Self-Portrait with Magic Scene

ca. 1635–37

Pieter van Laer
(Haarlem 1599 – 1642 Italy?)oil on canvas
80 x 114.9 cm
signed on the music sheet, lower left center: “P.V. Laer”
PvL-100
Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing

How To Cite
Liedtke, Walter A., Arthur K. Wheelock and Jr. "Self-Portrait with Magic Scene." InThe Leiden Collection
Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Magic Scene
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In one of the most remarkable self-portraits ever created, Pieter van Laer

Comparative Figures

reacts with horror to the frightening claws of the devil that have suddenly
come to claim him. Dressed in the black cloak and cap of a magician, theartist, with bulging eyes and open mouth, has witnessed this apparition
while standing behind a table filled with books, some with alchemical
notations, a variety of vessels, a snuffed-out candle, and a skull resting on
hot coals. To emphasize the very personal character of this dramatic
image, Van Laer prominently signed this work on the musical score lying in
the foreground, its lyrics warning that “the devil doesn’t jest.” Clearly, in his
conjuring up a world of occult forces the magician has unleashed realms
far beyond his control, and he is about to suffer the consequences of his
audacity.
The identity of the magician as Van Laer is without question. His
appearance is best known from a moody self-portrait in the Uffizi, Florence(fig 1).[1] That work, which probably dates about 1632–33, records a

Fig 1. Pieter vanLaer, Self-Portrait, ca. 1632–33,
oil on panel, 72 x 58 cm, Galleria
degli Uffizi, Florence, © 2015,
Photo Scala, Florence, courtesyof the Ministero Beni e Att.
Culturali

number of distinctive features similar to those in the present picture: abroad, brushy, upturned mustache, a short beard, a slim nose with arounded tip, widely arching eyebrows, and a shaggy haircut flaring
sideways at the ears.
The darkness of the scene, which is partially lit by a metal oil lamp hanging
in the upper left, and the strange array of objects on the magician’s table
denotes Van Laer’s macabre fascination with the underworld. The
extinguished candle in the center of the picture has burned halfway down,
perhaps suggesting the arrival of death midway through the course of
one’s life. A thin trail of smoke rising from the upside-down skull, which sits

Fig 2. Pieter van Laer, The
Bentveughels in a RomanTavern, ca. 1630, brown ink andwash on paper, 20.3 x 25.8 cm,
Kupferstichkabinet, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin, inv. 5239

on glowing embers, probably indicates that some unsavory concoction is
being heated in this morbid cooking pot.[2] Various vessels containunidentified liquids—a small mixing bowl filled with a red substance and asquare bottle containing a copper-colored fluid—that one can imagine themagician using to create his potions. The eeriest of these vessels is thetapered glass with black creatures crawling on its surface. The spider atbottom center is most likely a deadly scorpion.
The pellets or seeds spilling out of a paper cone at the bottom right could
be another ingredient for the magician’s brew, or perhaps an allusion to
the Parable of the Tares (or Weeds) in Matthew 13:24–30 and 36–43,
according to which the devil sows the seeds of sinful men amongst theFig 3. Gianlorenzo Bernini, The© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Magic Scene
Page 3 of 11

seeds of those who will be saved. The parable was frequently employedby preachers of the time and was also treated by artists, for example byDamned Soul, 1619, marble,
Palazzo di Spagna, Rome

