The School of Antwerp, the Brueghel Dynasty, the early flemish landscape are just some examples of what you will find here.
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.
The Master of St Nicolàs
Lucas Gassel
The Master of Prodigal Son
Herri Met de Bles, Il Civetta
Joris Fraet
Cornelis Massys
Franz Cristoph Janneck
Jacob van Hulsdonck
Jan Brueghel I and Hans Rottenhammer
Jan Brueghel II and Hendrick van Balen
Dirk van Hoogstraten
Joos van Craesbeeck
Sebastian Vrancx
Abraham Govaerts and Pieter van Avont
Monogrammist HS
Kerstiaen de Keuninck
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The Master of St NicolàsSt Michael
oil on panel
cm 61x42
1480 c.
Expertise by Isabel Mateo Gomez
A prominent painter of the Castilian school, the Master of Saint Nicholas takes his name from the church of San Nicolas in Burgos, within which is housed his most remarkable work: an imposing altarpiece depicting the Last Judgement. He was one of the most significant representatives of pre-Renaissance painting in the Iberian Peninsula. Both Diego del Corral and Diego de la Cruz have been identified as the Master of Saint Nicholas. Although the latter is more likely. De la Cruz was a painter from Antwerp-Bruges. He trained in an important workshop in the Flanders and afterwards moved to work in Spain, several years before Juan de Flanders’ arrival on Iberian soil.
His style, capable of mixing the best accomplishments of the international Nordic language with an unmistakable Castilian flair, reveals a connection with the Master of Sopetrán - also presumably of Dutch origin - and with Jorge Inglès, a British painter who later naturalised as a Spanish citizen. He intensely worked with the latter in the creation of important pictorial cycles. He proved to be as talented as his colleague, though recognisable accents of his personal do style shine through his works, and, in the best examples, complements the work of Inglès.
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Lucas Gassel Landscape with St Jerome
oil on panel
cm 56x85
1540 c.
Expertise by Peter van den Brink;
We are also grateful to Luc Serck to have fully endorsed the authorship of the work
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.
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The Master of Prodigal Son The Deposition
oil on panel
cm 111x72
1535 c.
Expertise by Peter van den Brink.
The fair and lifeless body of a man is gently laid down on a sheet with light blue hues. He is surrounded by four characters who are glancing at him. His wounds suggest that his slouchy pose and half-closed eyes do not indicate that he is asleep, but that he has passed away.The cool hues are alternated with the bright crimson, metallic black and violet of their attire and their vivid rosy complexions.The nails and the Cross set the scene: we are on Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem, before our eyes the Deposition of Christ in his shroud.The author of the work is the so-called Master of the Prodigal Son, as he was named by Georges Hulin de Loo, who in 1909, starting from a painting kept in the Kunsthiostorisches Museum in Vienna, began to build a catalogue raisonné of one of the most fascinating and distinctive painters from the Antwerp school of the mid sixteenth century.The Master’s artistic profile is the result of various influences as he bore witness to a crucial moment of transition from the refined emphasis of the Antwerp School of Mannerism to the more mature spatialism of Pieter Coeck van Aelst - of whose style the Master can be considered the brightest keeper and who was responsible for passing on this legacy to later artists, such as Pieter Aertsen.Between 1540 and 1550 the Master presumably ran an important and productive workshop, to which we owe some of the best-known compositions of the time.
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Herri Met de Bles, Il CivettaLandscape with the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
oil on panel
cm 13,5
1535 c.
Published: Luc Serck, "Henri Bles & la peinture de paysage dans les Pays-bas méridionaux avant Brueghel", 1990, p. 346-47 n°9 (as Herri Met de Bles)
Within a circumference there is an ideal circle representing the whole world, a fiery wind overwhelms the observer. Sodom and Gomorrah, the wicked cities whose outrageous affairs go up to Heaven, do not fear God and attempt to perform brutalities against his angels. From a golden flash high above in heaven, where the birds flee terrified, a breath of lime rains, able to vulcanize the mountains and make the cities as see-through as coals in the kiln. There is devastation everywhere, it is pointless to flee by sea as the ships are sinking one after the other. Loth, Abraham's nephew, is ordered to flee from the Wrath of God, angry to such an extent with the two Sumerian cities that not even the animals or children will be spared.
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Joris FraetAdoration of Magi
oil on panel
cm 90x57
1520 c.
