Monday 25 May 2015

Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, 1532: original?

Nye, auction house in New Jersey, sell on 2 June 2015 a portrait of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, dated 1532, estimated at $400 to $600 only.

If it is an original, it should be worth a lot more, mainly out of historical interest (there aren't that many contemporary portraits of this Holy Roman Emperor), but also art historically, as it isn't well painted but not that many Germanic portraits of that age survive.

In 1532, he wasn't yet the Emperor, but already king of Hungary and Bohemia (since 1526) and Romania (since 1531), which exactly matches the inscription on the panel. His age, given as 29, also matches his year of birth of 1503. So if this is a forgery, then the forger at least didn't make any very stupid mistakes with the chronology.

The painting doesn't seem to be a copy of a known portrait, but matches other portraits of the same sitter. From what I can see, there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this portrait (any more than any old painting should be doubted), and in that case the estimate is very low, even though the painting isn't very decorative (he doesn't seem to have been a very attractive man). Every Central European history buff should love to have this painting on his wall, I would think. It wouldn't surprise me if this painting fetched $5,000 instead.

UPDATE: no idea what happened, apparently the estimate was drastically changed between my blog post and the auction, as it now states an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000, and a sale price of $8,000. Not that far off my estimate. No idea whether the auction house saw my blog post or someting else happened...


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