Jacques de Gheyn II (1565–1629) in a drawing of 1603, by Domenico
Fetti (1588/89–1623) in a painting ca. 1622, and by Abraham Bloemaert(1566–1651) in a painting of 1624.[3]The books on the table are not identified by author’s names or titles, whichis to be expected considering their likely content. Publications dealing withoccult knowledge were included among the thousands of works listed in
the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Prohibited Books), which was
frequently updated by the Congregation of the Index, the pope, and theHoly Office of the Inquisition; any knowledge of them could have landed
Van Laer in difficult circumstances. The handwritten markings on the endof the largest book may be the artist’s approximation of Hebrew letters,suggesting heretical or esoteric ideas.[4] The symbols in the open bookappear to be associated with magic and witchcraft, although the exact
meanings of most of them are no longer understood.[5] The five-pointed
inverted pentagram, however, represents the devil.[6] The pierced heart
likely suggests suffering (especially from love), grief, or death. As iscommon in alchemical scenes of the seventeenth century, the individual
motifs and symbols do not add up to a coherent message but rather create
an atmosphere of illicit pursuits.
The prominent sheet of music, which contains the artist’s signature, isidentified as a “Canon a 3 [voci]” (canon or “round” for three voices),
specifically three tenors, according to the key indicated on the staff. Van
Laer’s canon appears to be composed either in the Phrygian mode, which
descends in a sequence called a “diabolus in musica,” or as the sketch ofa “crab canon” (canon cancrizans), in which two musical lines reverse
each other.[7] The crab is known for its back and forth movement, just as
the devil runs counter to the divine plan.[8] In either case, the lyrics, “ildiavolo no burla no il diav . . . a” (the devil doesn’t jest no the devil . . .),leave no doubt as to the warning that the painting conveys.
Although this painting is primarily concerned with the occult and witchcraft,it has certain resonances with alchemy. The alchemist’s labors were
intimately bound to the study and early practice of chemistry, and a hugeamount of literature evolved in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
explaining the types of physical matter and the processes by which one© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Magic Scene
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could conduct experiments to transform one element into another. It was,for many, a respectable profession, and its scholarly component is evident
in the list of significant scientists who sought to separate the essence ofmatter from its base components, among them Robert Boyle (1627–91)
and Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727).[9] Many alchemists made significant
scientific contributions to the development of, among others, medicinesand cosmetics, as well as pigments and dyes. Nevertheless, alchemy’s
ambiguous status in popular culture derived from its origins in naturalphilosophy, metaphysics, and religion. Alchemists were secretive about
the processes that allowed them to make their transformations, and theirtexts and treatises utilized a wide range of occult signs and symbols
similar to those seen in the open manuscript in Van Laer’s haunting
painting.
Too little is known of Van Laer’s life to fully understand the psychologicalunderpinnings that undoubtedly impacted this terrifying vision and drove
him to paint it. Perhaps his interest in witchcraft derived from his deformed
body—hunchbacked with a lower body three times larger than his torso. In
Rome, where he painted this work in the mid-1630s, he was known as “ilBamboccio” (clumsy puppet) because of his stunted torso. In his day
exposure to witchcraft was often said (especially by eager Inquisitors) toresult in physical deformity.
Van Laer had a successful career in Rome, but he also seems to have
lived a raucous life as part of a group of Netherlandish artists, theSchildersbent (painters’ group), who called themselves Bentvueghels(usually translated as “birds of a feather,” but in this case meaning “TheBent Flock”). The fraternity was known for its frolicsome meetings intaverns, especially its bacchic initiation rites and its antagonistic stancetoward the high-minded Accademia di San Luca. This community ofartists, however, also seems to have shared in Van Laer’s fascination withthe occult. This interest is seen in a fascinating painting by Van Laer’s
brother, Roeland van Laer (1598–ca. 1635) from around 1626, that
depicts the Bentvueghels wildly drinking and performing a tableau vivant
in a tavern during some sort of initiation rite.[10] Graffiti covers the back wallof the room, including proverbs, exhortations, a depiction of a flaming
heart pierced by an arrow, and the same musical score that Pieter van
Laer included in his painting. Interestingly, Roeland signed his painting onthat score, just like Pieter would later do in Self-Portrait with Magic© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Magic Scene
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Scene.[11]In about 1630 Pieter van Laer made a fascinating drawing of the
Bentveughels in a tavern that includes motifs also relevant to the present
painting (fig 2).[12] The drawing depicts members of the Bentveughels
drinking, smoking, playing backgammon, and vocalizing in a room
decorated with numerous line drawings on the back wall. Two figures
stand apart from the revelers, one pointing at the word “BAMBOO” (anabbreviation for Bamboccio) and the other leaning against the back wall.
Between them two drawings on the back wall depict Van Laer, one ageometric cartoon of his short figure as seen from behind and the other acaricature of his head in profile. Ominously, however, on the right side of
the wall is a drawing of a large skeleton (Death) holding up an hourglass,and next to it a large, full-length horned figure with satyr’s legs and wings
holding out a claw-like hand not unlike the outstretched claws in thepainting.[13] The overall appearance of this creature is in complete accord
with contemporary illustrations of the devil, such as those in the 1608
“book of witches,” titled Compendium Maleficarum, by the Italian priest
Guaccius (Francesco Maria Guazzo).[14] This macabre juxtaposition of a
festive gathering with drawings of Death and the devil suggests thatcomplex feelings and emotions were ingrained in the lives of the
Bentvueghels, not just Van Laer.
Van Laer’s self-portrait shares an interest in rendering the passions thencurrent in Italian and Netherlandish studios in Rome. Caravaggio(1571–1610) in particular was fascinated by the challenge of rendering thepassions of fear and surprise.[15] Van Laer would have known and admired
Caravaggio’s Boy Bitten by a Lizard of about 1593–94 (National Gallery,
London); Head of Medusa, of 1596–98 (Uffizi, Florence); the astonished
Assyrian in Judith and Holofernes, of about 1598–99 (Palazzo Barberini,Rome); and his later David with the Head of Goliath , of 1605–10 (Galleria
Borghese, Rome).[16] The most important antecedent for Van Laer’s
screaming self-portrait, however, was probably the famous marble bust by
Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), The Damned Soul of 1619 (fig 3),
which likewise employed the artist’s own features and represented amortal on his way to hell.[17]No information is known about the original destination of Van Laer’s
remarkable self-portrait, but it seems probable that he created this© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Magic Scene
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frightening image from some inner motivation rather than to fulfill a
commission. Nevertheless, during the early seventeenth century a painting
like this would have appealed to Van Laer’s Roman patrons because of
the great artistic interest in intense visual drama and personal expression.
In Rome, as well, the theme of magic as a dangerous temptation wasparticularly apt: in no other city did curiosity about the natural world sooften collide with orthodox belief.[18]- Walter A. Liedtke and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr.

© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Magic Scene
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Endnotes
1. See Karla Langedijk, Die Selbstbildnisse der holländischen und flämischen Künstler in derGalleria degli Autoritratti der Uffizien in Florenz (Florence, 1992), 61–63, where Van Laer’s
earlier self-portrait in the Galleria Pallavicini, Rome and other evidence for his appearance
are also discussed.
2. Mario Giuseppe Genesi, “Per una decodifica dei dettagli magico-musicali nella Scena
Magica con Autoritratto di Pieter Bodding van Laer,” Music in Art 30, nos. 1–2 (2005): 89,
suggested that the smoke was from burning incense.
3. De Gheyn’s drawing is in the Kupferstichkabinet, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin;
Bloemaert’s painting is in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore; Fetti’s is in the Museo ThyssenBornemisza, Madrid. In the case of De Gheyn, the subject seems of a piece with several
scenes of witchcraft he drew at about the same time. On this point see Linda C. Hults,The
Witch as Muse: Art, Gender, and Power in Early Modern Europe (Philadelphia, 2005),
152–57.
4. The Kabbalah, along with magic and astrology, was one of the many controversial intereststhat doomed Giordano Bruno (burned at the stake in Rome on 17 February 1600), as
discussed in Karen Silvia de León-Jones, Giordano Bruno and the Kabbalah: Prophets,
Magicians, and Rabbis (Lincoln, NE, 2004). All of Bruno’s writings were placed on the Index
in 1603.
5. The numbers in a column (6?, 4, and 7) could be the beginning of a magic square (in which
the numbers in each column, row, and main diagonal yield the same sum).
6. Kathryn Paulsen, The Complete Book of Magic and Witchcraft (New York, 1980), 149.
When the point is at the top it represents the deity.
7. These alternatives are described in Mario Giuseppe Genesi, “Per una decodifica dei dettagli
magico-musicali nella Scena Magica con Autoritratto di Pieter Bodding van Laer,” Music in
Art 30, nos. 1–2 (2005): 91–95.
8. As suggested in Laurence Wuidar, “Magie démoniaque et allégorie de l’ouïe: Le canonmusical dans les vanités de Breughel, Natali et Van Laer,” Annales d’histoire de l’art etd’archéologie 27 (2005): 106–7, where crabs are also said to be associated with love andfortune because of their reversals and conflicts.
9. For this history, see, among others, H. A. M. Snelders,De geschiedenis van de scheikunde
in Nederland, vol. 1, Van alchemie tot chemie en chemische industrie rond 1900 (Delft,1993), 11–25; Lawrence M. Principe and Lloyd DeWitt, Transmutations—Alchemy in Art:
Selected Works from the Eddleman and Fisher Collections at the Chemical Heritage
Foundation (Philadelphia, 2002); and Lawrence M. Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy(Chicago, 2013), especially chapter 5: “The Golden Age: Practicing Chymistry in the Early© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Magic Scene
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Modern Period.”
10. Roeland van Laer, Bentveughels in a Roman Tavern , ca. 1626, oil on canvas, 88.5 x 147.5
cm, Museo di Roma, inv. no. 26031. For a discussion of this painting, see Thomas Kren,“Chi non vuol Baccho: Roeland van Laer’s Burlesque Painting about Dutch Artists in Rome,”
Simiolus 11 (1980): 63–80; and David A. Levine and Ekkehard Mai, eds.,I Bamboccianti:
Niederländische Malerrebellen im Rom des Barock (Exh. cat. Cologne, Wallraf-RichartzMuseum; Utrecht, Centraal Museum) (Milan, 1991), 209–11, no. 20.1.
