Andries Daniels (c. 1580-1640), attributed to: 'The wedding of Mary and Joseph' in an oval medallion with a floral garland, oil on canvas

1164
This lot was sold on 2022-05-14 and is no longer available

Dim.: 129 x 110 cm (the frame)
Dim.: 107,5 x 89,5 cm (the work)

Andries Daniels (c. 1580 – after 1640) was a Flemish painter who was active in Antwerp during the first half of the 17th century. He is known for his flower still lifes and garland paintings, a genre of still life paintings that he helped develop in Antwerp.

Little is known about his life. No records of the date and place of his birth or the names of his parents have been found to date.

He is first mentioned in 1599 when he is registered under the name Andries Daniels at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. He was recorded as a pupil studying painting with Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Pieter Brueghel the Younger was the son of the prominent landscape and genre painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder and brother of Jan Brueghel the Elder, a prolific painter in many genres and a major contributor in the development of floral painting in Northern Europe. Daniels may have participated in copying works of Pieter Brueghel the Elder during his period of apprenticeship. In 1602 he was registered as a master of the Guild.

He executed a joint will with his wife Jozijnke van der Hoerst on 25 July 1640, which is the last record of his life. The date and place of his death are unknown.

Daniels played a role in the development of the genre of garland paintings. Garland paintings are a special type of still life developed in Antwerp by artists such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, Hendrick van Balen, Frans Francken the Younger, Peter Paul Rubens and Daniel Seghers. They typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait. This genre was inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to Mary prevalent at the Habsburg court (then the rulers over the Southern Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally.

Daniels is known as a painter of still lifes, in particular still lifes of flowers in flamboyant vases, and flower garlands. Not many of his works are known as he was only rediscovered in the 1950s–1960s.

Only one signed painting, the Garland of Flowers around an image of the Holy Family and Angels (current location unknown, at Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo in 1967) bearing the signature 'ANDRIES.DANIELS.F.' has been found so far. This work has been the basis for attributing additional works to the artist, in particular works previously attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder. However, art historians do not agree on various attributions and earlier attributions have been contested subsequently. An example is the Garland of Flowers with Virgin and Child in the Hermitage Museum, the flower part of which was attributed to Daniels by Ingvar Bergström before 1966. This attribution has been challenged by Fred G. Meijer who found that the Hermitage painting's execution of the flowers is different from the handling of flowers in the signed painting. The attribution to Daniels of a Virgin and Child in a Garland of Flowers, (c. 1608, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan) traditionally attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder has also failed to find unanimous support among experts.