Saturday 16 February 2019

Follower of the Master of the Parrot

Kendzia, from Germany, sells on 23 February 2019 a "Flemish Master, 16th century" Death of Lucretia, estimated at 4,000 Euro.

They don't indicate an artist, but refer to two similar works, in Malta and in Burg Gnandstein.

The version from the National Museum of Malta is shown at Europeana. It is nearly identical to the work for sale, but larger.

The version from the Burg Gnandstein castle, shown on museum digital: Deutschland, lacks the background scene, but that page has more interesting information on the artist, said to be the Master of the Parrot; they date it to c. 1520.

Bizarrely, the best version, and probably the original for this composition, is not mentioned on any of this sites: the Master of the Parrot from the Prado. It is very close to the Gnandstein version, but better. It has more subtlety in nearly evey aspect of the work, most visibly in the shadows and in the hair.




The version for sale is clearly inspired by the Malta version or by a common ancestor (it may well be that there existed an original Master of the Parrot version with the background added), but the figure is painted in a different style, not with the almost statuesque paleness of the other three, but with "real" colours (I have inserted the head of the Prado version for comparison). While it isn't good enough to be by the Master, it still is a very fine work, with some damage though, but finely detailed. The estimate seems cautious.

UPDATE: sold for 7,500 Euro.

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