The Offering to the Infant Christ

After beginning his career with Peeter van Avont in Antwerp, Frans Wouters became an apprentice in the studio of Rubens. He translated the monumental Baroque style of the master into smaller cabinet pieces, with both mythological and Christian-inspired themes, for an aristocratic audience. Later, he became court painter to the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II in Vienna. In 1638, he began working for the Prince of Wales, later King Charles I, for whom Van Dyck was a court painter. Prior to 1641, he returned to Antwerp, where he was active in the art trade. An apocryphal biblical text recounts how the young John the Baptist visited the infant Jesus during the flight into Egypt. He wore a cross and was accompanied by angels, who offered Jesus a lamb. Despite the serene nature of this idyllic landscape, the cross and the lamb already allude to his important role as Saviour. The Rest on the Flight into Egypt or The Virgin with Partridges (1632) by Anthony van Dyck in the Hermitage provided inspiration for this painting. The special care with which the landscape was painted is particularly noteworthy. In addition to Van Dyck and Rubens, the influence of Titian is also visible, whose work the Flemish masters not only imitated but also collected.