The School of Antwerp, the Brueghel Dynasty, the early flemish landscape are just some examples of what you will find here.
All works come with expertises and/or expert opinions from top specialists, with whom we frequently collaborate as external consultants. Get in touch to find out more.
Upon request, we are able to propose specific subjects and artists, tailored for any type of interest.
We consult and evaluate established and growing collections and we provide research and assessment for painting of interest.
We also carry out the role of consultants and we are able to evaluate your collection should you be interested in selling some works.
Jan Provoost
The Master with the Parrot
Barthel Bruyn
The Master of Morrison Triptych
Lucas Gassel
The Master of Antwerp Adoration
The Master of Sigmaringen
Monogrammist HS
The Master of the Antwerp Adoration
The Master of Sint Anna-Hofje
Ambrosius Benson
Bartholomeus van der Helst
Abraham van Beyeren
Jan van Kessel the Elder
Nicolaes van Verendael
Kerstiaen de Keuninck
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Jan Provoost Calvary
oil on panel
cm 31x25
1520 c.
[...]The composition centres upon Christ nailed to the Cross, flanked at the foot of the gibbet by the two
grieving figures: to the left, the Virgin Mary, enveloped in her blue mantle with her head gently
inclined; to the right, Saint John the Evangelist, hands clasped and gaze uplifted towards the Redeemer
in an attitude of composed devotion. The grief expressed is inward and restrained: reddened, visibly
moist eyes, slightly parted lips, and the faint curvature of the shoulders betray profound anguish, yet
without recourse to agitated gesture. This is a contemplative, meditated sorrow, attuned more closely to
early sixteenth-century devotional sensibilities than to the raw pathos of the preceding generation. In this equilibrium between emotional participation and formal restraint lies the psychological register most favoured by Provost, who proves himself adept at reconciling affective intensity with liturgical decorum. [...]
-
The Master with the Parrot Virgo Lactans
oil on panel
cm 20x28
1540 c.
[...]Stylistically, our panel is marked by the influence of Joos van Cleve, to whom the work was
also attributed in the past. Van Cleve, one of the primary Antwerp artists active between 1510
and 1540, was an essential reference point for the
creation of models and facial types that became a
true canon for other artists of the period. It has
been hypothesized that some paintings similar to
ours were trimmed at the bottom to remove the
signature and sell them as works by Van Cleve
(either father or son). Indeed, other versions of this
and similar compositions have appeared at auction
under the name of Cornelis van Cleve, Joos’s son,
born in 1520. [...]
-
Barthel Bruyn Portrait of a Lady holding a Carnation
oil on panel
diam. cm 20x28
1535 c.
[...]Bartholomäus Bruyn (1493–1555),was a German Renaissance painter active in Cologne. He painted altarpieces and portraits, and was Cologne's foremost portrait painter of his day. He was born inWesel or Cologne. His early works suggest that he received his artistic training in the Lower Rhine. His earliest documented altarpiece is a Coronation of the Virgin (1515–1516) commissioned by Dr. Peter von Clapis, a professor at the University of Cologne. Bruyn’s altarpieces of the 1510s and 1520s are influenced by the style of Jan Joest von Kalkar, to whom Bruyn was related. By the time Bruyn painted the Essen altarpiece (1522–1525), he had combined Joest's influence with that of Joos Van Cleve. In the 1530s, he developed a more Italianate style which he probably knew only at second hand through the engravings of Marcantonio Raimundi and the work by Jan Van Scorel. Bruyn is especially known for his portraits. He was the first important portrait painter in Cologne, and the founder of a prolific school of portraiture that was continued by his sons Arnt and Barthel II. His subjects are usually portrayed at half-length against a flat background. The face is the center of attention. Costume details are crisply described, and prominence is given to the hands. [...]
-
The Master of Morrison TriptychMaestà
oil on panel
cm 59x38
1520 c.
[...]The work belongs to the flourishing Antwerp school of painting in the first decades of the sixteenth
century. During this period, the economic capital of Flanders became a foremost artistic centre, where
the local late Gothic tradition encountered new influences from both Italy and the northern regions. The
Master of the Morrison Triptych—so conventionally named—was active precisely in Antwerp around
1500–1520, gravitating around the workshop of Quentin Massys. Massys was the leader of the new
generation of Antwerp painters, renowned for introducing stylistic and iconographic innovations while
maintaining roots in the earlier Flemish tradition. In the present painting this cultural humus is
clearly perceptible: on the one hand, the Master demonstrates familiarity with and reuse of models by
late fifteenth-century Bruges masters (such as Memling and Gerard David); on the other, he reveals an
engagement with the more modern Antwerp sensibility, with more volumetric figures, livelier
expressions, and a composition open to the viewer’s space. It was precisely Friedländer—the celebrated
art historian—who noted how the Master of the Morrison Triptych appears as an artist “in transition”:
a faithful follower of Quentin Massys and at the same time an heir to the preceding school. This dual
nature reflects the artistic situation of the Southern Netherlands at the time, poised between the legacy
of late Gothic altarpieces and the new Renaissance and devotional impulses. [...]
