Tuesday 28 March 2017

Two entrances of Christ in Jerusalem


Hampel, from Germany, sells on 30 March 2017 two Flemish works with the same scene: the entrance of Christ in Jerusalem. The first is a "Flemish painter, ca. 1590" small (21 by 30) oil on copper estimated at 15,000 to 25,000 Euro. The second is a "17th / 18th century painter" canvas (63 by 100 cm) estimated at 6,500 to 7,500 Euro.

The scene is not unknown in Flemish and Dutch painting, but still relatively uncommon, with some 50 examples listed at RKD (in all mediums).

The first one, which once was attributed to Jan Brueghel, is very similar in some aspects to a work by Lazarus van der Borcht, sold at Dorotheum in 2013 for 25,000 Euro (found through RKD).

At Dorotheum, they helpfully indicate that the work is based on an engraving after David Vinckboons, which I then found at the Rijksmuseum. The image has many aspects similar or identical to the work for sale, e.g. the woman with the baby on the right, the running child, the figure of Christ, ... But contrary to the Van der Borcht, the work now for sale isn't a close copy but an interpretation, a reworking of the engraving (or it may be based on another version by Vinckboons).

The second work is closer to a drawing by Jacques Callot from ca. 1630 (again thanks to the Rijksmuseum), but in this case no one-on-one matches can be made.

Both paintings seem too expensive to me, but considering what the Van der Borcht made a few years ago, I may well be wrong here.

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