Underestimated Entombment by unknown German master

Brussels Art Auctions, from Belgium, sells on 5 February 2019 a "German School, 16th / 17th century" Entombment, estimated at 5,000 to 8,000 Euro.

It is a beautiful painting in the International Gothic style, which one can find all over Western Europe, but this example indeed looks German. It seems unlikely that it would be a 17th century work, it would be very archaic by then, and is much more likely to be early 16th century, or even second half of the 15th century.

There were many masters (known by name or with a notname) in Germany at the time, and I am not very familiar  with most of them, so I have been unable so far to pinpoint an artist or region for this work. Even so, I believe it to be severely underestimated, and think it will easily fetch 25,000 to 30,000 Euro instead.

One artist who has created similar works is Caspar Isenmann (1410-1472), from Colmar (now in France, but art historically situated in Germany).

Another work which matches the one for sale in some aspects (especially the balding man and his clothing) is an altarpiece by Martin Schongauer, also from the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar.

The Virgin in the work for sale strongly reminds me of Flemish examples, e.g. by Quentin Massys (the Lamentation from Museum M in Leuven). But the remainder of the work offered here is more archaic, with its strict horizontality and lack of background, and is closer to Flemish examples like the works of Dieric Bouts (who was popular in Germany).

An Entombment by a Master from Cologne, dated to the first decade of the 16th century and now in the Art Institute of Chicago, also reminds me somewhat of the work for sale.

For comparison, a Spanish example (Pedro Sanchez de Castro) with a similar iconography, including the Gothic panels in the tomb, but a quite different execution.

I have not touched upon depictions of the entombment in other art forms, including miniatures and stained glass windows, and especially the large sculptures one can found in churches in Germany and France. But one of these caught my eye, a Grablegung from the Saint Michael Church in Schwäbisch Hall, from 1456. It is probably the closest composition to the one for sale here, with the man at the head, and especially with the position of the hands and feet of Jesus. Whether this is a coincidence or points to a Swabian origin of the painting (considering that the Swabian School was a rather important group of painters in these years) is not clear.

Wannenes 29 November 2017 part 4: Spanish or German?

Wannenes, from Italy, sells on 29 Noveùber 2017 a nice collection of Old Masters.

Lots 928 and 928 clearly belong together, but have been separated here presumably for the first time in 500 years, which is a pity. Perhaps the same buyer will acquire them both.

The auction house describes them as "Painter of the 15th-16th century" with estimates of 50,000 to 70,000 Euro each. They are said to be parts of a polyptych (presumably from the predella), and to have a Mediterranean character (Spanish + Provence) with Flemish influences. They were originally attributed to Bartolomé Bermejo (1440-1501, Spain), who is not to be confused with Bartolomé de Cardénas (1575-1628), a Portuguese painter. Wannenes sees a Catalan or Valencian origin for these paintings.

Bermejo is clearly influenced by Flemish art of his period, and is a very good painter, but I don't see the match with the paintings for sale at all. His "Santa Engracia" shows of course that it is from the same period, but is much more restrained, static, "Flemish" than the works for sale, which are more exuberant, lively, caricatural, "German" (I'm using Flemish and German here to describe their art from the late 15th century).

I wouldn't place the paintings in a Hispano-Flemish or southern Mediterranean circle, but in a German or perhaps Northern Italian one. Looking for matches there gave me two names.

The more general influence, and evidence of the link with German painting, is with an engraving by Martin Schongauer (1445-1491), the most important German (or French-German) engraver of his period, before Dürer came along. His "Christ carrying the corss" ha multiple elements which are clearly similar to the same work here. The most obvious one is the horse on the extreme left (engraving) vs the one of the right (painting): a neraly exact mirror (even the position of the rider), apart from the tail which points in the same direction.

The "Garden of Gethsemane" is nearly identical to a fresco by Giovanni Canavesio (ca. 1450-1500), a painter from Piedmont, whose main work is a fresco cycle of the Passion of Christ in La Brigue, a French village very close to Italy (and actually a part of Italy until 1947), but who is also known from panel painting and miniatures. Most of his work was done in this Northwestern corner of Italy. The artists are not the same, clearly, but either the two works have inspired one another directly, or they have some common ancestor. The soldiers coming from the top left behind the wall, entering through the gate: the angel on the top right holding the cup, the figure of Christ, with the way his cape is draped... It all seems a bit too much to only see a coincidence in this.

The two works (which, like I said, should really stay together) are beautiful and worthy of much more attention to find out their origin or even the artist; but to me they seem both visually and considering the influences I found, to be most likely German (or perhaps Austrian or North Italian), not Spanish. Doesn't really change the value probably.