-
Lucas Gassel Landscape with St Jerome
oil on panel
cm 56x85
1540 c.
An artist able to turn topographical gigantism into a veritable work of art, was born around 1500 in the small village of Helmond in the north Brabant.
The beginning of the sixteen century was a particularly fruitful period for his artistic style. The path, that a selected number of painters decided to follow with their own spin, had been traced by the ‘Father’ Patinir and his nephew Herri met de Bles, also known as Il Civetta. When analysing the development of
landscape painting in the sixteenth century, it is paramount to identify and underline the individual features of each artist. As a matter of fact, although the painters shared similar purposes and views, each was able to interpret the theme in a personal way.
Very little is known about the life of
the artist. It is speculated that he
might have lived in Brussels and
travelled to Italy on a few occasions.
He was a friend of Dominicus
Lampsonius who educated him about
geography. Conversely, a lot is
known about his pictorial corpus.
Gassel had a methodical and
calculated artistic personality, less
eccentric than Bles’ but by no means
no less creative. The author’s original
creations were often repeated in
many signed works in which humans
and orographic architectures are alternated under the guidance of a keen inventiveness, the ability to imagine creative yet harmonious solutions on a coherent stage. His paintings are like magnificent tales told through images in which each chapter leaves the reader, captivated by a multitude of plots coherently linked together, wanting to read the next. We present you this significant panel which is not only an exceptional addition to the painter's catalogue, but also an anthological essay of his art. This landscape with Saint Jerome in the foreground was one of the author’s favourite compositions.
-
The Master of Antwerp AdorationThe Annunciation to St Anne
Oil on panel
cm 59x62
c. 1530
[...] The rare episode depicted in our work is the Annunciation to
Saint Anne. This story is not present in any of the canonical
Gospels and is first attested in the Protoevangelium of James,
later gaining popularity in the Middle Ages thanks to the Golden
Legend, where it is enriched with details and becomes one of the episodes linked to the Stories
of Mary.
The story tells of Joachim's wife, Anne, a middle-aged woman who, while praying, is visited by
an angel who brings her the news of her impending motherhood. The couple, now advanced in
years, had not had any children and this, according to Jewish tradition, was a sign of disgrace
and enmity with God, a fact that had caused her husband to be expelled from the Temple of
Jerusalem. The angel, according to another source, the Pseudo-Matthew (2, 3-4), says to her:
"Do not be afraid, Anne. God has decided to answer your prayer. She who will be born of you
will be an object of admiration for all ages”[...].
-
The Master of SigmaringenSt Cristopher e St Sebastian
c. 1520
Cm 75x32
[...] Observing the two panels, the synthetic yet detail-oriented style guides the viewer on a
discovery of the stories of the two saints. Christopher is imagined as so tall that he uses a tree
as a staff to cross the turbulent waters: the story tells that he used to be paid as a ferryman to
carry travelers from one bank to the other of a great northern river. The satchel he clutches in
his right hand alludes precisely to his demand for tribute. His expression and the inclination
of his head, on the other hand, contrast with the solidity of his legs and allude to the heavy
burden he is carrying. The story continues with the narration of the day when a child
presented himself to Christopher asking to be carried: with every step Christopher took in
fording the river, the child became heavier, until Christopher feared he would drown. Once
they reached the other bank, the child revealed himself to be Jesus Christ, saying to him:
“with Me, you have carried the weight of the sins of the World”. The miraculous event,
halfway between mystical epiphany and chivalric fairy tale is the worthy conclusion of a story
that goes well with that of the young man in the right panel. Sebastian had a more
widespread cult, with a wide presence also in Italy, but he enjoyed particular success in the
Germanic area. The reasons are not entirely clear, and it is likely that the belief in a
Germanic origin of the Saint was rooted, but what is certain is that the aesthetic
characterization of Sebastian underwent a remarkable accentuation in German art at the turn
of the 15th and 16th centuries. A young blond man, with flowing hair and fair complexion, is
tied to a tree here, while being pierced by various arrows, which cause rivulets of blood to spill
on his smooth body. The position of his hands is contracted, while the expression on his face is
more one of resignation than of actual pain. Sebastian was martyred under Diocletian, after
performing miraculous conversions and surviving the death sentence by arrows, a miraculous
aspect that is canonically underlined in artistic representations like ours [...].
-
Monogrammist HS The Ill Matched Lovers with a Monk
oil on panel, cm 28x42,5.
Monogrammist HS (Active during the first part of XVII Century). Rare and enigmatic painter from Basel, a pupil of Lucas Cranach, specialized in the representation of allegorical subjects often soaked in a taste for the grotesque, erotic and enigmatic. Compared to his master, Hans Stronmayer presents harsher tones, with female bodies represented in ivory color and smooth as porcelain, with the characters depicted close to their caricature, deliberately in an anti-classical and anti-Italian key.
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The Master of the Antwerp AdorationHoly Family
Oil on panel
35x24 cm
The designation "Master of the
Adoration of Antwerp" was coined
by art historian Maximilian
Friedländer to identify the author
of the Adoration of the Magi
housed in the Museum of Fine
Arts in Antwerp.The centrality of
this artistic figure in the early
16th century is crucial for
understanding the transition
from the tradition of the Flemish
Primitives in Bruges to the new
pictorial language of Antwerp. It
is with similar masters, in fact,
that the season of the so-called
A n t w e r p M a n n e r i s t s i s
conventionally considered open.
