Monday 1 February 2016

17th century Flemish School or Ippolito Scarsellino?

Bruun Rasmussen, from Denmark, sells on 8 February 2016 a "Flemish School, early 17th century" Holy Family with John the Baptist, a small (19 by 15) oil on copper estimated at 2,000 to 2,700 Euro.

Another version of the same work (only marginally larger) was sold at Christie's in July 2003 as "Follower of Ippolito Scarsellino", with an estimate of £1,500 to £2,000.

The different colours and details between the two version give the impression of them being copies after an engraving, which I haven't found so far.

Another version, also early 17th century, can be found at RKD: it was sold by Dorotheum in 2007 as 
"Gabriel Franck", but has been reclassified as "after" or "in the manner of" Franck by the RKD. Not a very good painting, but nice as an example of how around the same time three artists can give three seriously varying interpretations of the same engraving.

But is it Flemish or Italian? No idea, an art dealer offers yet another version and believes it to be "Italy ca. 1620". It's the worst of the four versions so far...

It's a bit annoying that while this image obviously was very well-known in its day, I can't tell you who made the original, or even when and where. Is it Italian or Flemish? My guess would be Italian, but it's hard to be certain... It should be dated around 1600 probably, but that's all I can say at the moment.

The one for sale is a nice example, well-painted, but still, you aren't buying an original but a copy after an engraving, which is somewhat less interesting. It should be worth the estimate, but such works sometimes sell for surprisingly low amounts.

1 comment:

  1. It could be a painting after Hans Rottenhammer. I have found on Internet an engraving from Sadeler after Rottenhammer from 1601.

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