Expertise by Peter van den Brink
The present painting could be considered the key-work of this artist, of which only the preparatory drawing of the present composition was known. The drawing also came with indications on the colours to use in painting, and more importantly bears a name on the back: Joris Fraet van Mens (or Mons).
Contact us to know more.
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Cornelis MassysLandscape with the Flight into Egypt
oil on panel
cm 23x32
1540 c.
Signed with monogram CMA
Expertise by Luuk Pijl
«There surely must be something left from the time when the whole World was blue. »
The Young Man with the Carnation
Karen Blixen.
The genre and landscape painter Cornelis Massys, or Metsys, was the second son of Quentin Massys and Katharina Heyns. Trained in his father's workshop, he became a master in Antwerp in 1531. He began his career by making a name for himself with a series of small burin engravings comprised, on the one hand, of religious and allegorical scenes in the Italianate style and, on the other hand, of popular and moralising subjects inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, thus opening a path that Pieter Brueghel the Elder would soon take.
Cornelis Massys also turned out to be an excellent landscape painter. Alongside Herri Met de Bles and Matthijs Cock, he continued along the path laid out by Joachim Patinir, of whom he is the closest and most worthy successor. However, the places depicted by Cornelis Massys are endowed with greater intimacy and the panoramic landscapes, with their alternation of dark masses of greenery and transparent distances, show a new and personal observation of atmospheric effects.
His work, which henceforth pursued the example set by his father, offers a more realistic conception where the movement, extent and elegance of the form dominate, heralding the refinements of the landscape artists of the late 16th century.
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Franz Cristoph JanneckThe Feast of Gods
oil on copper
cm 58x82
Signed F.C. Janneck F.C.
Franz Christoph Janneck was born in Graz but by 1730 he had established himself in Vienna and studied at the Academy. He later became assessor there from 1752 until 1758. His oeuvre comprises mainly cabinet pictures of conversation pieces as well as landscape, religious and mythological scenes. These, such as the present painting were often painted on polished copper which enabled the artist to achieve a great degree of finish and detail. Our composition can be compared to his fetes galantes scenes, which are considered among his finest achievements and are some of the best examples of Austrian rococo and are principally inspired by the French rococo, notably the work of Antoine Watteau (1674-1749). However, his meticulous technique and predilection for copper as a support also reveals a clear debt to the Leiden fijnschilder tradition.
The origins of the pictorial tradition of the love garden can be traced to medieval manuscript illustrations and representations of the hortus conclusus (the enclosed garden). In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, Flemish artists like Hans Bol and Louis de Caullery depicted elegant figures in love gardens or imaginary park-like landscapes. The theme gained in popularity with the first generation of Dutch high-life genre painters, David Vinckboons, Willem Buytewech, Esaias van de Velde, and others, who made a speciality of such garden parties (buitenpartijen). The present scene can be considered a garden party: a young Bacchus is seated at the centre of the composition, wearing a crown of grapes surrounded by semi-naked nymphs and satyrs who are playing music and drinking wine, in a secluded spot with fruit trees and parrots, Roman buildings in the background. The composition is constructed in a pyramidal way so that the eye of the viewer falls directly to the centre.
The scene is reminiscent of another scene by the artist, depicting a fete galante, in a private collection, where one finds the same motifs of an enchanted world, where the protagonists take part in the same game of love, music and pleasure. The brilliance of the colours and the delicacy of Janneck’s touch perfectly capture the spirit of the rococo.
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Jacob van HulsdonckStill Life with Plums and Peaches
oil on panel
cm 41x55
1625 c.
Thanks to Fred G. Meijer for confirming the authorship of the work.
Archived in RKD as Jacob van Hulsdonck.
Jacob van Husldonck was born in Antwerp in 1582. He moved to Middelburg with his parents at a young age and there he likely received at least part of his training. For the longest time our work had been attributed to Ambrosius Bosschaert who was the city's most prominent still life painter. However, although his influence on Hulsdonck is undisputed, today it is believed that the artist did not train with Bosschaert.
In 1608 he went back to Antwerp, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. In the same year he also joined the Guild of Saint Luke.
Van Hulsdonck's artistic personality is inextricably linked to the specific sub-genre of the still life of fruit. He can perhaps be regarded as the most prominent representative of this genre outside of Italy.
Starting from a raised and deliberately rigid spatial setting, the artist comes to create rich compositions that are characterized by the desire to cram into a container as much fruit as possible so as to immediately convey the feeling of fullness and fragile balance. He was also clearly influenced by Osaias Beert and Jan Brueghel I, specifically with regards to the rendering of different surfaces and the material thickness of lemons, peaches, leaves, barks, fiber and so on.
