Monday 19 November 2018

"17th century Flemish School" goes back to a Rogier Van der Weyden composition

Mercier, from France, sells on 25 November 2018 a "Flemish School, 17th century" "Christ with the stigmata and saint", estimated at 1,500 to 3,000 Euro.

First off, it is a trinity, with God (not a saint) holding Jesus while the Holy Ghost flies above them. God is often represented with a papal tiara.

The work is probably 16th, not 17th century, and goes back to a composition by Rogier Van der Weyden. One version is kept in the Museum M in Leuven, Belgium (said to be by Van der Weyden, but seems like a good copy to me instead).

But it is unlikely that the version for sale is based directly on this one, which is known through other copies as well. For example the above one, listed at the RKD, is attributed to Marcel Koffermans. It stays closer to the original. In the version for sale, the way God holds Jesus has been changed (not improved though), and his head is turned.

As a 16th century reinterpretation of a Van der Weyden composition (there is also a similar composition claimed to be by Robert Campin), it should fetch the estimate quite easily.

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