"16th century Flemish School" is by follower of Quentin or Jan Matsys

De Ruiter, from the Netherlands, sells on 19 March 2020 a "Flemish School, 16th century" "pastoral romantic scene" estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro.

The panel is clearly made by a follower of Jan Matsys (1510-1575), the son of Quentin Matsys. Jan often used the same male head in his satirical pieces, like the above "Prodigal Son" from Petworth House.

But the same head also appears in works by his father, like the "Ill-matched lovers" from the National Gallery in Washington.

Closer comparison clearly shows the similarities, and the differences, which are partly due to the worse condition of the one for sale. I have also mirrored the head from the Jan Massys to show again the same origin.

I couldn't find an equally matching example for the head of the woman, but it still clearly fits in the range of caricatural older woman depicted by both Massyses.

The man's head is by far the best part of the work for sale: if it all had been like that, I would have probably put it down as a workshop copy, not the work of a follower, and would have adjusted the value upwards accordingly. As it stands though, it still is an interesting work from the period, and should easily fetch the estimate.

A nearly identical work (almost the same dimensions as well) was sold by Hampel in 2014, estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 Euro, and described correctly as "follower of Quentin Massys". I don't know if it was sold, and for how much. The bottom of the two is the De Ruiter one, for ease of comparison.

"Cornelis Massys" is another follower of Gillis Mostaert

Horta, from Belgium, sells on 12 December 2017 a "Flemish School, 17th century" Crucifixion, estimated at 700 to 1,000 Euro.

Comparable poor copy of the Mostaert composition

Something closer to the original

More elaborate one

It is attributed on the frame to Cornelis Massys (1508-1556), but this is rightly rejected by the auction house. It is yet another copy of the best-known work of Gillis Mostaert, which I have (with many examples) discussed in a blog post in February 2017.


This copy isn't good enough to be an original by Mostaert, but as an old version of a known work, in good condition and with some interesting details in the background to lift it above the usual Flemish crucifixions, it should easily fetch the estimate and is probably worth 1,200 Euro or so.

"Flemish School, 15th / 16th c." is workshop or follower of Quentin Massys (plus provenance!)

Cabral Moncado Leiloes, from Portugal, sells on 30 May 2016 (i.e. now!) a "Flemish School, 15th - 16th century" Praying Virgin, estimated at 3,000 to 4,500 Euro.

It is a very nice version of a painting by Quentin Massys, known from multiple versions from his time, e.g. the above one (attributed to his Workshop) from the National Gallery. The original was part of a diptych with Christ on the left wing, but the right wing alone has often been copied. The link to Massys is given on the frame of the work, but for some reason omitted by the auction house. The work for sale is a bit less subtle in the flesh tones and the execution of the hands, and is either another Workshop copy or the work of a very good Follower. The slightly lower quality may also in part be caused by the smaller size (32 by 22 cm vs. 60 by 35 cm) of course.

An original, clearly superior version was sold at Sotheby's in 2013 and fetched $1 million... The one for sale is closer to the National Gallery version though.

The painting now for sale is probably the same as this one from the RKD (shown together here for easy comparison), which was for sale in Germany in 1919, and which Friedländer notes as "Real?", but which the RKD lists as "After Massys". The one big advantage of knowing if this is the same, is that in that case you can be certain that it isn't a recent fake, but at least a 100-year old one.

If the painting is a genuine 15th-16th c. work, then it should be worth considerably more than the estimate, at least 10,000 Euro, as Early Netherlandish paintings of this quality and so closely related to Quentin Massys are rare.