Follower of Martens Van Heemskerck

Follower of MARTENS VAN HEEMSKERCK (Heemskerk, 1498 - Haarlem, 1574)
"The procession of poverty".
Oil on panel. Cradled.
It presents Repainting on the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 68 x 99 cm; 84 x 114 cm (frame).
The scene is framed in a characteristic landscape of the Dutch painting of the time, where a city, several houses and a river that crosses the composition are represented. In this environment, several small figures are arranged, meticulously integrated into the whole. Against the landscape background, a procession stands out and captures the viewer's attention: a chariot pulled by two starving horses, an evident symbol of deprivation, carries a page boy dressed in yellow and, in a preferential seat, a woman with torn clothes and a haggard face. She is accompanied by several allegorical figures: a girl holding up a red fruit, a woman in chains symbolizing the lack of freedom and another female figure carrying a red spiked element on a plate, reminiscent of a thorny heart, emblem of the sufferings associated with poverty.
The composition invites to establish parallels with other works in the history of art. The procession depicted evokes the reverse of the Diptych of the Duke of Urbino by Piero della Francesca (1472, Uffizi Gallery, Florence), where triumphal processions are represented with a marked allegorical symbolism. The presence of such peculiar elements as the barbed heart also refers to the enigmatic creations of Bosch, whose compositions have been the subject of numerous studies for their possible relationship with popular sayings and Flemish traditions. In this context, the female figure presiding over the procession could embody poverty, while the rest of the characters and symbols would represent the hardships associated with this condition: deprivation of freedom, hunger, illness or death.
The author of the work, Marten Jacobszoon Heemskerk van Veen, was one of the most prominent painters of the Netherlands in the sixteenth century, belonging to the so-called Antwerp school. Known for his portraits, religious paintings and the famous representations of the Seven Wonders of the World, disseminated through engravings throughout Europe, his artistic career was marked by the influence of Italian Mannerism. Trained with Jan van Scorel, he acquired the foundations of the Mannerist language in his workshop, although his style was profoundly transformed after his stay in Italy, especially in Rome, where it is believed that he collaborated with Antonio da Sangallo the Younger on the Porta di San Sebastiano. On his return to the Netherlands in 1536, he maintained an ornamental taste that gave him prestige and a well-to-do position. His work, although not very abundant, is preserved in prominent institutions such as the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, the National Museum in Warsaw or the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, in addition to important private collections.