Dance for the Golden Calf

Painter: Karel van Mander (Meulebeke 1548 - Amsterdam 1606)
Date: 1602
Official title: The Dance for the Golden Calf
Original: Oil on canvas, 213.5 x 98 cm, wxh

Fun: The Dance for the Golden Calf can be admired in large format at Café Restaurant  BLENDAround the corner from the Frans Hals Museum location Hof.

Karel van Mander was born in the Southern Netherlands and worked as a printmaker, painter, draughtsman and artist biographer. He worked in various places during his career, including Meulebeke, Rome and Haarlem.

When he himself was fully qualified, he had several pupils, including his son Karel van Mander II and Hendrick Gerritsz Pot. His most famous pupil, however, was none other than Frans Hals himself. Together with Cornelis van Haarlem and Hendrick Goltzius, Van Mander formed the Haarlem Academy. They introduced Dutch Mannerism, a style known for its human figures with long and twisted bodies and smaller heads.

In 1604 Van Mander published his 'Schilder-boeck' (Book of Painting) with instructions for making paintings, but also with biographies of Dutch, German and Italian artists from the past and from Mander's own time. He also included a number of practical precepts, including: "Going to bed early and getting up early in the summer, and hearing the birds sing".. Karel van Mander also wrote prose and sonnets.

Van Mander himself painted mainly religious and historical scenes. The dance around the golden calf depicts a Biblical story about unfaithfulness. While Moses is on Mount Sinai, the Israelites make an idol. They melt their golden earrings into a golden calf. Karel van Mander shows here how they make an offering to their new idol. When Moses later descends from the mountain, he breaks the two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written, out of anger.

Unlike the title suggests, the golden calf is not in the foreground in this painting: it is depicted in the distance. Van Mander focused on the exuberantly celebrating people.

Van Mander painted this work in imitation of the artist Lucas van Leyden, whom he described in great detail in his Schilder-boeck (Book of Painting).

This masterpiece by Karel van Mander is part of our collection of Haerlemsche Meesters and can be seen at the Frans Hals Museum location Hof in Haarlem.

A cooperation with the Frans Hals Museum Haarlem®

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