Unusual Adoration of the Magi by "Flemish Master" is close to Jan van Scorel

Dr. Eder, From Germany, sells on 8 December 2018 a "Flemish Master, ca. 1550" Adoration of the magi, estimated at 3,500 Euro.

The relatively large work (113 by 98cm) has a striking, unusual composition, quite remote from other Flemish or Dutch works from the same period.

A very similar work was sold at Lempertz in 2015 as "Studio of Jan van Scorel". Smaller but better, it sold for nearly 40,000 Euro. Other versions can be found in the Utrecht Museum and National Gallery of Ireland.

While the Utrecht version has the same ruin as the Lempertz one, the Ireland version has the ruin we can also see in the work for sale. Other elements here are also a lot closer to the Eder version.

Strange enough, the work for sale was at Lempertz just a few months ago, with an estimate of 8,000 to 10,000 Euro. Why the auction house now omits the attribution ("manner of Scorel") is not really clear.

The version for sale is clearly less well executed and is probably not good enough to be called a workshop copy, but it is an interesting, good work anyway, and should easily fetch the estimate.