General Hendrick van Balen specialised in small
cabinet pictures often painted on a copper support. His favourite themes were mythological and allegorical scenes and, to a lesser extent, religious subjects. He also created a number of
stained glass designs. While he had a clear preference for the smaller scale in his later career, van Balen's early works consisted of a number of large altarpieces. These show the influence of his teacher Adam van Noort. His later altarpieces, with their rich and subtle palette, appear to have been painted after van Dyck's arrival in his studio. Hendrick van Balen's mythological and biblical scenes were usually painted on small plates or copper plates. His works often included nude figures in a mythological or religious scene, set in an idyllic setting. Van Balen further also painted landscapes.
Garland paintings Hendrick van Balen played a role in the development of the genre of garland paintings, which typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait. Together with
Jan Brueghel the Elder, he painted the first known garland painting around 1607–1608 for Italian
cardinal Federico Borromeo, a passionate art collector and Catholic reformer. Borromeo requested the painting to respond to the destruction of images of the Virgin in the preceding century and it thus combined both his interests in Catholic reform and the arts. Brueghel, the still life specialist, painted the flower garland, while van Balen painted the image of the Virgin. The genre of garland paintings was inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to
Mary prevalent at the
Habsburg court (then the rulers over the Southern Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally. Garland paintings were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter. The genre was initially connected to the visual imagery of the
Counter-Reformation movement. An example of a collaborative garland painting he made with Jan Brueghel the Elder is the
Garland of Fruit surrounding Cybele Receiving Gifts from Personifications of the Four Seasons of which there are two versions, one in the
Belfius collection and
a second in the
Mauritshuis in The Hague. Both versions are considered to be autograph paintings, but small differences between the two suggest that the panel in the Belfius collection is the original version. The medallion in the centre is traditionally believed to depict Cybele, the ancient Phrygian goddess of the earth and nature as it was described as such in 1774 when it was catalogued in the collection of
William V, Prince of Orange in The Hague. More recently an identification of the goddess with
Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships, has been proposed. The reason is that the goddess in the medallion has none of the attributes traditionally connected with Cybele. Another collaborative effort on a garland painting, this time with still life painter
Jacob Foppens van Es, is
A garland of flowers and fruit with a central cartouche depicting the Holy Family (
Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans) (c. 1620–1630). Hendrick van Balen is believed to have painted the
cartouche while Foppens van Es painted the garland of fruit and flowers. ==References==