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Jan Brueghel I and Hans RottenhammerThe Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite
oil on canvas
105x183 cm
1595 c.
Expertise Klaus Ertz
In Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a sea-goddess and the wife of Poseidon, identifiable with the Roman god Neptune. According to ancient sources, Neptune wanted to marry Amphitrite, but she was too much in awe of her suitor, and hid from him in the ocean. Grief- stricken, Neptune sent a dolphin to search for his lost love. To his delight, the dolphin convinced Amphitrite to return, and she agreed to share Neptune’s throne.
The present picture depicts the moment at which Amphitrite returns to take Neptune’s hand in marriage. To the left, Neptune and Amphitrite sit in their chariot pulled by sea serpents, while the goddess is crowned with a wreath by two putti. A crowd of Tritons and Nereids riding fantastical sea-creatures surrounds them. Their dynamic poses enliven the picture, creating a vibrant scene. Amphitrite, seated upon red drapery that wraps around her thighs, gazes directly at the viewer. The events are set in a rocky coastal landscape, arching out into the sea. In the background, the towers and buildings of a town can be made out. Dark clouds sweep across the sky and mist rises from the sea, imbuing the scene with an atmospheric quality. In the foreground, to the right of the centre, a nude female figure is represented from behind. Her helmet and shield identify her as Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of the arts, trade and defense. As can clearly be seen in the picture under discussion, the shield is the famed Aegis, bearing the head of Medusa, and according to Homer, fashioned by Hephaestus. Above among the clouds, the father of Zeus (and brother of Poseidon) can be seen, brandishing a thunderbolt and resting on a globe, two of his attributes.
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Jan Brueghel II and Hendrick van Balen
Landscape with the Rest from the Flight into Egypt
Oil on panel
cm 54x87
1630 ca.
Expertise Klaus Ertz
Magnificent example of collaboration, following the widespread practice in Antwerp in the seventeenth century, between Brueghel the II as a landscape specialist and van Balen as a "staffage" painter, i.e. the painting of the characters. The composition is among the most famous of Brueghel the II (derived from Brueghel I) and it was copied and imitated by many followers, due to its ability to combine the best sacred subject and the ideal landscape.
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Dirk van HoogstratenA Tronie: Hades
Oil on panel
Cm 30,5x23,5
signed with monogram DvH
1635 ca.
A mysterious artist of the Van Hoogstraten family line (which still exists today). He was the son of a painter, as well as the father of the renowned artist Samuel van Hoosgtraten who, before becoming Rembrandt's student, trained with his father Dirk in Dordrecht until 1640, the year in which this father's death is recorded.
He was a painter of many different interests, who initially trained as a goldsmith and engraver. His pictorial corpus consists of but a few signed works (with monogram or rarely with his surname in the extended version). Nevertheless, especially thanks to the efforts of the homonymous foundation dedicated to the painter’s family to piece together a well-thought-out catalogue to trace the profile of a typical Dutch Golden Age artist.
As mentioned, the variety of themes he dealt with makes up a multifaceted range of works, combined with an all-round style, although, always stylistically recognisable.
In the figurative and religious domains, Hoogstraten's style shows an eclectic use of different artistic and iconographic sources, with inspiring and clear references to Pieter Lastman, to the figuratives of the Utrecht School (especially Abraham Bloemaert) and to a specific luministic culture influenced by the Caravagesques.
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Joos van Craesbeeckthe lice crusher
Oil on panel
Cm 25x19
1640 ca.
Joos van Craesbeeck painted mainly genre scenes and a few religiously themed compositions. His genre scenes depict low-life figures as well as scenes of middle-class people. The chronology of his work is difficult to establish since only one painting, the now missing Self-portrait in front of a Mirror, is signed. In addition to the one painting signed with his full name, there are about 30 other paintings with the monogram cb or jvcb. Despite the difficulty of dating his paintings, it is believed that his earliest works are largely indebted to the subject matter and style of Brouwer. In these early works he relied on the types of Brouwers and he followed Brouwer's palette in its subtle harmonies with occasional gleaming highlights. Like Brouwer he applied colour very thinly leaving parts of the ground visible.
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Sebastian VrancxOn the Way to Peace
Oil on panel
Cm 24x34
1620 ca.
