"German" Triumph of Death is copy after Maarten van Heemskerck

Galerie Bassenge, from Germany, sells (in a specialized "Memento Mori" auction, nice!) on 31 May 2018 a "German, ca. 1600" Triumph of Death, a small oil on copper (18 by 26 cm) estimated at 1,200 Euro.

Someone has attributed the work to Georg Pencz on the back, and this is understandable considering the rather similar engraving after Pencz of the same topic, from between 1500 and 1550. This copy comes from the Met museum.

But the work is actually a copy after an engraving by Philips Galle after a work by Maarten van Heemskerck from 1565, with the exact same composition and dimensions. This copy is from the British Museum. It seems probable that Van Heemskerck was inspired by the Pencz engraving though.

The estimated value is probably about right, as such images still appeal to a modern taste and not too many old painted copies of this work are known.

UPDATE: sold for 1,600 Euro.

UPDATE 2: again for sale, now at Leo Spik on 5 December 2019, with same description and estimate of 2,000 Euro.  

A "Memento Mori" for 1 November

Van Ham, Germany, sells on 18 November 2016 a "School of Nuremberg" Memento Mori, estimated at 3,000 to 4,000 Euro.

It is an example of the perhaps most depressing type of memento mori paintings, the "Nascendo morimur" or "Being born, we die" (as seen on the text panel in the painting). But while these works were popular in Germany, they were also often made in the Netherlands (no coincidence that they were two of the leading Protestant or Refomation countries of the period probably), and this one is a good copy of a work by Marten van Heemskerck. The original is in the Museum of Koblenz.

Being a copy, and in somewhat poor condition, it will struggle to fetch the estimate probably.