This definition (also coined by
Friedländer) is primarily a
geographical identification
(Antwerp) and a chronological
delimitation (1500 - 1530), which
d o e s n o t c a r r y n e g a t i v e
connotations but aims to identify
a stylistic common ground with
s p e c i f i c f e a t u r e s . T h e
phenomenon, certainly one of the
most unique and delightful in the
ancient painting of the Low
Countries, involved even very
different painters. It is characterized predominantly by unbridled formalistic eclecticism, with
a casual convergence and elaboration of various ancient and contemporary artistic experiences
of Flemish painting, a calligraphic virtuosity serving a deliberate complication and
exaggeration of lines and compositions. The epidermal and lens-like taste for space and
naturalistic details accompanies the theatrical staging of architectures ranging from hyper-
Gothic to classically inventive, populated by characters made vivid through pyrotechnic
iconographic inventions. These range from exotic costumes to caricatural physiognomy, from
the emphasis on gestures to a flickering kaleidoscope of colors, under a directorial guidance
that renders the works plausible and impossible simultaneously. The success of this style,
more precisely defined by Ragghianti as "Style of Antwerp," was such throughout Europe that,
in a certain sense, it replaced in the common imagination of ancient collectors the Northern
painting of the 15th century, becoming synonymous with Flemish primitive painting par
excellence.
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The Master of Sint Anna-HofjeA Triptych: adoration of Magi
Oil on panel
89x90 cm
Thanks to a triptych dedicated to the Adoration of the Magi found in the former chapel of the hospital of
Sint Anna-Hofje in Leyden, Georges Marlier, the most renowned expert about Pieter Coecke van Aelst
and his workshop, defines a specific style in the way of drawing the faces and attitudes of the
characters, and brings together under the name of “Master of Sit Anna-Hofje“ a group of works that
share the same technical characteristics. The Master of Saint Anna-Hofje has been defined as an
immediate collaborator of the painter Pieter
Coecke van Aelst, especially related to the
Spanish royal family during the 16th century
as he held the title of official painter of
Emperor Charles V since 1534. We often find
his work in Spanish collections and the
prototype of devotional Virgins demonstrates
the closeness of the artist with his main
Master. Mattias Diaz-Padron coincides in her
research with Georges Marlier and supports
this hypothesis by enriching the work of this
author with new paintings found in Spanish
collections. For example, the triptych in the
Damar collection must be attributed to the so-
called Master of St. Anna-Hofje, named after a
triptych in the chapel of the St. Anne
Almshouse in Leiden. This Leiden triptych is,
in fact, one of the few altarpieces that survived
the strong iconoclastic outbursts in Leiden in
1566 and is still in situ.
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Ambrosius BensonSt Jerome in the wilderness
Oil on panel
77x59 cm
Ambrosius Benson is a captivating figure in the Flemish Renaissance art scene, whose work has left a
lasting imprint on art history. Active in the 16th
century, Benson is renowned for his mastery of
painting, sensitivity to light and color, and his
ability to depict daily and religious life with
extraordinary emotional depth. Presumably born
around 1495 in Lombardy, the exact location of
his birth remains a subject of debate among art
historians. However, it is in the Flemish city of
Bruges that Benson spent much of his life and
reached the peak of his artistic career. His
artistic training likely occurred under the
influence of Flemish masters of the time,
particularly Gerard David, from whom he
derived an interest in detailed realism and
compositional layout with an archaic taste.
Benson's work stands out for its ability to blend
elements of Flemish tradition with Italian
influences, particularly Lombard and
Leonardesque, thanks to the commercial and
cultural contacts between Flanders and Italy
during the Renaissance, but probably also
through an assimilation of Italian art that had
not yet been thoroughly studied.
-
Bartholomeus van der HelstPortrait of a Children with a Bread Bun and a Dog
Oil on canvas
118x95 cm
dated on the lower left B. vander helst/ Ao 1658
Bartholomeus van der Helst can be described as nothing less than the
most important portrait painter of the Amsterdam patriciate in his
time. After his apprenticeship he quickly rose to fame and made
himself a name as a prolific and successful portraitist for the high
circles of the Dutch society with his delicate depictions of the human
kind.
Born in 1613 in Haarlem he grew into a merchant family. His father,
Lodewijck van der Helst, was born around 1678-1579. The “coepman
tot Haerlem” traded in all kinds of goods such as fruit, malt, wine but
also houses and ships. Although documents never referred to him as
an art dealer he conducted several transactions with paintings. After
his first wife, Mayken, which he married in 1599 died Lodewijck
married the widow and mother of Bartholomeus, Aeltge Bartels, not
long after. In 1610 Lodewijk the older brother of Bartholomeus was
born. At that time the family lived in the Schachelstraat in Haarlem. [...]
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Abraham van Beyeren Still life with fruits, two roses, a watch and a glass
Oil on canvas
cm 87x70
1660 ca.