Expertise Luuk Pijl
Sebastian Vrancx was a famous Flemish painter active in the first half of the 16th century, renowned expert in the landscape genre, but also dabbled in the subjects of everyday life and battles. He was a member of the Guild of Saint Luke from 1611.
The painting of this Antwerp-born master is distinctive for his personal style, which carefully absorbs different influences, mixed with eclectic taste in a severe, but at the same time elegant art, far from the rhetoric of Baroque taste and recognisable for a typical dryness of the stroke, suitable to create unusual and eclectic compositions.
The small snowy landscape is a remarkable
proof of technical virtuosity. The style of the painting is comparable to the series of Allegories of the Seasons reproduced several times by the painter, who used to repeat many of his compositions. Another useful comparison is with the Extensive Landscape in circular format, in which the use of different chromatic shades and material thicknesses of monochrome colour is typical and irrefutable to define the soil's rocky layers and the mineral veins of the landscape.
Within the scenery with a wide horizon, along a winding road engraved with markedly graphic brushstrokes, a group of wayfarers armed with spears leads a herd of cattle towards the city that can be seen in the background.
At the crossroads, three different structures can be seen: a mill, a votive temple devoted to the Virgin Mary and - left seals - a hill intended for different forms of capital punishment, gallows and wheel.
In the outline, some magpies are sitting on two large gnarled and dry trees, while in the distance an entire flock hovering above the scene can be seen. At the bottom, where the sunlight lights up the landscape with accents of intense green, a glimpse of a rainbow can be caught.
The piece, which is among those closest in style and content to Pieter Brueghel II, sparks a desire to investigate Vrancx’ interest for historical and allegorical subjects. The period of activity of the painter coincides indeed with that of the Wars of Religion (particularly, with that of the Thirty Years and the Spanish massacres in Belgium) and there are numerous examples of paintings dedicated to battles, raids by bandits and attacks on caravans, in which the themes connected to the violence of war strongly emerge.
The scene depicted here, however, does not focus on a war scene or on the onslaught of brigands, but on the contrary portrays a group of men going towards the light and the city’s rainbow. At last, the war is over, making way for peace. The spears in their hands will no longer be used to attack, but to guide the cattle. At the intersection of the roads- which are those of Destiny - the Pilgrim meets Faith (represented by the wayside shrine), he leaves the War behind (the hill of torture) and sees the Mill at the gates of the city (the industrious work of Man).
The Wanderer in the foreground invites us into the scene by turning towards the observer, suggesting him to approach the landscape with rapt attention. The fact that multiple levels of interpretation are left open is not surprising, as it is a traditional feature of Flemish art, which, as shown, Vrancx appreciated. Our composition, however, has not been found in other signed replicas and therefore constitutes a unique specimen in the author's catalogue. With this work Vrancx is able to combine the genre of the landscape with that of the historical and allegorical subjects in a single painting.
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Abraham Govaerts and Pieter van AvontHoly Family with Angels into a Landscape
Oil on Copper
Cm 37x47
1630 ca.
Expertise Klaus Ertz
Magnificent example of collaboration, following the widespread practice in Antwerp in the seventeenth century, between Abraham Govaerts as a landscape specialist and van Avont as a "staffage" painter, i.e. the painting of the characters.
By this way the evangelical episode of the rest from the escape into Egypt becomes the expedient to stage a nature with bright colors, with rich turquoise and aqua green accents, enhanced by a vast range of naturalistic details: from the rose garden to the right, to the fruits on top.
The very thin copper leaf on which the work - in perfect condition - was painted is of considerable size and it is likely that it was destined for the Spanish and Mexican market, according to a widespread commercial practice in vogue from the years '40 of the '600. Thanks to this practice the Flemish painting on copper of "brueghellian-style" had a diffusion and an unusual worldwide success. It is the undoubted ability of the "Brueghel style" to conquer the eye with such incredible ease, dissolving the most typical stylistic matter effortlessly and with infallible method, chiseling the details as in a goldsmith's work and always choosing a vibrant chromatic accord, with the objective to stimulate the gaze.
The fat children who surround the Holy Family, then, add a further tone of delicacy to the scene, through an anecdotal and joyful attitude, full of "joie-de-vivre".
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Monogrammist HS The Ill Matched Lovers with a Monk
oil on panel, cm 28x42,5.
We are grateful to Cranach Research Insitute and Dr. Peter Schmelzle to have confirmed the attribution of this work.
