Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Supper at Emmaus reuses elements from Rubens, but is it really 17th century?

Vanderkindere, Belgium, sells on 19 January 2016 an "Antwerp School, second quarter of the 17th century" Supper at Emmaus, a large panel painting (106 by 151) estimated at 5,000 to 7,000 Euro.

The central figure of Jesus and the old woman behind him are copied from a well-known Rubens painting of the same subject (image from the RKD). Other elements, like the man pouring a drink on the left, also seem very familiar, with elements reminiscent of Bloemaert or Wolffort. I wonder if this isn't a much later pastiche (the woman on the far left seems more like a 19th century painting to me) instead of an original Antwerp painting close to Rubens' period.

If original, it is easily worth the estimate, but I don't really trust this one.

UPDATE: sold for 5,000 Euro, the bottom estimate.

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