In the Netherlands of the 17th century, many painters worked as trained specialists in their field.
Among others, there were genre painters and portrait painters. However, it wasn't only living objects
that were depicted. As specialists in their field, still life painters understood how to reproduce various
objects such as flowers, vases, dishes, or even carpets in meticulous detail. One of them was Abraham
van Beyeren. Van Beyeren was born either 1620 or 1621 in The Hague and worked, probably to round
off his artistic training, in Leyden from 1638 to 1640. Although his tutor remains unknown possible
teachers could be Cornelis Cruys or Tyman Arentsz. Cracht. In 1640 he was accepted as a master into
the Guild of St. Luke in 1640 The Hague. In the 1650s and 1660s he primarily worked as a fish still
life painter in The Hague, Delft and Amsterdam. From 1675 on he was active for two years in Gouda.
After that he worked in Overschie where he lived until his death in 1690.
Although a major artist with considerable influence in the field of fish still lifes he is nevertheless
better known for his ornamental and flower still lifes like ours. Dated between the 1660s and 1680s
our painting can be placed in a time period in which Van Beyeren worked on his magnificent, lavish
still lifes against war, translucent dark brown backgrounds.
The large, sumptuous canvas boasts a distinguished pedigree of publications and public exhibitions
that accompanied it throughout the last century. It has also passed through the hands of several
knowledgeable collectors of Dutch Golden Age art, including Hans Wetzlar, whose legendary sale of
his collection ranked among the most significant auction results of the 1950s [...].
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Jan van Kessel the ElderStudy of insect with flowers of Borago Officinalis
oil on copper
Cm 10x16
Jan van Kessel the Elder belonged to a famous dynasty of painters. The grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder and nephew of Jan Brueghel the Younger and David Teniers the Younger, he was born in Antwerp in 1626. He served an apprenticeship with the genre and history painter Simon de Vos and may also have studied with his uncle Jan Brueghel the Younger.
Following the example of Hoefnagel, Jan van Kessel cleverly copies his use of a light-coloured, neutral background. Furthermore, the use of copper contributes to the cold and luminous rendering of the plate, making this a precise and lively study. Exposing each element to an analytical light, and thus creating subtle and delicate shadows, Kessel endows each motif with the impression of an almost palpable volume. Each detail is depicted with such care and skill, and therefore realism, that we half expect to see the beetles crawl away and the butterflies to fly off.
Greatly enjoyed and highly sought-after during his lifetime, Jan van Kessel’s studies of insects are still immensely popular today. A talented painter, both in the skill of his brushstrokes and the eclecticism of the themes he depicts, Jan van Kessel proves he is a highly sensitive and astoundingly precise artist through his studies of insects. He thus contributed to making the 17th century the “Golden Age” of Flemish painting.
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Nicolaes van VerendaelSingerie: allegory of Human Condition
oil on panel
Cm 31x36
1670 c.
[...]The subject matter has been associated with human foolishness since the Middle Ages. Monkeys carried symbolic weight in the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. They appeared in images as diverse as playing cards, Dürer prints, and paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Following Columbus’ discovery of the New World in 1492, they had even enjoyed a Renaissance . In 1523, Albrecht Dürer had produced a print for his Protestant friends in Geneva showing a troupe of dancing monkeys. They were associated primarily with sinfulness and folly. In the visual arts, they were used as a parody of humanity. Doubtless, these connotations would not have been lost on Teniers’ educated humanist and noble audience. In Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools, for example, a satirical allegory published in 1494, Dame Folly leads monkeys and fools by a rope. “Apes or fools in high places” are associated with the pride of the powerful. Bruegel the Elder’s Two Monkeys (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) of 1562 has commonly been interpreted as a depiction of two specific sins: avarice and prodigality. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Peter van der Borcht (1562, engraving), and David II and Abraham Teniers successfully captured the ambivalence of mankind in its animal nature.
A pair of chained monkeys is positioned in the same manner in Gentile da Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi (1423). Here, they represent mankind’s innately corrupt nature. It reminds us from which low-morally state we are rescued by Jesus’s birth. These monkeys are we! [...]
-
Kerstiaen de KeuninckMountain Landscape with a river and the Story of Tobi and the Angel
oil on panel
cm 81x120
1620 ca.
This large panoramic landscape view, dominated by fantastic mountains and rock formations, is a work of the middle period of the artist and was probably painted in Antwerp.
A more precise comparison can be made with the works created around the period 1610 - 1615 in Antwerp, when the artist was in close contact with Alexander Keirincx and the Francken family.
The landscapes of this period were all large works of horizontal format and followed a very precise compositional scheme. A diagonal divides the work in two parts, tracing a clear division between the action in the foreground and the immense rock formations on the background. On the opposite side, the artist often placed a theatrical backdrop formed by trees, whose fronds follow an accentuated winding line. In the central area an isolated rocky pillar is often connected by natural bridges or arches with the rest of the composition. The figures, small and secondary in the whole scene, are usually sketched at a later time, when not entirely delegated to specific collaborators. The figures of Tobias and the Angel were the artist's favourites. Hunters, pilgrims and shepherds with goats were also appreciated.