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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Kerstiaen de KeuninckMountain Landscape with a river
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.
The Master of St Nicolàs
Lucas Gassel
The Master of Prodigal Son
Herri Met de Bles, Il Civetta
Joris Fraet
Cornelis Massys
Franz Cristoph Janneck
Jacob van Hulsdonck
Jan Brueghel I and Hans Rottenhammer
Jan Brueghel II and Hendrick van Balen
Dirk van Hoogstraten
Joos van Craesbeeck
Sebastian Vrancx
Abraham Govaerts and Pieter van Avont
Monogrammist HS
Kerstiaen de Keuninck
The Master of St Nicolàs
St Michael
oil on panel
cm 61x42
1480 c.
Expertise by Isabel Mateo Gomez
A prominent painter of the Castilian school, the Master of Saint Nicholas takes his name from the church of San Nicolas in Burgos, within which is housed his most remarkable work: an imposing altarpiece depicting the Last Judgement. He was one of the most significant representatives of pre-Renaissance painting in the Iberian Peninsula. Both Diego del Corral and Diego de la Cruz have been identified as the Master of Saint Nicholas. Although the latter is more likely. De la Cruz was a painter from Antwerp-Bruges. He trained in an important workshop in the Flanders and afterwards moved to work in Spain, several years before Juan de Flanders’ arrival on Iberian soil. His style, capable of mixing the best accomplishments of the international Nordic language with an unmistakable Castilian flair, reveals a connection with the Master of Sopetrán - also presumably of Dutch origin - and with Jorge Inglès, a British painter who later naturalised as a Spanish citizen. He intensely worked with the latter in the creation of important pictorial cycles. He proved to be as talented as his colleague, though recognisable accents of his personal do style shine through his works, and, in the best examples, complements the work of Inglès.
Lucas Gassel
Landscape with St Jerome
oil on panel
cm 56x85
1540 c.
Expertise by Peter van den Brink; We are also grateful to Luc Serck to have fully endorsed the authorship of the work
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 Prodigal Son
The Deposition
oil on panel
cm 111x72
1535 c.
Expertise by Peter van den Brink.
The fair and lifeless body of a man is gently laid down on a sheet with light blue hues. He is surrounded by four characters who are glancing at him. His wounds suggest that his slouchy pose and half-closed eyes do not indicate that he is asleep, but that he has passed away.The cool hues are alternated with the bright crimson, metallic black and violet of their attire and their vivid rosy complexions.The nails and the Cross set the scene: we are on Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem, before our eyes the Deposition of Christ in his shroud.The author of the work is the so-called Master of the Prodigal Son, as he was named by Georges Hulin de Loo, who in 1909, starting from a painting kept in the Kunsthiostorisches Museum in Vienna, began to build a catalogue raisonné of one of the most fascinating and distinctive painters from the Antwerp school of the mid sixteenth century.The Master’s artistic profile is the result of various influences as he bore witness to a crucial moment of transition from the refined emphasis of the Antwerp School of Mannerism to the more mature spatialism of Pieter Coeck van Aelst - of whose style the Master can be considered the brightest keeper and who was responsible for passing on this legacy to later artists, such as Pieter Aertsen.Between 1540 and 1550 the Master presumably ran an important and productive workshop, to which we owe some of the best-known compositions of the time.
Herri Met de Bles, Il Civetta
Landscape with the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
oil on panel
cm 13,5
1535 c.
Published: Luc Serck, "Henri Bles & la peinture de paysage dans les Pays-bas méridionaux avant Brueghel", 1990, p. 346-47 n°9 (as Herri Met de Bles)
Within a circumference there is an ideal circle representing the whole world, a fiery wind overwhelms the observer. Sodom and Gomorrah, the wicked cities whose outrageous affairs go up to Heaven, do not fear God and attempt to perform brutalities against his angels. From a golden flash high above in heaven, where the birds flee terrified, a breath of lime rains, able to vulcanize the mountains and make the cities as see-through as coals in the kiln. There is devastation everywhere, it is pointless to flee by sea as the ships are sinking one after the other. Loth, Abraham's nephew, is ordered to flee from the Wrath of God, angry to such an extent with the two Sumerian cities that not even the animals or children will be spared.
Joris Fraet
Adoration of Magi
oil on panel
cm 90x57
1520 c.
