Explore the Interpretation of this artwork, Nocturnal appearance (Jordaens, Staatliches Museum Schwerin).
Erwin Bielefel argued that the painting most likely depicts a story written by Phlegon of Tralles for the Roman Emperor Hadrian, to which Jordaens may have had access through a translation or a contemporary adaptation. The story tells the tale of a young man, Marchete, who stays as a guest of a wealthy couple. During the night, Marchete's slumber is disturbed when he dreams of Philinion, the couple's daughter who had died a few months before. Grasping the cloth her corpse was wrapped in, Philinion, in the guise of a vampire, asks to bed with Marchete. Awoken by sounds coming from the room, Philinion's mother, Charito, comes to investigate with the aid of a maidservant. Upon entering the room, they are horrified by the sight of the deceased daughter. According to Bielefeld, Jordaens' Nocturnal appearance follows closely Phlegon's story and depicts the decisive moment or climax of the ancient tale.Julius S. Held disagreed with Bielefeld by pointing out that the painting differs in many ways from the story of Marchete and Philinion told by Phlegon.  He points out that in Phlegon's story Philinion appears to Marchete while he is awake and not in his dream.  Further, unlike in Phlegon's story where the spectators are a maid and the mother, the spectators in Jordaens' canvas are a man and a woman. Held suggests that the composition possibly represents the story of Alcyone and Ceyx as told by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses. Jordaens may have seen a representation of it in a print by Johann Wilhelm Baur for the 1641 illustrated edition of the Metamorphoses. In the print Morpheus, the god of dreams, appears in the shape of her dead husband Ceyx to Alcyone lying at night on her bed. She thus realises that her husband has drowned. A male and a female servant are shown entering the room, the man holding a candle.  Jordaens' painting is closer to the story and imagery of this depiction of Ovid's story than to the story of Marchete and Philinion.  Held also holds out the possibility that the painting does not depict a specific story but is rather a picture with an erotic intention and no specific literary source. It could be a depiction of an erotic dream about a woman.  A candle and pot (or jug) in proximity to each other often referred to sexual intercourse in Netherlandish paintings such as in the bride paintings of Marten van Cleve and Jan Massijs.  Held further refers to comments made by the painter Gerard de Lairesse  who had seen the painting in the second half of the 17th century.  De Lairesse recounts in his Groot Schilderboek that he and others were of the view that the painting was simply a painting of a nude model to which other elements were added solely to complete the picture.
Gerard de Lairesse Morpheus Ovid Hadrian Jan Massijs Phlegon of Tralles Marten van Cleve Alcyone and Ceyx Julius S. Held Erwin Bielefel Johann Wilhelm Baur Metamorphoses