It illustrates his concern with contrasting pictorial effects—such as heavy passages of opaque paint set off against areas sketched in a very thin medium—and with bold motifs like the water spray formed by flicking the brush.
We mention, as primary comparision examples, the Landscape with Hunter preserved in Braunschweig, which has almost an identical setting and The Rocky Landscape preserved in Vienna where several elements return in a mirror-like manner: the castle (the only difference is the castle location: on the opposite side), the creek, the shape of the woods and the foliage of the trees, as well as the goats that can be seen in the foreground.
Jan Provoost
The Master with the Parrot
Barthel Bruyn
The Master of Morrison Triptych
Lucas Gassel
The Master of Antwerp Adoration
The Master of Sigmaringen
Monogrammist HS
The Master of the Antwerp Adoration
The Master of Sint Anna-Hofje
Ambrosius Benson
Bartholomeus van der Helst
Abraham van Beyeren
Jan van Kessel the Elder
Nicolaes van Verendael
Kerstiaen de Keuninck
Jan Provoost
Calvary
oil on panel
cm 31x25
1520 c.
[...]The composition centres upon Christ nailed to the Cross, flanked at the foot of the gibbet by the two grieving figures: to the left, the Virgin Mary, enveloped in her blue mantle with her head gently inclined; to the right, Saint John the Evangelist, hands clasped and gaze uplifted towards the Redeemer in an attitude of composed devotion. The grief expressed is inward and restrained: reddened, visibly moist eyes, slightly parted lips, and the faint curvature of the shoulders betray profound anguish, yet without recourse to agitated gesture. This is a contemplative, meditated sorrow, attuned more closely to early sixteenth-century devotional sensibilities than to the raw pathos of the preceding generation. In this equilibrium between emotional participation and formal restraint lies the psychological register most favoured by Provost, who proves himself adept at reconciling affective intensity with liturgical decorum. [...]
The Master with the Parrot
Virgo Lactans
oil on panel
cm 20x28
1540 c.
[...]Stylistically, our panel is marked by the influence of Joos van Cleve, to whom the work was also attributed in the past. Van Cleve, one of the primary Antwerp artists active between 1510 and 1540, was an essential reference point for the creation of models and facial types that became a true canon for other artists of the period. It has been hypothesized that some paintings similar to ours were trimmed at the bottom to remove the signature and sell them as works by Van Cleve (either father or son). Indeed, other versions of this and similar compositions have appeared at auction under the name of Cornelis van Cleve, Joos’s son, born in 1520. [...]
Barthel Bruyn
Portrait of a Lady holding a Carnation
oil on panel
diam. cm 20x28
1535 c.
[...]Bartholomäus Bruyn (1493–1555),was a German Renaissance painter active in Cologne. He painted altarpieces and portraits, and was Cologne's foremost portrait painter of his day. He was born inWesel or Cologne. His early works suggest that he received his artistic training in the Lower Rhine. His earliest documented altarpiece is a Coronation of the Virgin (1515–1516) commissioned by Dr. Peter von Clapis, a professor at the University of Cologne. Bruyn’s altarpieces of the 1510s and 1520s are influenced by the style of Jan Joest von Kalkar, to whom Bruyn was related. By the time Bruyn painted the Essen altarpiece (1522–1525), he had combined Joest's influence with that of Joos Van Cleve. In the 1530s, he developed a more Italianate style which he probably knew only at second hand through the engravings of Marcantonio Raimundi and the work by Jan Van Scorel. Bruyn is especially known for his portraits. He was the first important portrait painter in Cologne, and the founder of a prolific school of portraiture that was continued by his sons Arnt and Barthel II. His subjects are usually portrayed at half-length against a flat background. The face is the center of attention. Costume details are crisply described, and prominence is given to the hands. [...]
The Master of Morrison Triptych
Maestà
oil on panel
cm 59x38
1520 c.
[...]The work belongs to the flourishing Antwerp school of painting in the first decades of the sixteenth century. During this period, the economic capital of Flanders became a foremost artistic centre, where the local late Gothic tradition encountered new influences from both Italy and the northern regions. The Master of the Morrison Triptych—so conventionally named—was active precisely in Antwerp around 1500–1520, gravitating around the workshop of Quentin Massys. Massys was the leader of the new generation of Antwerp painters, renowned for introducing stylistic and iconographic innovations while maintaining roots in the earlier Flemish tradition. In the present painting this cultural humus is clearly perceptible: on the one hand, the Master demonstrates familiarity with and reuse of models by late fifteenth-century Bruges masters (such as Memling and Gerard David); on the other, he reveals an engagement with the more modern Antwerp sensibility, with more volumetric figures, livelier expressions, and a composition open to the viewer’s space. It was precisely Friedländer—the celebrated art historian—who noted how the Master of the Morrison Triptych appears as an artist “in transition”: a faithful follower of Quentin Massys and at the same time an heir to the preceding school. This dual nature reflects the artistic situation of the Southern Netherlands at the time, poised between the legacy of late Gothic altarpieces and the new Renaissance and devotional impulses. [...]