Expertise by Peter van den Brink
The present painting could be considered the key-work of this artist, of which only the preparatory drawing of the present composition was known. The drawing also came with indications on the colours to use in painting, and more importantly bears a name on the back: Joris Fraet van Mens (or Mons). Contact us to know more.
Cornelis Massys
Landscape with the Flight into Egypt
oil on panel
cm 23x32
1540 c.
Signed with monogram CMA
Expertise by Luuk Pijl
«There surely must be something left from the time when the whole World was blue. »The Young Man with the Carnation
Karen Blixen.
The genre and landscape painter Cornelis Massys, or Metsys, was the second son of Quentin Massys and Katharina Heyns. Trained in his father's workshop, he became a master in Antwerp in 1531. He began his career by making a name for himself with a series of small burin engravings comprised, on the one hand, of religious and allegorical scenes in the Italianate style and, on the other hand, of popular and moralising subjects inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, thus opening a path that Pieter Brueghel the Elder would soon take. Cornelis Massys also turned out to be an excellent landscape painter. Alongside Herri Met de Bles and Matthijs Cock, he continued along the path laid out by Joachim Patinir, of whom he is the closest and most worthy successor. However, the places depicted by Cornelis Massys are endowed with greater intimacy and the panoramic landscapes, with their alternation of dark masses of greenery and transparent distances, show a new and personal observation of atmospheric effects. His work, which henceforth pursued the example set by his father, offers a more realistic conception where the movement, extent and elegance of the form dominate, heralding the refinements of the landscape artists of the late 16th century.
Franz Cristoph Janneck
The Feast of Gods
oil on copper
cm 58x82
Signed F.C. Janneck F.C.
Franz Christoph Janneck was born in Graz but by 1730 he had established himself in Vienna and studied at the Academy. He later became assessor there from 1752 until 1758. His oeuvre comprises mainly cabinet pictures of conversation pieces as well as landscape, religious and mythological scenes. These, such as the present painting were often painted on polished copper which enabled the artist to achieve a great degree of finish and detail. Our composition can be compared to his fetes galantes scenes, which are considered among his finest achievements and are some of the best examples of Austrian rococo and are principally inspired by the French rococo, notably the work of Antoine Watteau (1674-1749). However, his meticulous technique and predilection for copper as a support also reveals a clear debt to the Leiden fijnschilder tradition. The origins of the pictorial tradition of the love garden can be traced to medieval manuscript illustrations and representations of the hortus conclusus (the enclosed garden). In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, Flemish artists like Hans Bol and Louis de Caullery depicted elegant figures in love gardens or imaginary park-like landscapes. The theme gained in popularity with the first generation of Dutch high-life genre painters, David Vinckboons, Willem Buytewech, Esaias van de Velde, and others, who made a speciality of such garden parties (buitenpartijen). The present scene can be considered a garden party: a young Bacchus is seated at the centre of the composition, wearing a crown of grapes surrounded by semi-naked nymphs and satyrs who are playing music and drinking wine, in a secluded spot with fruit trees and parrots, Roman buildings in the background. The composition is constructed in a pyramidal way so that the eye of the viewer falls directly to the centre. The scene is reminiscent of another scene by the artist, depicting a fete galante, in a private collection, where one finds the same motifs of an enchanted world, where the protagonists take part in the same game of love, music and pleasure. The brilliance of the colours and the delicacy of Janneck’s touch perfectly capture the spirit of the rococo.
Jacob van Hulsdonck
Still Life with Plums and Peaches
oil on panel
cm 41x55
1625 c.
Thanks to Fred G. Meijer for confirming the authorship of the work.
Archived in RKD as Jacob van Hulsdonck.
Jacob van Husldonck was born in Antwerp in 1582. He moved to Middelburg with his parents at a young age and there he likely received at least part of his training. For the longest time our work had been attributed to Ambrosius Bosschaert who was the city's most prominent still life painter. However, although his influence on Hulsdonck is undisputed, today it is believed that the artist did not train with Bosschaert. In 1608 he went back to Antwerp, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. In the same year he also joined the Guild of Saint Luke. Van Hulsdonck's artistic personality is inextricably linked to the specific sub-genre of the still life of fruit. He can perhaps be regarded as the most prominent representative of this genre outside of Italy. Starting from a raised and deliberately rigid spatial setting, the artist comes to create rich compositions that are characterized by the desire to cram into a container as much fruit as possible so as to immediately convey the feeling of fullness and fragile balance. He was also clearly influenced by Osaias Beert and Jan Brueghel I, specifically with regards to the rendering of different surfaces and the material thickness of lemons, peaches, leaves, barks, fiber and so on.
