Tuesday 2 February 2016

"Studio of Sebastian Vrancx" is a copy after Bassano

Swedish art dealer JP Willborg sells (well, the site gives a price of 0 Euro, so technically that's giving away) a "Sebastian Vrancx. His studio" Allegory of Winter.

It actually is a copy after a well-known Francesco Bassano "Allegory of Winter", from the Dulwich Gallery (upper picture), or a variation by one of the other Bassanos (version by Jacopo shown below). The Bassanos were often copied in the 17th century (in Italy and Flanders), and Vrancx seems to be the painter du jour, with every competently painted work vaguely in his style attributed to him or his studio, a bit like everything was a Brueghel 100 years ago. In this case, I don't think the work is good enough for the attribution, certainly not considering it is a copy, which means that the good composition tends to make the painting look better than it actually is.

The work was known in Flanders through copies made by painters who visited Italy, and by engravings by artists like Sadeler (above).

The RKD lists e.g. the above Anonymous Flemish ca. 1600 copy, with some strange additions to the left.

I would describe the work for sale also as an anonymous Flemish copy after Bassano, and not as a Studio of Vrancx. The value should be in the low thousands.

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