The flowers and other still-life elements are by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625).  Dr. Klaus Ertz dates painting circa 1610-20. 

Hendrick van Balen was one of the foremost figure painters in Antwerp in the first decades of the seventeenth century.  He was born in Antwerp around 1575, and according to Karel van Mander, trained with Adam van Noort (1562-1641).  He became a master in the city’s Guild of Saint Luke in 1592-93, and shortly afterwards travelled to Italy, visiting Rome and Venice.  Returning to his hometown around 1602, he established a successful workshop.  Although Van Balen produced some large altarpieces, he is primarily known as a painter of small-scale cabinet pictures, usually painted on panel or copper supports, depicting religious, mythological and allegorical scenes.   He often collaborated with other Antwerp painters, providing figures for the landscapes and floral garlands of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625) and the Younger (1601-1678), Joos de Momper (1564-1635), Gaspar de Witte (1624-1681), Lucas van Uden (1596-1672) and others. 

The romantic adventures of the gods was a popular theme for cabinet-sized mythological paintings of the early seventeenth century.  In this small painting on copper, Van Balen captured an intimate moment in the often turbulent relationship between Vulcan and Venus.  According to Roman mythology, Venus, goddess of love, was married to Vulcan, the lame god of fire and metalworking.  Venus was, however, unfaithful and embarked upon an illicit affair with Mars, the god of war.  Here, husband and wife are shown in happier times seated close together in a small bedchamber, hung with heavy draperies, accompanied by Cupid, the son of Venus.  Vulcan inclines towards Venus with amorous intent: in response, she meets his ardent gaze with an adoring look, while pointing suggestively to a fire burning brightly in a small brazier.  Cupid, assuming his role as an agent of love, heats the tip of an arrow in the flames.  Cupid’s bow and a few stray flowers are strewn across the floor. 

Like many cabinet paintings of this period, this painting is a collaborative effort.  While Van Balen painted the figures and interior, he called upon his colleague Jan Brueghel the Elder to add the still-life elements.  Brueghel’s hand can be detected in the delicate brushwork used to describe the leaping flames in the finely wrought metal brazier, the flowers, Cupid’s bow and arrows, and the delicate jewellery worn by Venus.  The practice of collaborative painting was a common phenomenon in Antwerp in the early seventeenth century and was largely a result of the high degree of specialisation that individual artists developed in particular genres.   Beginning around 1604, Brueghel and Van Balen worked together on many occasions until Brueghel’s sudden death in 1625.  In addition, they enjoyed a close friendship and were neighbours in the Lange Nieuwestraat in Antwerp for many years.  On several occasions they served as godparents to each other’s offspring, and after Brueghel’s death, Van Balen became guardian to Brueghel’s underage children and continued to work with his son Jan the Younger. 

Dr. Klaus Ertz dated the present painting to circa 1610-20 by which time the slim, elongated Mannerist figure types of Van Balen’s early works had given way to more full-bodied, substantial figures under the influence of Rubens (1577-1640).  Here, Venus displays a languid beauty, emphasised by the contrast of the creamy-white expanse of her soft, naked body with the darker, muscular physique of Vulcan. 

The mythological subject and amorous nature of the encounter between Venus and Vulcan was ideally suited to the meticulously crafted format of the intimate cabinet painting, prized by sophisticated collectors of the day.  As in the present case, the precious quality of such works was often enhanced by the use of a copper support.  The smooth surface of the metal lent itself to the rendering of meticulous detail and gave an added brilliance to the colours of oil paint.  Here, the glowing tints of blue, yellow and red add to the picture’s allure. 

BIOGRAPHY 

Hendrick van Balen was born in Antwerp around 1575 and, according to Karel van Mander, was a pupil of Adam van Noort (1562-1641).  He became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1592-3.  Although undocumented, he apparently made a trip to Italy around 1595 to 1600, as he joined the Society of Romanists (membership in the latter was restricted to persons who had travelled to Rome) after his return to Antwerp.   During his stay in Italy, it is generally assumed that he met the German painter Hans Rottenhammer (1564-1625) in Venice because of the similarity in their work.  Van Balen was back in Antwerp by 1602 where he resided for the rest of his life.  His name appears regularly in the records of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke from that date on, especially in his capacity as a teacher.  In 1605, van Balen married Margareta Briers in Antwerp and the couple had eleven children: three sons, Jan, Gaspar and Hendrick II became painters and their daughter, Maria, married the painter Theodore van Thulden (1606-1669).  Van Balen owned a large house on the Lange Nieuwestraat in Antwerp.  He served as Dean of the Guild in 1609-10 and as Dean of the Society of Romanists in 1613.  Also in 1613, Van Balen went on a diplomatic mission to the Dutch Republic in the company of Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, where he met Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) and other Haarlem artists.  Van Balen ran a successful studio for more than thirty years and had many pupils, including Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) and Frans Snyders (1579-1657).   Van Dyck included a portrait of his former teacher in his Iconography, a series of prints depicting the most famous leaders, soldiers, scholars and painters of his time.  Van Balen is portrayed as a pictor doctus and, in reference to his knowledge of the art of antiquity, holds an antique head in one hand.  Van Balen died on 17 July 1632 and was buried in the St. Jacobskerk in Antwerp. 

Jan Brueghel was born in Brussels in 1568, the second son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569) and Maeycken Coecke van Aelst.  His father died shortly after his birth and it is said that his earliest artistic training was with his maternal grandmother, Mayken Verhulst, a miniaturist and watercolour painter.  According to the biographer and art theorist, Karel van Mander, he was taught to paint in oils by Pieter Gotekindt in Antwerp.  Brueghel travelled to Italy between 1589 and 1596 and, in Rome, met Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who became his most important patron, with whom he conducted an extensive correspondence for the rest of his life.  Upon his return to Antwerp, he joined the St. Luke’s Guild and became dean in 1601.  He married Isabella de Jode in 1599 and, in 1601, their first son, Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) was born.  His wife died suddenly in 1603, perhaps at the birth of their daughter, Paschasia.  In 1604, he travelled to Prague, returning to Antwerp later that year.  The following year he married Catharina van Marienberghe who bore him eight children.  In 1606, he was in Nuremburg and the same year he was appointed court painter to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella in Brussels.  Around 1613, he visited Holland on a diplomatic mission in the company of Rubens (1577-1640) and Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632).   In 1625, Jan Brueghel died from cholera during an epidemic which also claimed the lives of three of his children.