Lucas Gassel
Landscape with St Jerome
oil on panel
cm 56x85
1540 c.
An artist able to turn topographical gigantism into a veritable work of art, was born around 1500 in the small village of Helmond in the north Brabant. The beginning of the sixteen century was a particularly fruitful period for his artistic style. The path, that a selected number of painters decided to follow with their own spin, had been traced by the ‘Father’ Patinir and his nephew Herri met de Bles, also known as Il Civetta. When analysing the development of landscape painting in the sixteenth century, it is paramount to identify and underline the individual features of each artist. As a matter of fact, although the painters shared similar purposes and views, each was able to interpret the theme in a personal way. Very little is known about the life of the artist. It is speculated that he might have lived in Brussels and travelled to Italy on a few occasions. He was a friend of Dominicus Lampsonius who educated him about geography. Conversely, a lot is known about his pictorial corpus. Gassel had a methodical and calculated artistic personality, less eccentric than Bles’ but by no means no less creative. The author’s original creations were often repeated in many signed works in which humans and orographic architectures are alternated under the guidance of a keen inventiveness, the ability to imagine creative yet harmonious solutions on a coherent stage. His paintings are like magnificent tales told through images in which each chapter leaves the reader, captivated by a multitude of plots coherently linked together, wanting to read the next. We present you this significant panel which is not only an exceptional addition to the painter's catalogue, but also an anthological essay of his art. This landscape with Saint Jerome in the foreground was one of the author’s favourite compositions.
The Master of Antwerp Adoration
The Annunciation to St Anne
Oil on panel
cm 59x62
c. 1530
[...] The rare episode depicted in our work is the Annunciation to Saint Anne. This story is not present in any of the canonical Gospels and is first attested in the Protoevangelium of James, later gaining popularity in the Middle Ages thanks to the Golden Legend, where it is enriched with details and becomes one of the episodes linked to the Stories of Mary. The story tells of Joachim's wife, Anne, a middle-aged woman who, while praying, is visited by an angel who brings her the news of her impending motherhood. The couple, now advanced in years, had not had any children and this, according to Jewish tradition, was a sign of disgrace and enmity with God, a fact that had caused her husband to be expelled from the Temple of Jerusalem. The angel, according to another source, the Pseudo-Matthew (2, 3-4), says to her: "Do not be afraid, Anne. God has decided to answer your prayer. She who will be born of you will be an object of admiration for all ages”[...].
The Master of Sigmaringen
St Cristopher e St Sebastian
c. 1520
Cm 75x32
[...] Observing the two panels, the synthetic yet detail-oriented style guides the viewer on a discovery of the stories of the two saints. Christopher is imagined as so tall that he uses a tree as a staff to cross the turbulent waters: the story tells that he used to be paid as a ferryman to carry travelers from one bank to the other of a great northern river. The satchel he clutches in his right hand alludes precisely to his demand for tribute. His expression and the inclination of his head, on the other hand, contrast with the solidity of his legs and allude to the heavy burden he is carrying. The story continues with the narration of the day when a child presented himself to Christopher asking to be carried: with every step Christopher took in fording the river, the child became heavier, until Christopher feared he would drown. Once they reached the other bank, the child revealed himself to be Jesus Christ, saying to him: “with Me, you have carried the weight of the sins of the World”. The miraculous event, halfway between mystical epiphany and chivalric fairy tale is the worthy conclusion of a story that goes well with that of the young man in the right panel. Sebastian had a more widespread cult, with a wide presence also in Italy, but he enjoyed particular success in the Germanic area. The reasons are not entirely clear, and it is likely that the belief in a Germanic origin of the Saint was rooted, but what is certain is that the aesthetic characterization of Sebastian underwent a remarkable accentuation in German art at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. A young blond man, with flowing hair and fair complexion, is tied to a tree here, while being pierced by various arrows, which cause rivulets of blood to spill on his smooth body. The position of his hands is contracted, while the expression on his face is more one of resignation than of actual pain. Sebastian was martyred under Diocletian, after performing miraculous conversions and surviving the death sentence by arrows, a miraculous aspect that is canonically underlined in artistic representations like ours [...].
Monogrammist HS
The Ill Matched Lovers with a Monk
oil on panel, cm 28x42,5.
Monogrammist HS (Active during the first part of XVII Century). Rare and enigmatic painter from Basel, a pupil of Lucas Cranach, specialized in the representation of allegorical subjects often soaked in a taste for the grotesque, erotic and enigmatic. Compared to his master, Hans Stronmayer presents harsher tones, with female bodies represented in ivory color and smooth as porcelain, with the characters depicted close to their caricature, deliberately in an anti-classical and anti-Italian key.
