Wednesday 4 March 2015

Venus and Amor: De Quade de Ravesteyn or Rottenhammer


For sale at Ventes SARL May in Roubaix, 16 March 2015: a "Venus and Amor", attributed to the
Prague School, environment of Dirck De Quade van Ravesteyn (1565-1620). Estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 Euro, it seems to be a good picture, but the only picture I found is much too small to judge it correctly.


The topic has been painted multiple times by Ravesteyn, e.g. this one sold at Christie's in October 2014 for 9,375 Euro. While there are obvious similarities, from the overall composition to the position of the legs of the Venus, the differences are too big to situate this around the same artist (and the one for sale seems to be a better picture as well).


To me, it seems much more likely that the work comes from the environment of Hans Rottenhammer (1564-1625), active at the same time and places as Ravesteyn. There is e.g. the above by Rottenhammer from Christie's in 2010, sold for £58,000.

This one is more closely comparable to the one for sale now. These two make it clear that the painting for sale is not by Rottenhammer himself, but the figures are closer to him than to Ravesteyn in my opinion



For what it's worth, all these seem to go back to a Venus and Amor by Quentin Massys, vastly superior to any of these. And of course the Venus paintings by Titian, like the one below. The Massys is earlier than the Titian though!

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