Jan Lievens (Leiden 1607-1674 Amsterdam)

This drawing, along with one in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (also formerly in the van Regteren Altena collection; Washington 2008-09, op. cit., no. 104), seems to derive from a composition by a student of Rubens showing the River Scheldt (H. Mielke and M. Winner, Peter Paul Rubens: Kritischer katalog der Zeichnungen: Die Zeichnungen Alter Meister im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, 1977, no. 42 Kr). Probably dating from the end of Lievens’s residence in Antwerp, around 1640, the present drawing is considerably freer and livelier than the Washington drawing, having been sketched with such spontaneity that the background is represented by only a few darting lines. The buildings shown there appear to be a triumphal column and, perhaps, the Castel Sant’ Angelo with its distinctive tower, suggesting that at least one of the two river gods should be seen as an embodiment of the Tiber. The other god may be an alternative study of the Tiber or might also be interpreted as a personification of the Nile: the very freely-sketched shape beside the gods appears to be an elephant, with its trunk reaching down to the water, adding an exotic note to the composition.