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Artist or Maker: Daniel Seghers (Antwerp 1590-1661) and
Erasmus Quellinus II (Antwerp 1607-1678)

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Notes: Collaborative paintings that combined history subjects with flower still lifes are among some of the most beautiful paintings produced by Flemish artists in the seventeenth century. History painters such as Rubens and Hendrik van Balen worked with Jan Brueghel I on themes such as the four seasons, the five senses, or religious subjects such as the Virgin and Child encircled by a wreath of flowers. Daniel Seghers specialised almost exclusively in paintings of this type and Saint Joseph with the Christ Child within a cartouche surrounded by tulips, roses, forget-me-nots, columbine and other flowers is a beautiful example of his most important contribution to this genre. Indeed, Seghers was the first to paint garlands and flowers woven into stone cartouches, as they are in this painting, and they were enormously popular with his contemporaries. Erasmus Quellinus, known for his sculptural, dramatically lit paintings in the Caravaggesque tradition, was the perfect partner in this kind of collaboration and may well have contributed to its innovation. Erasmus' brother, Artus, worked as a sculptor for many years in Rome and the two often collaborated on commissions upon his return to the Netherlands.

The contrast of the flowers against the stone is dramatic and each emphasises the texture and colour of the other. In this painting, tulips, columbine and other flowers are held together with ivy and elegantly placed around the cartouche in three groupings that reflect its shape. The jasmine on either side of St. Joseph and Christ Child appear almost to glow against the grey stone, their cast shadows emphasising the spatial relationship between the flowers and the sculpted niche and demonstrating Seghers' considerable powers of illusionism. There seems to have been some thematic connection for the Seghers between the flowers and the scenes they accompany. Roses and other spiny plants often surround martyrdoms and scenes of the Passion, such as the Ecce Homo (Vatican Museum, Rome), and Seghers painted a wreath entirely of roses above the head of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, in a monumental painting now in Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum). In many works such as St. Joseph and the Christ Child within a cartouche..., however, a broad range of flowers just coming into bloom surrounds the central image. Indeed, Seghers' flowers are never in full bloom or past their prime, subtly suggesting the endless potential that awaits the viewer who becomes a believer.

Although Seghers' work was in great demand, his paintings were not actually for sale. They adorned churches and were offered to dignitaries as gifts, and may commissions were paid to the Order in a form other than monetary. It is difficult to establish a chronology of Seghers' paintings as dated works are only extant from 1635-51 and there is no clear stylistic development during the course of his career apart from the kinds of flowers he depicted. Almost all of Seghers' works are recorded in the catalogue he compiled during the course of his career, 'Catalogue of Flower Pieces which I have painted by my own hand, and for whom'. Documents record that Seghers and Quellinus collaborated on at least 29 paintings (half of which can be identified), all floral garlands encircling a religious image. All but one of their paintings is signed by one of the two artists, reflecting 17th century workshop practice in the Netherlands in which one of two collaborators took charge of the painting and saw it through to its eventual sale. In addition to Quellinus, Seghers also collaborated with Rubens, Cornelis Schut, Simon de Vos, and Abraham Diepenbeeck.

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