Copy of the Carracci pietà attributed to Teniers

Campo & Campo, from Belgium, sells on 23 May 2017 as lot 201 an "attributed to David Teniers II" copy of the Pietà by Annibale Carracci, estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 Euro.

It is a very good copy, at about the same dimensions as the original. The work was well-known to Teniers, as it was one of the highlights of the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, now one of the main origins of the beautiful collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

 

Teniers has painted the work a number of times in his depictions of part of the collection of the Archduke, and has also made a smaller drawn copy of it for his illustrated catalogie of the collection from 1660, the first illustrated art catalogue ever (and a book which is, al things considered, reasonably affordable nevertheless, at some £2,000 for a complete original copy with 246 engravings)

But has he also made lifesize copies of any works in the collection? I can't find a reference to other such copies by Teniers, but of course it is possible, and he was certainly both capable and in a position to make this copy.

There are some remarkable differences though (even though the work is clearly painted straight from the original and not from some engraving), most noticeable is the added tableware in the middle right. Also clear is that the copy is slightly wider, showing the Mary and Christ and not the slightly cut-off version of Carracci. It almost looks as if whoever painted this copy, wanted to make a "better" version, avoiding the emptiness of the shelf and the crampedness of the original. By slightly changing the position of Mary, Teniers (or the artist) brought the two protagonists closer together as well. So while he increased the emotionality in this regard, he lessened the same emotion by adding some breathing space at the sides and especially at the top, and by adding some more (very restrained) eye candy on the shelf.

While to our modern eyes it probably doesn't make this really better than the original, it makes it different and not really worse either, which is an achievement in itself (it is much easier to ruin such a composition when one starts fiddling with it). So whoever did this (and assuming there isn't an actual Carracci version with this exact composition) must have been a very accomplished artist as well.

Even as an old, good, anonymous copy of this work, evidence of the habit at the time of copying the best Italian works to use as exercise at the moment and inspiration afterwards, it should be worth the estimate.

If it can be proven that it really is the work of Teniers, it should probably be at least 20,000 Euro though, and probably more. It would be great to see it displayed in Vienna next to the original!