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Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery in Brussels

David Teniers the Younger, 1650

David Teniers the Younger's Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery in Brussels (1650) is a painted record of one of the great princely art collections of the 17th century. It shows the Archduke and his companions surrounded by framed pictures, and it belongs to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Where to see it

The painting is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Works can be moved, rehung or lent, so check the museum's official website for current display status before you visit.

What to look for in person

The Archduke and his cane

Start with the figures in the room. Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Habsburg governor of the Spanish Netherlands and a passionate collector, stands among friends and uses a cane to point out pictures he has recently acquired. Teniers makes the act of showing and looking the real subject of the scene. Notice how the gestures and turned heads guide your eye from the people to the paintings, so that the collection itself becomes the centre of attention rather than any single portrait.

The painter in his own picture

Look for the man holding his hat while he listens to the Archduke: this is Teniers himself. As court painter and keeper of the collection, he shows himself at work in a respectful, attentive pose, half servant and half expert. The detail is a reminder that he was not just a visitor to this gallery but the person responsible for its pictures. Compare his modest posture with the confident, pointing figure of his patron beside him.

A wall built of paintings

Then step back and take in the hang. Pictures are stacked frame to frame in rows on the back wall, more line the left side of the vestibule, and some lean against chairs in the foreground, as if just unpacked. Teniers paints each one as a recognisable miniature, closely enough that the originals can often be identified. Spend time scanning the rows: the dense, floor-to-ceiling arrangement is typical of 17th-century collectors' galleries and very different from a modern museum display.

About the painting

Teniers worked in Brussels as court painter to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, and one of his tasks was to record the Archduke's growing collection. This canvas, painted in oil and measuring 123 by 163 cm, is among the first pictures he made with that aim. It shows the Archduke viewing Italian paintings he had recently bought from the collection of the Duke of Hamilton, an acquisition that greatly enriched his holdings of Venetian and other Italian art.

The Vienna painting is one of several related versions. It is usually described as Teniers's own replica of a composition now at Petworth House, south of London. The two are about the same size and show the same group of paintings on the walls, but the figures are arranged differently; the Petworth picture also includes a portrait of Bishop Anthonius Triest, who had introduced Teniers to the Archduke. A larger related work on copper, showing a different selection of paintings, is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The Vienna version was commissioned by the Archduke and kept in his own collection, while other versions served as gifts.

These gallery pictures were part of a larger documentary project. Teniers went on to produce the Theatrum Pictorium, an engraved catalogue of the Archduke's Italian paintings, published in Antwerp in 1659 and again in 1673. Many of the works shown in the painting later entered the imperial Habsburg collections, which is why a visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum offers the chance to compare Teniers's tiny painted copies with originals in the same building.

Key facts

More by David Teniers the Younger

• Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery — Museo del Prado

Sources

• Wikidata Q19960950
• Wikipedia (en) (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Wikipedia (ja) (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• www.khm.at