— Article written by Fred, 16/01/2010 —
In the 1650 's the Abondance was a popular design. It has and still ornate a room of Rubens house in Antwerp.
The dispute about the origin of this panel, is it Dutch, or is it Flemish, is not yet set.
There are no facts, no documents, that set this matter.
Today, "authority's" in this particular field, will catalogue this design as Dutch.
I tend to say its Flemish (as I am) not just out of misplaced proud, this design reflects the Flemish baroque mind and soul, its opulent and rich, it's a showcase. The Dutch in this period were incline to introspection. Protestantism made them ponder about life and death, think of the popular Vanitas paintings the Dutch loved so much. Or the, superb, domestic paintings of Vermeer. Most of the dutch painting of that period was small-scale. smaller housing and a more modest way of living and an intellectual richness of inner life are not in favor of a Dutch attribution.
In Flanders the spirit was very different, it was festive, luxurious and opulent. appearances were important, the inner life not to be shown. Rubens and Jordaens were the artists whom dominated this period, the scale of Flemish paintings was large not ot say huge sometimes. This makes this design very Flemish to me.
The Abondance is composed out of a left and a right hand panel, in our workshop we call this panel the Left Hand Abondance, the particularity of this panel is a pronounced embossing. Here a sample of a polychrome panel on a silver background.
This is the Right Hand Abondance Silver on Grey background with Gilded Birds.
