Much evidence has been uncovered about the origins of the Linder Gallery over the past fifteen years. We now know with reasonable certainty that the painting was commissioned by German merchant Peter Linder and that it involved significant intellectual input from Urbino mathematician Mutio Oddi. It appears to have been painted between 1622 and 1629; and it seems that intellectual exchanges between artists in Antwerp and scientists and intellectuals in Milan played a key role in its creation. Linder resided in Milan during this period and it is likely that he previously traveled to Antwerp where his likeness appears (along with those of Peter Paul Rubens and, possibly, Anthony van Dyck) in the study drawing for the painting. We know where the painting was in the mid-17^th Century and from the mid-19^th Century to the present. However, we are still far from certain of the identity of the artist (or artists) responsible.

A 10,000 euro prize, the Linder Gallery Prize (the “Award”), has been established for the discovery of documentary evidence which leads to the certain attribution of the painter of the Linder Gallery.

The jury which will decide the winner or shared winners of the Award will be composed of Ronald H. Cordover (private collector, New York, New York), Michael John Gorman (Director, Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland), and Alexander Marr (University Lecturer in the History of Art, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England). Its decision on granting all or part of the Award shall be considered final and not subject to dispute, and by participating each person or persons submitting information shall confirm this element of the Award process.

The prize has been created to further appreciate the commerce in ideas during the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century and the roles played by artists and scientists in the wider dispersal of these ideas; to better understand the mechanisms for the exchange of information between Antwerp and Milan at the beginning of the 17^th Century; and to discover additional provenance for the Linder Gallery Interior from c.1640 in the Linder family to c.1850 when it appears in the collection of Baron Anselm von Rothschild. We believe that research leading to the certain attribution of the Linder Gallery painting will aid in better understanding these matters.

As those of you who are familiar with this site know, clear evidence suggests that the Linder Gallery Interior painting was commenced after 1622 and completed between 1627 and 1629. The latter date is determined by a 1629 letter written to Mutio Oddi in which the author describes seeing the painting in the home of Peter Linder in Milan. A partial translation of the letter is available on the website. The earlier date is suggested by the beginning of the relationship between the conceptual father of the painting’s allegory, Mutio Oddi, and Linder its patron. In addition, from the study drawing for the painting in which Linder seems to appear with Peter Paul Rubens and his apprentice Anthony van Dyck, there is a reasonable likelihood that Linder traveled to Antwerp around 1618.

Eligibility: The Award shall be open to all, but shall exclude the jurors or their family members.

Term of the Award: The Award will remain open for submissions until year end 2013. However, if a winner is not selected by that time, depending on the progress of submissions, the jury may decide to extend the deadline.

Selection: The prize will be awarded to the first person (according to the timestamp on the web submission) to submit evidence establishing reasonably certain attribution, as determined by the jury in its sole and final judgment

Confidentiality: All submissions will be treated confidentially unless specifically permitted to be released by their author or authors.

Background information/publications: For background information and relevant publications to assist in your research see: Resources

Making your submission: Please forward your submission including relevant documentary references, or any queries, by clicking on the Contact menu at the top of the home page.

We will publish relevant information in a timely manner on this website.

Ronald H. Cordover

July 5, 2012

While some comments herein are speculative in nature, as we don’t have certain evidence of authorship, the following is support for the idea that the principal painter was Jan Brueghel the Elder and that the painting was completed in the early 1620’s.

Indications pointing to Brueghel:

1) Stylistic: The genre of painting, that of formal “gallery interiors” or “cabinets of collections”, was developed in the second decade of the 17th century in Antwerp and was popularized by Jan Brueghel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens and Franz Francken the Younger. Several scholars and dealers familiar with these and other painters of the period have indicated that the detail within the painting and extraordinary quality of execution point to Jan Brueghel the Elder.

2) Provenance: The Rothschild’s family records indicate that Jan Brueghel the Elder was the painter. When the painting was sold by the Rothschild’s to the family of Mellon-Evans in 1957-58, it was represented as by Brueghel. While certainly not dispositive, there is a reasonable likelihood that these owners from the mid-19th to the mid 20th century had certain provenance and authorship information which led them to this conclusion.

