The painter, draughtsman and printmaker David Vinckboons was a key figure in the development of genre painting in the Northern Netherlands at the dawn of the Golden Age. Born in Flanders, he was only ten years old when his family settled in Amsterdam in 1586. David’s father was also a painter and trained his son in the Flemish tradition. Vinckboons’s oeuvre comprises landscapes, history subjects and genre paintings. In addition to peasant scenes that clearly descend from Pieter Bruegel the Elder, he also explored the theme of the elegant garden party in a dozen or so closely related paintings executed between 1610 and 1622. With these depictions of fashionably dressed figures making music, feasting and courting in the open air, the Dutch tradition of the so-called “merry company” was born. Before long, this appealing subject caught on with genre painters working in nearby Haarlem, most notably Willem Buytewech, Esaias van de Velde and Dirck Hals.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, certain religious and mythological subjects that had long been familiar in Netherlandish art came to be treated as scenes from everyday life, or genre scenes, as this category of art became known. In this way, a particular moral sense, or sometimes a specific religious meaning, began to be associated with a particular type of scene. This process of carrying over or transferral of meaning from a clearly allegorical representation to a realistic one gave rise to a new range of secular subject matter. The origins of the “outdoor merry company”, or buijtenpartij, are complex, but one of the most important sources for this theme can be found in Flemish Mannerist prototypes that depict scenes of carefree feasting and self-indulgence, such as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, or Mankind before the Flood. These biblical scenes showed extravagance and luxury which, as every good Christian would have known, led to inevitable retribution and, to some extent, this sense of moral condemnation was transposed to the “merry companies”.

In David Vinckboons’s depictions of garden parties, the link with the visual tradition of the Prodigal Son can be clearly demonstrated. For example, in his Elegant Company in the open Air, of c. 1610 (Fig. 1.), in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the artist depicts a party of merrymakers dining beneath trees, with a drunken young man collapsed in the foreground, which recalls the figure of the Prodigal Son as portrayed in a drawing by Hans Bol (Fig. 2), another Flemish émigré working in Amsterdam. Vinckboons himself depicted the parable in 1608 in a suite of four drawings preserved in the British Museum. In the second sheet from the series (Fig. 3), an elegant party, similar to the one in the Amsterdam painting, is courting, making music and dancing around a laden table, while the penniless Prodigal Son is seen in the background, being thrown out of a tavern. Vinckboons’s paintings of this subject invariably evoke the same iconography, although they contain no direct references to the Parable.

This painting from 1619 is among David Vinckboons boldest examples of this genre. The garden party takes place in the grounds of a Renaissance palace. A leafy arbour leads to a secluded corner of the garden, where four elegantly dressed couples dine from a table, decked with delicacies. Their needs are attended to by a young waiter who serves drinks from a large wine cooler and a maidservant who brings sumptuous dishes to the table. A dandy fellow in a tall plumed hat serenades the company to the strains of a small guitar, while his female companion tunes a lute. On the far side of the table, two lovers engage in an intimate embrace, while two others step out in a stately dance. In the foreground, a drunken figure, dressed completely in red, is collapsed on the ground, with his head in the lap of a young woman: she, temptress-like feeds him slices of apple, while he calls for more alcohol. Despite the idyllic setting and mood of gaiety, the scene is tinged with moralising overtones and, whilst there are no explicit references to the Prodigal Son, the viewer is left in no doubt that the scene is one of moral decay. Ostentatious consumption and sinful pleasures are here embodied by the peacock pie – a well-known symbol of pride – and the fat man in red, who abandons his responsibilities - symbolised by his discarded books and sword - and gives himself over to wine, women and song. The beautiful young woman, with an apple in her hand, represents an unmistakable allusion to Eve and the Fall of Man, while the monkey, a traditional symbol of man’s baser instincts and, lust, in particular, which gorges itself on fruit, warns of the consequences of such reprehensible behaviour. The implication is clear: like the ripe fruit, which soon will rot, so, too, the revellers will spoil their pleasure with over-indulgence and sensual gratification. Meanwhile, a stag, symbol of prudence, views the spectacle from the sidelines. In addition to these moralising motifs, the idealised park-like setting, with clipped hedges and leafy arbours, is reminiscent of elements from the late medieval theme of the love garden, another important source for the outdoor garden party theme.

Compared with Vinckboons’s early fêtes champêtres, the figures in our painting are fewer in number, but larger in scale. Whereas previously they were situated somewhat further back in the composition, here they are brought right forward and occupy a relatively shallow, room-like space in front of a screen of lush vegetation. The vibrant palette of rich greens and contrasting reds is characteristic of the artist’s Flemish heritage.

David Vinckboons was born on 13 August 1576 in the Flemish town of Mechelen. He was the third son of the artist Philips Vinckboons (1545-1610), who entered the Mechelen guild in 1573 and Cornelia Carré, widow of the painter Philip Loemans of Leipzig. In 1579 the family moved to Antwerp, where Philips entered the guild and David became his pupil. According to Karel van Mander, David’s earliest training was in watercolours, a medium in which his father specialised. When Antwerp fell to Spanish control in 1586, the Protestant Vinckboons family emigrated north, residing briefly in Middelburg, before settling in Amsterdam in 1591. On 8 October 1602, David was married in Leeuwarden to Agnieta van Loon, the daughter of a wealthy notary and sister of the painter, Willem van Loon. Soon after their wedding the couple moved to Amsterdam. In 1611, David purchased a house on the Sint Anthoniesbreestraat, where he lived for the rest of his life and which later became the working base for his sons, the famous cartographers and architects. David Vinckboons died some time before 12 January 1633, when Agnieta is recorded as a widow with eight children who were still minors.

Fig. 1. David Vinckboons, Elegant Company in the open Air, c. 1610, panel,

28.5 x 44 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. A2109.

Fig. 2. Hans Bol (1534-1593), The Prodigal Son squandering his Inheritance, drawing, 8.1 x 12.3 cm, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna.

Fig. 3. David Vinckboons, The Prodigal Son, 1608, pen and brown ink with brown and grey-blue wash on paper, 21.8 x 31.3 cm, British Museum, London, inv. no. 13231.

P.M.