. 3).[2] In contrast to the thinly painted background, the figures were painted more robustly, with Schalcken using a substantial proportion of lead white to provide body to the paint in these areas. Still, the figures are painted smoothly for the most part, with the artist blending brushstrokes together to produce flawlessly modeled surfaces. Schalcken did add touches of texture in the tassel and textiles that are worn by Procris. For the tassel, Schalcken dabbed relatively thick, bright highlights on top of the darker shades of brown to make the tassel appear to shimmer in the light. In the blue silk damask, on the other hand, the texturing was done first in a light blue or white paint, and the final blue layer, probably also ultramarine, was glazed on top to achieve the sumptuous blue hue. Schalcken made use of two different blue pigments in this painting, mixing smalt—a cheaper alternative to ultramarine—into the small patch of sky at the top of the composition (fig. 4). He also used the common red-orange pigment, vermilion (fig. 5), to paint the lighter passages of Procris’s red dress and the blood in her wound and, sparingly, to warm up the highlights of the brown fabric wrapped around her. He did not, however, use this brightly colored pigment in the bloodied spear tip or in the shadows of the red dress, utilizing more subdued red iron earth pigments instead (fig. 6).

Condition: This painting is in excellent condition. There are a few small paint losses associated with two small tears in the canvas support, which are located near the top of the painting, and the tacking edges of the original canvas, which is lined, were removed in the past. The wound on Procris’s chest and the drool dribbling from her mouth were also previously covered by a restorer’s overpaint, which was most likely applied during the second half of the nineteenth century (fig. 7). The removal of this later addition during a 2019 conservation treatment has restored Schalcken’s original composition.

The dark wooded surroundings have become darker over time, as the increased transparency of the oil paint in these thinly painted passages has given greater visual prominence to the dark ground below.[3] Some of the pigments, too, have faded or become discolored. Notoriously unstable organic yellow lake pigment, which is mixed into the green foliage, has faded leaving the leaves with a bluish appearance (fig. 8). Some unfaded yellow lake pigment can be found in an area of vegetation on the forest floor, where a layer of brown paint has protected this translucent yellow pigment from the light (fig. 9). Smalt is another unstable pigment: it is known to change from a brilliant blue to a muddy brown over time. In this painting, the smalt is mixed with lead white and various other pigments, and although the smalt particles do appear discolored (fig. 8), it is unclear to what extent this discoloration has affected the overall hue of the sky.

Gerrit Albertson 2019

[1] The presence of yellow lake, which is difficult to identify in oil paintings, was inferred in this case by the presence of chalk (calcite) particles, a material that was commonly used as an inorganic base for organic colorants.
[2] Increased transparency of oil paint can be attributed to both changes in the refractive index of the oil binder, as well as the formation of metal soaps. For more on metal soaps in art, please see Investigating the Formation and Structure of Lead Soaps in Traditional Oil Paintings.

Inscription: Signed (upper left): G. Schalcken

?sale, Hobbs, London, May 10, 1763, no. 93, as "Scalkin [sic], Cephalus and Procris, Highly finished," for £2.15.0; Charles Ingram, 9th Viscount Irwin, Temple Newsam House, Leeds (by 1770–d. 1778); Frances Gibson Shepheard Ingram, Viscountess Irwin, Temple Newsam House (1778–d. 1807); her daughter, Isabella Ingram Shepheard Seymour, Marchioness of Hertford, Temple Newsam House (1807–d. 1834; inv., 1808, no. 28); her sister, Frances Ingram Shepheard, Lady William Gordon, Temple Newsam House (1834–d. 1841); her nephew, Hugo Charles Meynell Ingram, Temple Newsam House (1841–d. 1869; inv., ca. 1862); his son, Hugo Francis Meynell Ingram, Temple Newsam House (1869–d. 1871); his widow, Emily Charlotte Wood, the Honorable Mrs. Meynell Ingram, Temple Newsam House (1871–d. 1904); her nephew, Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, later 3rd Viscount Halifax, later Earl of Halifax, Temple Newsam House (1904–22; his sale, Robinson, Fisher & Harding, Temple Newsam, Leeds, July 26–31, 1922, no. 1275); [Spiller, London, until 1946; sold to Calmann]; [Hans Calmann, London, 1946–at least 1971; sale, Christie's, London, March 7, 1958, no. 154, for £35 to Johnson, bought in; sale, Christie's, London, October 15, 1971, no. 129, for 220 gns. to Arnold, bought in; sold to Hazlitt]; [Hazlitt Gallery, London, by 1973–74; sold to The Met]

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.

Arthur Young. A Six Months Tour through the North of England. London, 1770, vol. 1, p. 391, as "In the blue damask dressing-room [of Temple Newsam House]. . . 'Cephalus and Procris,' Fine" [no artist name given].

J. P. Neale. Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen, in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Vol. 5, London, 1822, unpaginated, lists it under "Pictures at Temple Newsam".

Jones' Views of the Seats, Mansions, Castles, etc. of Noblemen & Gentlemen, in England. London, 1829–[31?], vol. 2, p. 28, lists it as at Temple Newsam.

"Notable Works of Art now on the Market (advertising supplement)." Burlington Magazine 115 (December 1973), not paginated, pl. XLV, as the property of the Hazlitt Gallery, London.

Thierry Beherman. Godfried Schalcken. [Paris], 1988, pp. 111–13, no. 28, ill. (color), dates it 1685–90.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 341, ill.

Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), p. 22.

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, p. xi; vol. 2, pp. 822–24, no. 191, colorpl. 191, as probably "from the 1680s, when Schalcken worked in Dordrecht".