A panel formerly in the collection van Diemen in Amsterdam (1920’s) will be shown in the Keizerskapel in Antwerp from 8 December 2016 until 24 February 2017. It is clearly by Rembrandt-pupil Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621-1674). Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621-1674) lived and worked in Amsterdam and was trained by Rembrandt in the second half of the 1630’s and underwent the influence of Pieter Lastman (1583-1633).
The story of Granida and Daifilo referes to P.C. Hooft’s pastorale Granida (1605). Van den Eeckhout treated the subject on different occasions; the first known version (1652) in the Museo d’Arte Antica in Milano; another version (1669) formerly in the collection Neumann in Brussels (W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, II, Pfalz, 1983, fig. 413, 470). The hereby presented panel (64.5 x 48.3 cm) was published by S.J. Gudlaugsson (Representations of Granida in Dutch Seventeenth Century Painting, Burlington Magazine, XCI, February 1949, pp. 38-39, fig. 7) and dates from about 1655/60.
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621-1674), Granida and Daifilo, ca. 1655-60, private collection, Belgium
The story itself was very popular in the seventeenth century and inspired e.g. Gerrit van Honthorst (1592-1656), Dick van Baburen (1595-1624), Jacob Backer (1609-1651), Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613-1670) and Albrecht Cuyp (1620-1691). Daifilo is a shepherd. At a certain moment princess Granida attracts his attention and after a series of events, involving other admirers (Tisiphernes and Ostrobas), Daifilo becomes her husband.
Pédrigré: it was auctioned in Charlottenburg in 1928; collection Naftali Cohn in Kopenhagen (sold through Winkel & Magnussen 1937); collection of Hans Tobiesen (Kopenhagen, 1944); auctioned in London, Sotheby’s (1998).