Thursday 10 November 2016

"Vigilius of Aytta": good copy of a Frans Pourbus I

Vanderkindere, from Belgium,  sells on 23 November 2016 a "Flemish School, 16th century" portrait of Aytta van Zwichem, better known as Vigilius, estimated at 400 to 600 Euro.

It is a copy of or closely related to a Frans Pourbus I painting now in the Galleria di Palazzo Rosso in Genoa.

Another portrait of Aytta painted by Frans Pourbus I (ca. 1570) is from the Louvre.

The version for sale is probably not by Pourbus, but is made by a fairly good painter anyway. It looks somewhat modern, perhaps because it is slightly rubbed. But the estimate is way too low for a 16th century portrait of this quality, even when it is a copy, and it should be worth 1,500 to 2,000 Euro.

UPDATE: a reader sent me a link to another, even closer version of the Pourbus portrait, now in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf.  That version is listed as a copy after Pourbus, and was estimated in the past (before 2002) as worth 2,000€. I prefer the one for sale actually.

UPDATE 2: sold for 1,800 Euro, right in the middle of my estimate!

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