11. Associations between the texts in these two paintings were first made in David A. Levine andEkkehard Mai, eds., I Bamboccianti: Niederländische Malerrebellen im Rom des Barock(Exh. cat. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum; Utrecht, Centraal Museum) (Milan, 1991),
199–201, no. 19.7.
12. David A. Levine, “Pieter van Laer’s Artists’ Tavern: An Ironic Commentary on Art,” inHolländische Genremalerei im. 17. Jahrhundert: Symposium Berlin 1984 , ed. Henning Bockand Thomas W. Gaehtgens, special issue no. 4, Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbesitz (1987):
175–76.
13. A figure or other form in the center of the wall has been rubbed out, perhaps because ofsome obscene aspect, as suggested by Holm Bevers, Aus Rembrandts Zeit: Zeichenkunst
in Hollands Goldenem Jahrhundert (Exh. cat. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinet, Staatliche Museen
zu Berlin) (Berlin, 2011), 95, under no. 66.
14. The figure has been identified in the past as Pan or Chonos, whose attributes include satyr’s
legs and wings, respectively (but not in combination). Many of Guaccius’s woodcut
illustrations are reproduced in Emile Grillot de Givry,Illustrated Anthology of Sorcery, Magic
and Alchemy (London, 1991). Compare also the devil with wings, horns, and satyr’s legs in
Willem van Swanenburgh’s engraving of 1609, A Beardless Youth and the Devil at an
Easel, which is compared with a similar print, of 1550, by D. V. Coornhert after Maarten van
Heemskerck, in Claudia Swan, Art, Science, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Holland:
Jacques de Gheyn II (1565–1629) (Cambridge, 2005), 184–85, fig. 67. The devil and Death(in the form of a skeleton) appear as a pair in numerous sixteenth-century prints, such as
Death and the Devil Come for the Card Player in Hans Holbein the Younger’s famous series
of woodcuts The Dance of Death (1523–26). The group to the right in Van Laer’s drawing
bears some resemblance to Holbein’s ensemble, especially as seen in the reversed version
by the monogrammist GS.
15. See Jennifer Montagu, The Expression of the Passions (New Haven and London, 1994),
chap. 5, on this tradition, mainly in Rome; and Dagmar Hirschfelder,Tronie und Porträt in
der niederländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 2008), 321–34. On thetheoretical background, see Franziska Gottwald, Das Tronie: Muster, Studie und
Meisterwerk (Berlin and Munich, 2011), chap. 2.
16. Interestingly, Van Laer originally included a raised hand in the left background of Self© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Magic Scene
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Portrait with Magic Scene, as in Boy Bitten by a Lizard , although such excited gestures arecommon in Italian baroque art.
17. Irving Lavin, “Bernini’s Bust of the Medusa: An Awful Pun,” inDocere, delectare, movere:affetti, devozione e retorica nel linguaggio artistico del primo barocco romano. Atti delconvegno organizzato dall’Instituto olandese a Roma e dalla Bibliotheca Hertziana (MaxPlanck-Institut) in collaborazione con l’Università cattolica di Nijmegen. Roma, 19–20
gennaio, 1996 (Rome, 1998), 165, fig. 20, relates The Damned Soul to other expressive
heads by Bernini and to the sculptor’s admiration of the ancient Laocoön.
18. See the case of Bruno mentioned in note 4 above. Galileo was tried and convicted by theInquisition in Rome in 1633. See also David Freedberg, The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His
Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History (Chicago and London, 2002), esp.
59–62 on “Cassiano’s drawings and beliefs.”

