Scene from the Wedding of Messalina and Gaius Sillius

Nicolaes Knupfer, c. 1645 - c. 1650

The promiscuous Messalina, the bare-breasted woman in the centre, was the wife of Emperor Claudius. She committed adultery by marrying Sillius and they organized an inordinately lavish banquet to celebrate their wedding. The group peering out the window is on to something; Emperor Claudius is approaching the palace to put an end to the infidelity, drinking and merrymaking. Messalina’s frenzied greed ultimately led to her downfall.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-4779
  • Dimensionssupport: height 59.7 cm x width 74.4 cm, outer size: depth 6.5 cm (support incl. frame)
  • Physical characteristicsoil on panel

Identification

  • Title(s)

    • Messalina and Silius before the Return of Claudius ?
    • Brothel Scene, possibly an Episode from a Story (former title)
    • Scene from the Wedding of Messalina and Gaius Sillius

  • Object type

  • Object number

    SK-A-4779

  • Description

    Scène uit het huwelijk van Messalina en Gaius Silius. Centrale figuren zijn Gaius Silius gekleed in militair tenue met toneellaarsjes aan en een wijnglas in zijn hand en Messalina, een jonge vrouw met ontblote borsten die Gaius vanaf een bed meesleept. Op het bed links een vrouw met een hoed op de rechtervoet die met haar rechterhand de binnenkant van Gaius dijbeen beroert. Op tafel staan twee mannen uit het venster te kijken. Een vierde man valt op de voorgrond dronken van zijn stoel terwijl hij zijn zwaard probeert te trekken. Naast hem staat een vrouw met een luit. Links op de voorgrond een grote wijnkoeler met een wijnrank.

  • Inscriptions / marks

    • signature, bottom left, near the grapevine: ‘NKnupfer’
    • inscription, on the reverse: ‘St. CLOUD TABLEAU RECLAMÉ’

  • Part of catalogue

Creation

  • Creation

    painter: Nicolaes Knupfer

  • Dating

    c. 1645 - c. 1650

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Material and technique

  • Physical description

    oil on panel

  • Dimensions

    • support: height 59.7 cm x width 74.4 cm
    • outer size: depth 6.5 cm (support incl. frame)

This work is about

  • Subject

Acquisition and rights

  • Credit line

    Gift of the Rijksmuseum-Stichting

  • Acquisition

    gift 1981

  • Copyright

    Public domain

  • Provenance

    …; collection Louis Philippe Joseph (1747-1793), Duc d’Orléans, Palais Royal, Paris, after 1788;{Inscription on an engraving by Jan-Louis Delignon (as J.B. Weenix), _La Gaieté Bachique_, 1808; illustrated in J. Couché, _Galerie du Palais Royal gravée d'après les tableaux des différentes écoles qui la composent […]: Dediée à S.A.S. Monseigneur le duc d’Orléans_, III, Paris 1808, unpag. For the period of acquisition see also the entry.} from whom, with the other Dutch and Flemish paintings in his collection, fr. 350,000, to Thomas Moore Slade, London, 1792/93;{W. Buchanan, _Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution_, I, London 1824, pp. 159-64; D. Sutton, ‘Aspects of British Collecting, III.XIII: The Orléans Collection’, _Apollo_ 119 (1984), pp. 357-72, esp. pp. 359-62.} his sale, London, Pall Mall (auction house not known), April 1793, no. 251, as J.B. Weenix (‘The debauch’);{GPI, Br-A5163.}…; ? sale, Auguste-Louis-César-Hipolite-Théodore de L’Espinasse de Langeac, Comte d’Arlet, Paris (Constantin), 4 January 1815 _sqq._, no. 204, as N. Knupfer (‘L’enfant prodigue avec ses maîtresses, ou peut-être un musico hollandaise, sur bois’);…; sale, William Wilkins (1778-1839, Cambridge), London (Christie’s), 22 May 1830, no. 2, as Jan Baptist Weenix (‘The Prodigal Son, or La Gaieté bacchique, as it was denominated when in the Orléans collection. An inscription on the back of the panel states it to have been one of the Tableaux reclamés de St. Cloud, from which palace it had been surreptitiously abstracted. Houbraken, in his Lives of the Painters, notices this picture as being one of the most celebrated of this master’), bought in at 40 gns;{Copy RKD. See the entry for the inscription referred to in this sale catalogue.}…; collection Count André Mniszech (1823-1905), Paris;{Note RMA. Not located in the catalogue for the sale, Countess André Mniszech, Paris (H. Baudoin, Hôtel Drouot), 10 May 1910.}…; collection Adolphe Schloss (c. 1842/43-1910) and his wife, Lucie Schloss (1858-1938), Paris; confiscated by the Nazis from their children, Château de Chambon, near Tulle, 1943; restituted to the Schloss family after World War II; their sale, Paris (Galerie Charpentier), 25 May 1949, no. 28, fr. 480,000;{Copy RMA. According to the catalogue for the sale, The Duke of Beaufort et al., London (Sotheby’s), 10 December 1980, no. 62, the painting was purchased at the 1949 sale by a member of the family who brought it into the 1980 sale.}…; private collection, Le Verviers, near Liège;{Note RMA.}…; sale, The Duke of Beaufort et al., London (Sotheby’s), 10 December 1980, no.18,000, to the dealer Hoogsteder; from whom purchased by the museum, as a gift from the Rijksmuseum-Stichting, 1981

  • Remarks

    Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.

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