Judith and Holofernes
Frans Floris
(Antwerp, 1519 – 1570)
Oil on panel,
100 x 77 cm
Trace of signature FF F
The Judith with the head of Holofernes that we present here has been chosen as an example of what we affirm: it is a fundamental piece in the master’s repertoire, unpublished and recently rediscovered by us, accompanied by a signature that arose as a result of a cleaning.
Against a shallow black background stands a monumental figure that looks like the human version of a classical frieze.
Frans de Vriendt, popularly known as Frans Floris, was born into a family of traditional craftsmen. His father, Cornelis, practiced the profession of stonemason in which he achieved a certain status. The aspirations of the father to integrate into the intellectual environment of the Antwerp in that time meant the adoption of the name “Floris” to embellish his surname.
After traveling in his early youth to Italy where he studied the great masters (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, among others), he returned to his hometown to settle there permanently. Frans Floris de Vriendt stands out for having introduced the mannerism and a set of pictorial features of Italian origin that are called “Romanism” in Flanders and the Netherlands.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.- R.H Wilenski “Flemish Painters” 1960, Vol. I pag. 554 , plates 335,351, 353.
.- Max J. Friedländer “Early Netherlandish Painting” Vol. XIII, pag. 34 –40, plate 58 – 86.
.- E. Benezit “Dictionnaire Des peintres ….” Tomo 5 pag. 530, 1999
.- G. T. Faggin “La Pittura ad Anversa nel Cinquecento”, 1969 pag. 48 – 50
.- C. Van de Velde “Frans Floris” (1519 – 1570), Leven en Werken, 1975, 2 . Vol.
.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art “ From Van Eyck to Bruegel” (Early Netherlandish Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art”, pag. 390
.- Fundación Carlos de Amberes “ El arte del grabado Flamenco y Holandés, De lucas van Leyden a Martin de Vos “, pag. 116,109
.- Florence de Volderé “La peinture Flamande du XVI au XVIII siecle”pag,273, 283.
MUSEUMS
There are works by Frans Floris in the museum collections of the following cities, among others: Antwerp. Avignion, Berlin, Brunswick, Brussels, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dresden, Florence, Glasgow, Graz, Hamburg, The Hague, Liège, Liverpool, Madrid (Prado), Munich, Prague, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Turin, Valenciennes, Vienna …
ART FAIRS:
TEFAF MAASTRITCH 2024