3) Preparatory drawing: The preparatory drawing (in the Windsor collection) appears to contain three identifiable portraits within it. The principal party in the group—looking out at the viewer, a technique often expressing authorship—is essentially identical to self portraits of Peter Paul Rubens. The second likeness, with “wild” hair, is highly suggestive of Jan van Dyck who was a student of Rubens during the couple of years just prior to 1620. Finally, the third party, with elegant dress and formal posture, resembles portraits of Peter Linder, the German merchant living in Milan at that time, whose family crest is clearly identifiable at the top of the window on the left of the finished painting. At the time that Van Dyck was working in Ruben’s studio Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens were completing their extraordinary joint creative effort, sometimes referred to as the “Senses” paintings, now residing in the Prado Museum in Madrid. The close personal relationship between Rubens and Brueghel is well documented.

4) Patron/Milan connection: The family crest in the upper left window of the painting has been identified as that of the German merchant Peter Linder who was resident in Milan in the 1620’s. A letter to Mutio Oddi, a mathematician and scientist from Urbino, dated 1629, makes specific reference to its writer having just been in the Linder home and seeing the painting “conceived” by Mutio Oddi. Peter Linder was a student of Mutio Oddi whose likeness appears on one of the medallions on the center table of the Linder Gallery painting. Peter Linder was a friend of Cardinal Federico Borromeo of Milan, who, during the period from just before 1600 to around 1630, with the assistance of his agent Ercole Bianchi, was collecting and displaying important works by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Jan Brueghel the Elder lived in Borromeo’s house in the mid 1590’s before returning to Antwerp.

Issues to overcome as to Brueghel’s authorship:

1) Jan Brueghel the Elder died in early 1625. One of the books on the center table in the painting, Tabula Rudolfine by Johannes Kepler, was published in 1627, after Brueghel’s death. However, this critical mathematical summary of the observations of Tycho Brahe of the orbit of the planet Mars through the sky was created and finished more than a decade earlier and prominent scientists such as Mutio Oddi could very well have known about it. In the critical reference to the cosmological system of Brahe, included in the planetary drawing on the center table, the inclusion of Kepler’s book would have been very relevant. The book’s official publication date notwithstanding, the painting could very well have been completed in the early 1620’s by Brueghel the Elder informed by Oddi’s knowledge of Kepler’s work

2) A Medallion of Mutio Oddi was apparently cast after Brueghel’s death (see the references by Alexander Marr). However, given Oddi’s apparently central role in conceiving the cosmological and other mathematic representations in the painting, it would have been natural to include his portrait along with those of Michelangelo, Durer, Cardenas, Alciati, and Bramante. A drawing of the Oddi Medallion (no actual copies of which are apparently extant) may be slightly different than the difficult to resolve likeness of Oddi on the coin in the painting.

There may be archival material not yet discovered in Peter Linder’s family papers or in those of Borromeo or Bianchi or Brueghel or Rubens. Until such material is found, unless some other directional clues are discovered, absolutely certain attribution to Jan Brueghel the Elder is difficult to make. However, from the stylistic and relational connections described above his being the principal painter continues to be a reasonable likelihood.

If any reader has comments, related information, and/or educated judgments on these matters please feel free to offer your thoughts by clicking on “CONTACT” in the header of the website and forwarding your observations!

Ron Cordover

www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo9478167.html

“A Mysterious Masterpiece. The World of the Linder Gallery introduces the Linder Gallery painting to a broad audience through an in situ conversation of six specialists and generalists who discuss the work in the owner’s (Ron Cordover’s) living room. Thus, it is an unusual book about an unusual painting that was virtually unknown until now.  The decision to use a lively conversation instead of a dry, scholarly narrative approach (with all of its annotations, footnotes and a long bibliography), makes the volume accessible and adds a measure of appeal to the ideas as well because the participants draw out each other’s knowledge as they talk. What is perhaps most exciting about the book is the subject matter itself.  Although the walk through the details of the piece is rudimentary, this quick survey does expose how many facets of a unique moment in the history of ideas are contained within its parameters…” For the full review visit http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/aug2010/ione_gorman.php

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g919679010