The Master of the Antwerp Adoration
Holy Family
Oil on panel
35x24 cm
The designation "Master of the Adoration of Antwerp" was coined by art historian Maximilian Friedländer to identify the author of the Adoration of the Magi housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.The centrality of this artistic figure in the early 16th century is crucial for understanding the transition from the tradition of the Flemish Primitives in Bruges to the new pictorial language of Antwerp. It is with similar masters, in fact, that the season of the so-called A n t w e r p M a n n e r i s t s i s conventionally considered open. This definition (also coined by Friedländer) is primarily a geographical identification (Antwerp) and a chronological delimitation (1500 - 1530), which d o e s n o t c a r r y n e g a t i v e connotations but aims to identify a stylistic common ground with s p e c i f i c f e a t u r e s . T h e phenomenon, certainly one of the most unique and delightful in the ancient painting of the Low Countries, involved even very different painters. It is characterized predominantly by unbridled formalistic eclecticism, with a casual convergence and elaboration of various ancient and contemporary artistic experiences of Flemish painting, a calligraphic virtuosity serving a deliberate complication and exaggeration of lines and compositions. The epidermal and lens-like taste for space and naturalistic details accompanies the theatrical staging of architectures ranging from hyper- Gothic to classically inventive, populated by characters made vivid through pyrotechnic iconographic inventions. These range from exotic costumes to caricatural physiognomy, from the emphasis on gestures to a flickering kaleidoscope of colors, under a directorial guidance that renders the works plausible and impossible simultaneously. The success of this style, more precisely defined by Ragghianti as "Style of Antwerp," was such throughout Europe that, in a certain sense, it replaced in the common imagination of ancient collectors the Northern painting of the 15th century, becoming synonymous with Flemish primitive painting par excellence.
The Master of Sint Anna-Hofje
A Triptych: adoration of Magi
Oil on panel
89x90 cm
Thanks to a triptych dedicated to the Adoration of the Magi found in the former chapel of the hospital of Sint Anna-Hofje in Leyden, Georges Marlier, the most renowned expert about Pieter Coecke van Aelst and his workshop, defines a specific style in the way of drawing the faces and attitudes of the characters, and brings together under the name of “Master of Sit Anna-Hofje“ a group of works that share the same technical characteristics. The Master of Saint Anna-Hofje has been defined as an immediate collaborator of the painter Pieter Coecke van Aelst, especially related to the Spanish royal family during the 16th century as he held the title of official painter of Emperor Charles V since 1534. We often find his work in Spanish collections and the prototype of devotional Virgins demonstrates the closeness of the artist with his main Master. Mattias Diaz-Padron coincides in her research with Georges Marlier and supports this hypothesis by enriching the work of this author with new paintings found in Spanish collections. For example, the triptych in the Damar collection must be attributed to the so- called Master of St. Anna-Hofje, named after a triptych in the chapel of the St. Anne Almshouse in Leiden. This Leiden triptych is, in fact, one of the few altarpieces that survived the strong iconoclastic outbursts in Leiden in 1566 and is still in situ.
Ambrosius Benson
St Jerome in the wilderness
Oil on panel
77x59 cm
Ambrosius Benson is a captivating figure in the Flemish Renaissance art scene, whose work has left a lasting imprint on art history. Active in the 16th century, Benson is renowned for his mastery of painting, sensitivity to light and color, and his ability to depict daily and religious life with extraordinary emotional depth. Presumably born around 1495 in Lombardy, the exact location of his birth remains a subject of debate among art historians. However, it is in the Flemish city of Bruges that Benson spent much of his life and reached the peak of his artistic career. His artistic training likely occurred under the influence of Flemish masters of the time, particularly Gerard David, from whom he derived an interest in detailed realism and compositional layout with an archaic taste. Benson's work stands out for its ability to blend elements of Flemish tradition with Italian influences, particularly Lombard and Leonardesque, thanks to the commercial and cultural contacts between Flanders and Italy during the Renaissance, but probably also through an assimilation of Italian art that had not yet been thoroughly studied.
Bartholomeus van der Helst
Portrait of a Children with a Bread Bun and a Dog
Oil on canvas
118x95 cm
dated on the lower left B. vander helst/ Ao 1658
Bartholomeus van der Helst can be described as nothing less than the most important portrait painter of the Amsterdam patriciate in his time. After his apprenticeship he quickly rose to fame and made himself a name as a prolific and successful portraitist for the high circles of the Dutch society with his delicate depictions of the human kind. Born in 1613 in Haarlem he grew into a merchant family. His father, Lodewijck van der Helst, was born around 1678-1579. The “coepman tot Haerlem” traded in all kinds of goods such as fruit, malt, wine but also houses and ships. Although documents never referred to him as an art dealer he conducted several transactions with paintings. After his first wife, Mayken, which he married in 1599 died Lodewijck married the widow and mother of Bartholomeus, Aeltge Bartels, not long after. In 1610 Lodewijk the older brother of Bartholomeus was born. At that time the family lived in the Schachelstraat in Haarlem. [...]
