Monday 16 January 2017

Nice provincial Adoration of the Magi

Loeckx, from Belgium, sells on 17 January 2017 an "Antwerp School" Adoration of the Magi, estimated at 300 to 600 Euro.

It is a simple version of the typical Adoration of the Magi we know from artists like Pieter Coecke van Aalst. It is made by a mediocre artist or copyist, but probably in the same period (ca. 1540-1570) and region, and is a very cheap opportunity to get such a painting.

The Virgin is painted a lot better, and may have been done by a different hand, or perhaps simply more time was spent on the central figure while the surroundings were much more rushed.

It reminds me of the works of anonymous masters like the so-called  "Pseudo-Blesius" (first image) and the very closely related composition by the Master of the Von Groote Adoration (second image, from RKD), but is obviously of lesser quality.

It may well be that the painting is a copy after an existing composition, but I couldn't find a real match for it so far. It may fetch up to 1,000 Euro I suppose.

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