Monday 15 February 2016

Death of the Miser or Ill-matched Couple?

Vanderkindere, from Brussels, sells on 23 February 2016 an "Antwerp, late 16th century" Death of the Miser small oil on copper (13 by 15 cm) estimated at 400 to 600 Euro.

It looks more like the (related) subject of the Ill-matched couple, about the love (or lust) between old and young; in this case, the woman prefers youth over money, and death is coming for the old man already.

The same composition, minus the death and in reverse, can be found on RKD as the work of an anonymous Flemish master from the first half of the 16th century.  It's a much larger work (60 by 120) but the rather poor image doesn't make it obvious that it is a better picture, nor which one would be closer to the original.

The RKD reveals also a farther removed but much better painting by Cornelis van Haarlem from 1597, so close to the dates of the two works above. Here the impression of lust instead of love is obviously a lot stronger. The second work is also by Van Haarlem and from 1597, and is closer to the first two paintings, although here it looks more as if the woman will cheat on her young husband to get some money from the old man (note the "horns" of hair she wears).

The work for sale seems cheap, as it is an alluring subject, but it isn't by a major painter. It should fetch closer to 1,000 Euro probably.

UPDATE: the work for sale is strangely reminiscent of a Hendrick Goltzius design (here in a Saenredam engraving) of ca. 1598, which reverses the gender roles but which has nearly the same characters for the young couple. Same hat and collar for the woman, same hat for the man... far from a copy, but coming from the same influence surely.

UPDATE 2: found the engraving that's probably the basis for this painting. It's by Crispin de Passe and it is available online thanks to a 2007 blog by a Mr. H.(?) The engraving doesn't seem to have any info on the original artist of this image, but the blog states that many of his engravings are after Marten de Vos, while others are after Jacques Bellangé.

The same blog shows another de Passe engraving, which coincidentally is the reverse of the above Goltzius engraving, but with an added Death as well... Something strange is happening here!


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