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拍品专文
The textual source for this composition is Ovid's Metamorphoses (XI:146-193), in which the poet recounts how Pan boasts to a group of nymphs that not only is his musical talent far greater than that of Apollo, but that he despises the god's performances in comparison to his own. The ensuing competition is judged by the mountain god Tmolus, who in Jordaens' painting appears as a bearded, nude man draped in a sumptuous red cloth, seated beneath the tree. Pan sits in the right foreground, playing his reed pipes, while Apollo gracefully stands before him, a lyre by his side. In keeping with Ovid's account, Jordaens has assembled a diverse audience of nymphs and other mythical creatures to witness the contest, including the drunken Silenus at right, who gazes out at the viewer. Toward the center of the composition stands Midas, the King of Phrygia, who had previously been granted the terrible power to turn everything he touches into gold. Once again the king has a lapse of judgment and, disagreeing with Tmolus - who favors Phoebus Apollo - declares Pan the winner. As a punishment for his impudence and poor taste, Apollo causes Midas to grow ass's ears. Jordaens likely intended this composition to have a moralizing function: as the Netherlandish artist and historian Karel van Mander explained in his Wtlegghingh op den Metamorphosis, published in Haarlem in 1604, the Christian moral of this story is that man should not be tempted to oppose God's will through pride (see d'Hulst, op. cit., 1974, p. 232).
Jordaens depicted the musical contest between Apollo and Pan on several occasions. He first treated the theme in 1636, while collaborating with Rubens on the decoration of Philip IV's Torre de la Parada. Working from Rubens' oil sketch, Jordaens produced a large canvas for the King (now in the Prado, Madrid), representing the four main protagonists of Ovid's tale in a frieze-like arrangement. Executed on a smaller scale, the present painting was considered by d'Hulst to be a cabinet-piece, datable to 1640 (op. cit., 1982, p. 176). Although the scholar initially catalogued the work as by Jordaens (with studio help), after further consideration he concluded that it "must be almost completely by the hand of the master" (written communication, 3 August 1985). A preparatory drawing in the British Museum (fig. 1) reveals minor differences relative to the painting. Most notably, in the drawing, the nymphs wear fewer clothes and the woman and child on the right lack cloven hoofs. Two other painted versions of the subject are known: the first was sold from the Huybrechts, Antwerp for the Ghent Museum, which d'Hulst ascribed to the studio (Hulst, op. cit., 1974, p. 233). A reduced version on panel, which may originally have formed the lid of a Rickers harpsichord or virginals, was offered at Sotheby's, New York, 27 January 2011, lot 268.
Jordaens depicted the musical contest between Apollo and Pan on several occasions. He first treated the theme in 1636, while collaborating with Rubens on the decoration of Philip IV's Torre de la Parada. Working from Rubens' oil sketch, Jordaens produced a large canvas for the King (now in the Prado, Madrid), representing the four main protagonists of Ovid's tale in a frieze-like arrangement. Executed on a smaller scale, the present painting was considered by d'Hulst to be a cabinet-piece, datable to 1640 (op. cit., 1982, p. 176). Although the scholar initially catalogued the work as by Jordaens (with studio help), after further consideration he concluded that it "must be almost completely by the hand of the master" (written communication, 3 August 1985). A preparatory drawing in the British Museum (fig. 1) reveals minor differences relative to the painting. Most notably, in the drawing, the nymphs wear fewer clothes and the woman and child on the right lack cloven hoofs. Two other painted versions of the subject are known: the first was sold from the Huybrechts, Antwerp for the Ghent Museum, which d'Hulst ascribed to the studio (Hulst, op. cit., 1974, p. 233). A reduced version on panel, which may originally have formed the lid of a Rickers harpsichord or virginals, was offered at Sotheby's, New York, 27 January 2011, lot 268.