ProvenancePrince Dragonetti-Torre, Aquila, until 1972.
[Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York, until 2005].
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibition History
Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, “Dutch and Flemish Paintings from New YorkPrivate Collections,” 12 April–14 June 1987 [lent by Richard L. Feigen].
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, “I Bamboccianti: Niederländische Malerrebellen im Rom
des Barock,” 28 August–17 November 1991; Utrecht, Centraal Museum, 6 December
1991–9 February 1992, no. 19.7 [lent by Richard L. Feigen].
Cremona, Santa Maria della Pietà, “Dipingere la musica: Strumenti in posa nell’arte delCinque e Seicento,” 12 December 2000–18 March 2001, no. I.33; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Palais Harrach, 4 April–1 July 2001, no. I.33 [lent by Richard L. Feigen].
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, The Price Tower Arts Center, “Music’s Power: Great European
Paintings on Musical Themes,” 28 May–July 10, 2002, no. 4 [lent by Richard L. Feigen].
Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, on long-term loan, September 2002–December 2003 [lentby Richard L. Feigen].
© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with Magic Scene
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Greenwich, Bruce Museum, “Alchemy: Magic, Myth, or Science?” 26 September 2009–3
January 2010 [no number, lent by present owner].
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, 2006–15 [lentby the present owner].
Paris, Petit Palais, “The Baroque Underworld: Vice and Destitution in Rome,” 24
February–24 May 2015 [lent by the present owner].
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, June
2015–May 2016 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,”
22 February–22 May 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Marini, Maurizio. “Caravaggio e il naturalismo internazionale.” In Storia dell’arte italiana:
Materiali e problemi Dal medioevo al novecento. 12 vols. Turin, 1979–83, 2:415, fig. 380.
Briganti, Giuliano, et al. I Bamboccianti. Rome, 1983, 59, fig. 1.48.
Levine, David, Briganti, Giuliano and Mai, Ekkehard. I Bamboccianti: Niederländische
Malerrebellen im Rom des Barock . Exh. cat. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum; Utrecht,
Centraal Museum. Milan, 1991, 199–201, no. 19.7.
De Meyere, Jos. Straatrumoer: Rome gezien door Nederlandse schilders in de gouden
Eeuw Pieter van laer en de Bamboccianten . Exh. broch. Utrecht, Centraal Museum.
Utrecht, 1991, no. 19.7.
Gruber, Gerlinde. “Autoritratti a raffigurazioni degli artisti nella pittura di genere.” In Da
Caravaggio a Ceruti: La scena di genere e l’immagine dei pittori nella pittura
italiana. Edited by Francesco Porzio. Exh. cat. Brescia, Museo di Santa Giulia. Milan, 1998,
442–44.
Schama, Simon. “Another Dimension.” New Yorker, 28 October 2002, 90.
Wuidar, Laurence. “Magie démoniaque et allégorie de l’ouïe: Le canon musical dans lesvanités de Breughel, Natali et Van Laer.” Annales d’histoire de l’art et d’archéologie 27(2005): 89–108.
Genesi, Mario G. “Per una decodifica dei dettagli magico-musicali nellaScena magica con
autoritratto di Pieter Bodding van Laer.” Music in Art 30, nos. 1–2 (2005): 88–96.
Rebbert, Carolyn Rose. Alchemy: Magic, Myth, or Science? Exh. cat. Greenwich, Bruce© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Self-Portrait with Magic Scene
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Museum. Greenwich, 2009, 13, no. 12.
Cremonte Pastorello di Cornour, Anna. La Torino dei Bamboccianti: Memorie di strada e diPalazzo. Pinerolo, 2010.
Ebert-Schifferer, Sybille. Caravaggio: The Artist and His Work . Los Angeles, 2012, 87, no.
49. Translated from the German, Caravaggio. Munich, 2009.

Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of coarse, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins almost entirely
removed, has been lined. The threads are irregular in size and contain numerous slubs. Cuspingalong all four edges indicates the original dimensions have been retained. A paper label has
been adhered to the stretcher but there are no wax collection seals, import stamps, stencils or
inscriptions along the lining or stretcher reverse.
A dark red-brown preparatory layer has been applied and a narrow band remains exposed along
the length of the left vertical edge. The paint has been applied quite freely; many details were
worked wet into wet with loose, broad brushstrokes. Some details, particularly the highlights inthe objects on the table, were added later with a drier brush. Slight impasto was used to draw
attention to the highlights along the skull and the devil’s hands. Thin glazes of black paint havebeen applied along the music score.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 900–1700 nanometers,
though dark paint can obscure carbon-containing underdrawings.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2005 and remains
in a good state of preservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Entry based on a 2012 examination report by Sophie Scully, paintings conservation
department intern, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection