Barthel Bruyn, Annunciation

Henry's Auktionshaus, from Germany, sells on 28 February 2015 what they describe as an Annunciation by Barthel Bruyn the Elder, estimated at least 15,000 Euro. While it is an interesting painting, I don't see a real Bruyn in it, more a "School of", and don't think it is worth the estimate. UPDATE: sold for 18,300 Euro, so the market didn't agree with me...

Compared to a similar Annunciation by Bruyn from the National Museum in Warsaw, the composition is roughly the same, but the execution is significantly different. The Warsaw one is firmly based in older, 15th century Flemish examples. The one for sale is closer to an Antwerp Mannerist painting of some 30 to 50 years later.

One much closer to the one now for sale is kept in the reserves of the Wallraff-Richartz Museum in Cologne, and is described as "School of Bruyn the Elder" there. But even that one is of much higher quality than the one for sale now.

Lempertz, Annunciation, ca. 1500

Not really a hidden treasure, as Lempertz auctions are always worth browsing, but an interesting picture for a reasonable price. An annunciation, described as Southern Germany, ca. 1500, and estimated at 8,000 to 9,000 Euro. It is very charming, painted with a mixture of skill and naivity, and with decorative elements like the rabbits on the right. The double see-through, left and right, is rather unusual, but not completely succesful, and many of the details are rather sketchy, unlike e.g. good Flemish paintings in the same style, but the overall effect is still quite accomplished. UPDATE: sold for 31,000 Euro, so I wasn't the only one to find the price very reasonable!

It reminds me of a similar painting from the Museum of Rothenburg, dated ca. 1510 and located in Southern Germany or Tyrol. The angel (especially the hair), the Child being beamed down with the cross by God (which indicates that the one for sale was originally a bit larger but has been cut down at the top, assuming the image shows the whole picture), the miniature donor portrait, all sit firmly in the same tradition. The one for sale is more modern, even though the estimated date is ten years earlier. 

The detail of the Christ with the cross coming from the sky is an ancient one, and can already be seen in the Annunciation by Robert Campin (compare e.g. as well the hair of the Angel). Other details, like the angel wearing a cross on his head, can be traced back at least to Petrus Christus. But the overall composition of the one for sale seems to be a new invention.