Wednesday 31 January 2018

"Flemish School" is copy after Rubens

Pandolfini, from Italy, sells on 13 February 2018 a "Flemish School, 17th century" Bacchic scene with a satyr, estimated at 8,000 to 12,000 Euro.

Some other versions of the same work have appeared at auction over the last few years.

The first one was sold as a "Follower of Rubens", lacks the upper half of this work, and has a tigress instead of some dog.

The second was described as "circle of Rubens" and has the same satyr, but is even more different in other aspects.

All seem to go back to a composition by Rubens. I haven't found the original, but an engraving by Lucas Vorsterman can be found at the Rijksmuseum. While the satyr and animal clearly are taken from this work, all copies have putti which this version of the original hasn't. So it may well be that another Rubens original exited with these variations.


The work for sale has some good elements, and overall it is a good composition, but the work is very brown  (and unlikely to become colourful when cleaned, I think), and has many elements which are rather sketchy as well (as in the second image). This is not du to the scale of the work; it is a large canvas, 174 by 126 cm, so such deficiencies will be more apparent in real life.

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