Jan Brueghel I and Hans Rottenhammer
The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite
oil on canvas
105x183 cm
1595 c.
Expertise Klaus Ertz
In Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a sea-goddess and the wife of Poseidon, identifiable with the Roman god Neptune. According to ancient sources, Neptune wanted to marry Amphitrite, but she was too much in awe of her suitor, and hid from him in the ocean. Grief- stricken, Neptune sent a dolphin to search for his lost love. To his delight, the dolphin convinced Amphitrite to return, and she agreed to share Neptune’s throne. The present picture depicts the moment at which Amphitrite returns to take Neptune’s hand in marriage. To the left, Neptune and Amphitrite sit in their chariot pulled by sea serpents, while the goddess is crowned with a wreath by two putti. A crowd of Tritons and Nereids riding fantastical sea-creatures surrounds them. Their dynamic poses enliven the picture, creating a vibrant scene. Amphitrite, seated upon red drapery that wraps around her thighs, gazes directly at the viewer. The events are set in a rocky coastal landscape, arching out into the sea. In the background, the towers and buildings of a town can be made out. Dark clouds sweep across the sky and mist rises from the sea, imbuing the scene with an atmospheric quality. In the foreground, to the right of the centre, a nude female figure is represented from behind. Her helmet and shield identify her as Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of the arts, trade and defense. As can clearly be seen in the picture under discussion, the shield is the famed Aegis, bearing the head of Medusa, and according to Homer, fashioned by Hephaestus. Above among the clouds, the father of Zeus (and brother of Poseidon) can be seen, brandishing a thunderbolt and resting on a globe, two of his attributes.
Jan Brueghel II and Hendrick van Balen
Landscape with the Rest from the Flight into Egypt
Oil on panel
cm 54x87
1630 ca.
Expertise Klaus Ertz
Magnificent example of collaboration, following the widespread practice in Antwerp in the seventeenth century, between Brueghel the II as a landscape specialist and van Balen as a "staffage" painter, i.e. the painting of the characters. The composition is among the most famous of Brueghel the II (derived from Brueghel I) and it was copied and imitated by many followers, due to its ability to combine the best sacred subject and the ideal landscape.
Dirk van Hoogstraten
A Tronie: Hades
Oil on panel
Cm 30,5x23,5
signed with monogram DvH
1635 ca.
A mysterious artist of the Van Hoogstraten family line (which still exists today). He was the son of a painter, as well as the father of the renowned artist Samuel van Hoosgtraten who, before becoming Rembrandt's student, trained with his father Dirk in Dordrecht until 1640, the year in which this father's death is recorded. He was a painter of many different interests, who initially trained as a goldsmith and engraver. His pictorial corpus consists of but a few signed works (with monogram or rarely with his surname in the extended version). Nevertheless, especially thanks to the efforts of the homonymous foundation dedicated to the painter’s family to piece together a well-thought-out catalogue to trace the profile of a typical Dutch Golden Age artist. As mentioned, the variety of themes he dealt with makes up a multifaceted range of works, combined with an all-round style, although, always stylistically recognisable. In the figurative and religious domains, Hoogstraten's style shows an eclectic use of different artistic and iconographic sources, with inspiring and clear references to Pieter Lastman, to the figuratives of the Utrecht School (especially Abraham Bloemaert) and to a specific luministic culture influenced by the Caravagesques.
Joos van Craesbeeck
the lice crusher
Oil on panel
Cm 25x19
1640 ca.
Joos van Craesbeeck painted mainly genre scenes and a few religiously themed compositions. His genre scenes depict low-life figures as well as scenes of middle-class people. The chronology of his work is difficult to establish since only one painting, the now missing Self-portrait in front of a Mirror, is signed. In addition to the one painting signed with his full name, there are about 30 other paintings with the monogram cb or jvcb. Despite the difficulty of dating his paintings, it is believed that his earliest works are largely indebted to the subject matter and style of Brouwer. In these early works he relied on the types of Brouwers and he followed Brouwer's palette in its subtle harmonies with occasional gleaming highlights. Like Brouwer he applied colour very thinly leaving parts of the ground visible.
Sebastian Vrancx
On the Way to Peace
Oil on panel
Cm 24x34
1620 ca.