Abraham van Beyeren
Still life with fruits, two roses, a watch and a glass
Oil on canvas
cm 87x70
1660 ca. In the Netherlands of the 17th century, many painters worked as trained specialists in their field. Among others, there were genre painters and portrait painters. However, it wasn't only living objects that were depicted. As specialists in their field, still life painters understood how to reproduce various objects such as flowers, vases, dishes, or even carpets in meticulous detail. One of them was Abraham van Beyeren. Van Beyeren was born either 1620 or 1621 in The Hague and worked, probably to round off his artistic training, in Leyden from 1638 to 1640. Although his tutor remains unknown possible teachers could be Cornelis Cruys or Tyman Arentsz. Cracht. In 1640 he was accepted as a master into the Guild of St. Luke in 1640 The Hague. In the 1650s and 1660s he primarily worked as a fish still life painter in The Hague, Delft and Amsterdam. From 1675 on he was active for two years in Gouda. After that he worked in Overschie where he lived until his death in 1690. Although a major artist with considerable influence in the field of fish still lifes he is nevertheless better known for his ornamental and flower still lifes like ours. Dated between the 1660s and 1680s our painting can be placed in a time period in which Van Beyeren worked on his magnificent, lavish still lifes against war, translucent dark brown backgrounds. The large, sumptuous canvas boasts a distinguished pedigree of publications and public exhibitions that accompanied it throughout the last century. It has also passed through the hands of several knowledgeable collectors of Dutch Golden Age art, including Hans Wetzlar, whose legendary sale of his collection ranked among the most significant auction results of the 1950s [...].
Jan van Kessel the Elder
Study of insect with flowers of Borago Officinalis
oil on copper
Cm 10x16
Jan van Kessel the Elder belonged to a famous dynasty of painters. The grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder and nephew of Jan Brueghel the Younger and David Teniers the Younger, he was born in Antwerp in 1626. He served an apprenticeship with the genre and history painter Simon de Vos and may also have studied with his uncle Jan Brueghel the Younger. Following the example of Hoefnagel, Jan van Kessel cleverly copies his use of a light-coloured, neutral background. Furthermore, the use of copper contributes to the cold and luminous rendering of the plate, making this a precise and lively study. Exposing each element to an analytical light, and thus creating subtle and delicate shadows, Kessel endows each motif with the impression of an almost palpable volume. Each detail is depicted with such care and skill, and therefore realism, that we half expect to see the beetles crawl away and the butterflies to fly off. Greatly enjoyed and highly sought-after during his lifetime, Jan van Kessel’s studies of insects are still immensely popular today. A talented painter, both in the skill of his brushstrokes and the eclecticism of the themes he depicts, Jan van Kessel proves he is a highly sensitive and astoundingly precise artist through his studies of insects. He thus contributed to making the 17th century the “Golden Age” of Flemish painting.
Nicolaes van Verendael
Singerie: allegory of Human Condition
oil on panel
Cm 31x36
1670 c.
[...]The subject matter has been associated with human foolishness since the Middle Ages. Monkeys carried symbolic weight in the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. They appeared in images as diverse as playing cards, Dürer prints, and paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Following Columbus’ discovery of the New World in 1492, they had even enjoyed a Renaissance . In 1523, Albrecht Dürer had produced a print for his Protestant friends in Geneva showing a troupe of dancing monkeys. They were associated primarily with sinfulness and folly. In the visual arts, they were used as a parody of humanity. Doubtless, these connotations would not have been lost on Teniers’ educated humanist and noble audience. In Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools, for example, a satirical allegory published in 1494, Dame Folly leads monkeys and fools by a rope. “Apes or fools in high places” are associated with the pride of the powerful. Bruegel the Elder’s Two Monkeys (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) of 1562 has commonly been interpreted as a depiction of two specific sins: avarice and prodigality. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Peter van der Borcht (1562, engraving), and David II and Abraham Teniers successfully captured the ambivalence of mankind in its animal nature. A pair of chained monkeys is positioned in the same manner in Gentile da Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi (1423). Here, they represent mankind’s innately corrupt nature. It reminds us from which low-morally state we are rescued by Jesus’s birth. These monkeys are we! [...]
Kerstiaen de Keuninck
Mountain Landscape with a river and the Story of Tobi and the Angel
oil on panel
cm 81x120
1620 ca.
This large panoramic landscape view, dominated by fantastic mountains and rock formations, is a work of the middle period of the artist and was probably painted in Antwerp. A more precise comparison can be made with the works created around the period 1610 - 1615 in Antwerp, when the artist was in close contact with Alexander Keirincx and the Francken family. The landscapes of this period were all large works of horizontal format and followed a very precise compositional scheme. A diagonal divides the work in two parts, tracing a clear division between the action in the foreground and the immense rock formations on the background. On the opposite side, the artist often placed a theatrical backdrop formed by trees, whose fronds follow an accentuated winding line. In the central area an isolated rocky pillar is often connected by natural bridges or arches with the rest of the composition. The figures, small and secondary in the whole scene, are usually sketched at a later time, when not entirely delegated to specific collaborators. The figures of Tobias and the Angel were the artist's favourites. Hunters, pilgrims and shepherds with goats were also appreciated. It illustrates his concern with contrasting pictorial effects—such as heavy passages of opaque paint set off against areas sketched in a very thin medium—and with bold motifs like the water spray formed by flicking the brush. We mention, as primary comparision examples, the Landscape with Hunter preserved in Braunschweig, which has almost an identical setting and The Rocky Landscape preserved in Vienna where several elements return in a mirror-like manner: the castle (the only difference is the castle location: on the opposite side), the creek, the shape of the woods and the foliage of the trees, as well as the goats that can be seen in the foreground.