A 16th century Flemish painting inspired by Lavinia Fontana

Stanley's, from Belgium, has a nice auction on 18 May 2019.

It is the first time I learned of the existence of this Belgian auction house, situated in Diegem (in Flanders) but with a website exclusively in French and English. Doesn't seem very smart to exclude such a large group of potential buyers right at your doorstep, but that's their problem of course (not that people in Flanders or the Netherlands don't know any English, but when looking e.g. for an auction house where they can sell their goods, Dutch language people may be more inclined to contact an auction house which welcomes them in their own language if they are looking for a local auction and not a major international player).

The most interesting is lot 43, a "Flemish School 16th century" Holy Family with John the Baptist, estimated at 1,200 to 1,500 Euro.

It is said to be based on the Loreto Madonna by Raphaël, and it certainly is in the same style;  but it is different enough to be a worthwhile independent work of art. The work has some damage though, which of course affects the value.

It has an inscription in the bottom right corner. The auction house deciphers it tentatively as ""Iu" ou "Ivstdhas Fladr"", I read it as IUST D.MA / FLADER with the M and A in ligature, and perhaps an I or S behind it. Still doesn't really help us. IUST may be for Justus, a common name in this period. "Flader" obviously makes one think of Flanders (or the German Flandern), but would be a strange typo I think. I haven't found any name or other clue as to what this inscription might mean though.

The painting is most closely related to a Holy Family by Lavinia Fontana, it seems. That painting, which is of course a lot better, is housed in the Escorial, and is known in a few variations.

The work for sale seems cheap, but will need some serious research to find out who may have painted it and what the relation with Fontana may be.

Other interesting lots include Lot 95, a typical Flemish Baroque head study of Abraham holding the knife to sacrifice Isaac: the work has some weird damage though, but with an estimate of only 200 Euro it may be a good restoration plan.

And lot 132 was nearly a huge bargain, but isn't good enough to be the real deal. Described as "Belgo-Italian School, 18th century" and estimated at 200 to 250 Euro, it is in origin neither Belgian nor Italian (and might well be 19th century), but a copy after Johann Wenzel Peter (1742-1829).

An original version was sold at Christie's in 2018 for 47,500 Euro, which seems like a lot of money to me. Even so, the copy is probably somewhat underrated and should fetch 600 Euro or so.

UPDATE: I haven't found the result for the first two works, but the copy after Peter went for 1,400 Euro against the 200 Euro estimate.