Expertise Luuk Pijl
Sebastian Vrancx was a famous Flemish painter active in the first half of the 16th century, renowned expert in the landscape genre, but also dabbled in the subjects of everyday life and battles. He was a member of the Guild of Saint Luke from 1611. The painting of this Antwerp-born master is distinctive for his personal style, which carefully absorbs different influences, mixed with eclectic taste in a severe, but at the same time elegant art, far from the rhetoric of Baroque taste and recognisable for a typical dryness of the stroke, suitable to create unusual and eclectic compositions. The small snowy landscape is a remarkable proof of technical virtuosity. The style of the painting is comparable to the series of Allegories of the Seasons reproduced several times by the painter, who used to repeat many of his compositions. Another useful comparison is with the Extensive Landscape in circular format, in which the use of different chromatic shades and material thicknesses of monochrome colour is typical and irrefutable to define the soil's rocky layers and the mineral veins of the landscape. Within the scenery with a wide horizon, along a winding road engraved with markedly graphic brushstrokes, a group of wayfarers armed with spears leads a herd of cattle towards the city that can be seen in the background. At the crossroads, three different structures can be seen: a mill, a votive temple devoted to the Virgin Mary and - left seals - a hill intended for different forms of capital punishment, gallows and wheel. In the outline, some magpies are sitting on two large gnarled and dry trees, while in the distance an entire flock hovering above the scene can be seen. At the bottom, where the sunlight lights up the landscape with accents of intense green, a glimpse of a rainbow can be caught. The piece, which is among those closest in style and content to Pieter Brueghel II, sparks a desire to investigate Vrancx’ interest for historical and allegorical subjects. The period of activity of the painter coincides indeed with that of the Wars of Religion (particularly, with that of the Thirty Years and the Spanish massacres in Belgium) and there are numerous examples of paintings dedicated to battles, raids by bandits and attacks on caravans, in which the themes connected to the violence of war strongly emerge. The scene depicted here, however, does not focus on a war scene or on the onslaught of brigands, but on the contrary portrays a group of men going towards the light and the city’s rainbow. At last, the war is over, making way for peace. The spears in their hands will no longer be used to attack, but to guide the cattle. At the intersection of the roads- which are those of Destiny - the Pilgrim meets Faith (represented by the wayside shrine), he leaves the War behind (the hill of torture) and sees the Mill at the gates of the city (the industrious work of Man). The Wanderer in the foreground invites us into the scene by turning towards the observer, suggesting him to approach the landscape with rapt attention. The fact that multiple levels of interpretation are left open is not surprising, as it is a traditional feature of Flemish art, which, as shown, Vrancx appreciated. Our composition, however, has not been found in other signed replicas and therefore constitutes a unique specimen in the author's catalogue. With this work Vrancx is able to combine the genre of the landscape with that of the historical and allegorical subjects in a single painting.
Abraham Govaerts and Pieter van Avont
Holy Family with Angels into a Landscape
Oil on Copper
Cm 37x47
1630 ca.
Expertise Klaus Ertz
Magnificent example of collaboration, following the widespread practice in Antwerp in the seventeenth century, between Abraham Govaerts as a landscape specialist and van Avont as a "staffage" painter, i.e. the painting of the characters. By this way the evangelical episode of the rest from the escape into Egypt becomes the expedient to stage a nature with bright colors, with rich turquoise and aqua green accents, enhanced by a vast range of naturalistic details: from the rose garden to the right, to the fruits on top. The very thin copper leaf on which the work - in perfect condition - was painted is of considerable size and it is likely that it was destined for the Spanish and Mexican market, according to a widespread commercial practice in vogue from the years '40 of the '600. Thanks to this practice the Flemish painting on copper of "brueghellian-style" had a diffusion and an unusual worldwide success. It is the undoubted ability of the "Brueghel style" to conquer the eye with such incredible ease, dissolving the most typical stylistic matter effortlessly and with infallible method, chiseling the details as in a goldsmith's work and always choosing a vibrant chromatic accord, with the objective to stimulate the gaze. The fat children who surround the Holy Family, then, add a further tone of delicacy to the scene, through an anecdotal and joyful attitude, full of "joie-de-vivre".
Monogrammist HS
The Ill Matched Lovers with a Monk
oil on panel, cm 28x42,5.
We are grateful to Cranach Research Insitute and Dr. Peter Schmelzle to have confirmed the attribution of this work.
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.
Kerstiaen de Keuninck
Mountain Landscape with a river
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.