Apollo punishes Midas for his false judgement by condemning him to sport an ass's ears(Joseph Paelinck)
Paelinck has combined two versions of a myth concerning a musical contest between Apollo and Pan, in which, like Marsyas, the latter is defeated. In one account, the contest was judged by Tmolus, a mountain God, but King Midas disagreed with the verdict and Apollo rewarded his faulty judgement with ass’s ears. In another version the contest was judged by Midas and the Muses, and Paelinck has included all these characters in his composition, placing Pan and the Muses to the left and to the right Apollo, commanding the ears to on an astounded Midas in the centre of the picture.
In this painting the artist was inspired by two diverse stylistic tendencies; on the one hand an interest in pictorial realism is illustrated by the detailed drapery and historical precision of both costumes and accessories, while on the other hand there are elements of classicism and seventeenth century precedents in particular in the figure of Apollo. Paelinck may have taken his inspiration directly from classical prototypes or from Leonardo Agostini’s Le Gemme Antiche or more likely from copies or versions of Andrea Sacchi’s Portrait of the Singer, Marc Antonio Pasqualini in the Palazzo Farnese and the Colonna Collection, Rome (see fig. 1). Sacchi’s original reached England before 1741 and is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (c.f. Ann Sutherland Harris, Andrea Sacchi, Oxford 1977, pp. 82-84, pl. 89. Sacchi’s Apollo also inspired Claude, op. cit., p. 84, n. 5). If Paelinck was inspired by Sacchi, this may have been a conscious humourous gesture for what Pan failed to do in Paelinck’s composition, the singer, Pasqualini, achieves in Sacchi’s earlier work.
The painting’s Neoclassical quality stems of course from David’s late work (such as The Anger of Achilles, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum; see fig. 2), once again treating mythological subjects which are no longer models of virtue, but whose point is to please without moral reservation. It was no accident that the composition was also inspired by one of Charles Eisen’s illustrations for Les Metamorphoses d’Ovide (1769-71). In this painting, the artist has both reflected and significantly contributed to Restoration taste by providing a theme appropriate to the literary culture of the Ancien Régime.
The painting probably resulted from an important private commission for a set location, but to date no documents have been found to establish this. Until recently the picture was in pendant with Homer inspired by the eight Muses by J. Van Brae, dated 1834 and of similar measurements.
Catalogue of the exhibition 1770-1830. Autour du Neoclassicisme en Belgique, Musée Communal dIxelles, Brussels 1985-86, p. 193-201.
D. Coekelberghs, Notice sur Paelinck, Napoleone e la residenza imperiale del Quirinale, Rome (in preparation).